The subject of this sketch was born in Washington county, East Tennessee, May 1, 1824, and departed this life in Stockton, Cal., February 20, 1890. The years of his minority were spent upon a farm where he received the training and performed the duties common to country boys of that day. His parents were poor but highly honorable people of Scotch-Iris descent. His opportunities for acquiring an education were very meager, and when he came to manhood he had only the rudiments of an education. But fired with a zeal to do something in the world, and seeing that to do so he must acquire an education, he entered Tusculum College at Greenville, Tenn., where he remained three years, graduating from that institution in 1846. While there he did his own cooking and lived in a dormitory. Of his expenses while in college he says, in his autobiography, left to his family: "Every dollar I spent at college was the work of my own hands, and from that day to this I have never spent a dollar but of my own earning." His toils an hardships were such as every young man must meet who would educate himself by his own labor. Bravely he met them and conquered. Soon after his graduation he began the study of medicine, and after three years of study was admitted to the practice. Subsequently he took a course of lectures and graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Nashville in March, 1854, from which time to the close of his life he was an earnest, conscientious, and successful physician.

Early in his practice he was led to realize that a knowledge of law would be of great advantage to him, and accordingly began the study of it, and in 1859 he was admitted to practice in all the courts of the State of Tennessee. This was not with a view to practice that profession, and, as a matter of fact, he never, perhaps, tried a single case, but he sought the knowledge as an auxiliary in his work as a physician.

After the close of the civil war, when both the preachers and the people of the Cumberland Presbyterian church were greatly scattered, there was great destitution of the gospel in the vicinity where he then resided, and Dr. Crawford was induced to address the people on religious subjects. He responded to the demand for the bread of life, and preached to the people. This, of course, led to the study of theology, and agreeable to the demands of the people he was licensed and ordained to the ministry. He immediately took charge of the church at Greeneville and preached in connection with his practice of medicine. About this time he received the degree of Master of Arts from Tusculum College, and was elected to the chair of Physical Sciences in that institution, which position he only nominally filled, occasionally lecturing there.

Owing to the reverses of the war he was so reduced financially that he felt he could not easily recover his former degree of prosperity there and he removed to California, in 1860, since which time he has lived in Stockton and vicinity. His life here was devoted to the practice of medicine and occasionally to the ministry. It was a physician that Dr. Crawford did most service to his fellow men. He conceived that it was his first duty to do what he could to relieve human suffering. He ever spurned the love of money as a too unworthy motive to actuate a physician in the performance of his noble services, and always looked for his chief reward in the satisfaction derived from doing good. His financial success was gratifying, but his life could not be measured by this standard.

He was converted to God's service in early life, and was to his death a devoted follower of the Son of Mary. The beauty of culture and piety was in him displayed to great advantage. Learning is an ornament, but it is much more becoming when associated with a pure life and devout consecration to God. These twin adornments were worn by Dr Crawford with great grace. His culture was varied and broad. His was a ready pen, and his contributions may be found in the columns of all leading medical journals of the United States and the religious periodicals of his own and other churches. Two years before his death he published the outlines of a book, the title of which was "The Physiology of the Earth, together with a Monograph on Man," which met with a favorable reception. This work, I understand, has been left in its enlarged form to be disposed of by his children as they may desire, and may yet be published.

The preaching of Dr. Crawford was generally very acceptable to his hearers. The members of the church at Stockton frequently enjoyed his ministrations in the absence of their pastor, and ever bore testimony that they were both edified and instructed. But the ministry was his avocation, not his vocation. Some of his truest and most constant friends have thought that possibly he could have better served the church and the cause of Christ had he refused to heed the demands made upon him to become a preacher, and devoted his powers to the work as a layman; but this is not a question for men. It belongs to one man and God. No others should dare come between them.

It has been my privilege for near four years to be a frequent visitor at the house of this servant of God, and it was there that his Christian character was seen to the best advantage. One member of his family testified that she never heard him speak a harsh word to his wife, with whom he lived for forty years, and who preceded him to the other land one month. The The two lives seem to have run in parallel currents--should I better shy in a single current?--until abruptly both are transferred from the plane terrestrial to the plane celestial. How beautiful Neither had to wait long in this world alone.

A son, two daughters, and a host of relatives and friends feel they have sustained a great loss, and so they have for a time; but is it not that we may all, with them who have ere this crossed the river, one day be led in the green pastures of a better world by him who is even now our Shepherd? So, let us seek to make our end like that of the righteous, that his home may be ours.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, April 17, 1890, page 2]