Title: Lewis F. Crawford Papers
Dates: 1907-1927
Collection Number: 10058
Quantity: 1 foot
Abstract: Papers consist of notebooks, essays, newspaper clippings, and correspondence concerning ranching, banking, Indians, and settlement in western North Dakota. Collection includes interviews with early settlers.
Provenance: Notebooks were donated to the State Historical Society of North Dakota by Usher L. Burdick.
Property Rights: The State Historical Society of North Dakota owns the property rights to this collection.
Copyrights: Copyrights to this collection remain with the donor, publisher, author, or author's heirs. Researchers should consult the 1976 Copyright Act, Public Law 94-553, Title 17, U.S. Code or an archivist at this repository if clarification of copyright requirements are needed.
Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
Citation: Researchers are requested to cite the collection title, collection number, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnote and bibliographic references.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Lewis Ferandus Crawford was born near Jericho, Missouri, February 25, 1870. A graduate of Harvard University in 1897, he received a masters degree in history and political science in 1898. In 1899, Crawford moved to Dickinson, and was superintendent of schools there for four years. He moved to Sentinel Butte in 1903 and entered the banking business. He organized three banks and at one time served as president of the Missouri Slope Bankers Association. From 1913 to 1919, he was a member of the Board of Regents of the North Dakota state educational system, served as president of the North Dakota Bankers’ Association in 1913-1914, and was secretary of the state Industrial Commission from 1921-1923. In 1921 he moved to Bismarck, and served as curator of the State Historical Society from 1922 to 1928. In 1931 Crawford went to Fargo, and engaged in the retail book business. He brought the Crawford book house to Minneapolis in July 1934 and lived there until his death in April 1936.
Crawford was the author of a three-volume history of North Dakota, a book entitled “Rekindling Camp Fires” and another entitled, “Bad Lands and Broncho Trails,” and pamphlets on Indian lore and early history of the west. He was an authority on Indian archaeology and ethnology and wrote his last article for the Minnesota Historical Society, of which he was a founding member. Crawford was survived by his wife, A. Mabel, sons Franzo H., and Kenneth J., and daughter Helen. He was married in 1899 to Cora Belle Hazlett, who died at Bismarck in 1927. His four children, three of whom survived him, were from his first marriage. Mr. Crawford was a member of the Presbyterian Church in Bismarck.
BOX AND FOLDER INVENTORY
Box 1:
(Loose) 37 notebooks pertaining mainly to western ND, ranching and ranches, Indians and early settlers, and interviews with pioneers (see case file or box 2, folder 4, for list of interviews and topics)
Box 2:
1 Correspondence (also personal), flyers, meeting minutes, reports, news releases, resolutions, accounting and notes - Peoples State Bank (Casselton, ND); Industrial Commission; various organizations, 1920s
2 Addresses, articles and papers, 1917-1927
3 Newspaper clippings and publications (bulk 1921-1922), 1920s
4 Listing of contents of notebooks, transcripts of interviews and notes, 1913-1925
5 Autograph letters collected by L. F. Crawford 1897-1914
6 Centralia Massacre Interviews 1924
7 Crawford interviews/historical sketches: William P. Zahn, Hoskins (D.T.), John A. Rea 1936, Rich E. Delafield Smith 1922, F. E. Deffenbach 1923, A. C. Huidekoper 1925, W. A. Orgain 1925, Charles O. Armstrong 1929, and First Public School in ND by Frank A. Wardwell
8 Radio Scripts 1915-1928
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