Content Description

The Crawford papers include Medorem Crawford diaries for 1859-1861, 1863, 1864, 1869-1871, 1876-1877, 1885-1886. Also included are the diaries of Medorem Crawford, Jr., 1861, and Leroy Crawford, 1862. The diaries for 1861 and 1863 describe Crawford’s overland expeditions. The 1864 diary describes a trip by stage from Atchison, Kansas to Oregon, via Marysville, California.

A series of Medorem Crawford account books includes a Methodist Mission store account, 1843-1844, accounts of the O’Neil and Crawford ferry, 1844, a store ledger, 1845-1847, and a Clackamas Mill account, 1849-1850.

Expedition accounts consist of vouchers for the 1862 escort and a draft report of overland escort duty in 1864 by Leroy Crawford.

The correspondence includes 10 letters of Medorem Crawford, and 34 letters from his father, S. G. Crawford, from Havana, New York. Other correspondents are: John Crawford, Sidney moss, James W. Nesmith, Ronald Crawford, John L. Morrison, Jesse Applegate, J. Quinn Thornton, and David Carter. A letterpress book contains Medorem Crawford’s outgoing correspondence, 1866-1879.

Medorem Crawford’s 1842 overland journal has not been located. It was published, probably from the copy now in the Western Americana Collection at Yale University, as vol. 1, no. 1 of the Sources of the History of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon, 1897). The report of the 1862 expedition was published as Senate Exec. Doc. 17, 37th Congress, 3rd Sess. (1863).

The Western Americana Collection, Yale University, has a collection of Crawford papers, some of which appear to be official reports based on Crawford diaries. The Medorem Crawford papers were sold piece-meal by a book dealer, and it is probable that other diaries and letters were acquired by libraries and private collectors. A manuscript calendar of the letters is in the library.