JOHN TYLER CRAWFORD

J T Crawford

     We are not sure when John Tyler Crawford was made a Mason.  We do know however, he was a founding member of Pampa Lodge No. 966, and it’s first Worshipful Master in 1908-1909.   His son, J T Jr. followed in as Master in 1909-1910.

     Bro. Crawford was born December 30^th,  1844 in Tennessee.    He married Mary Catherine Doss in 1867.

Following their marriage, Tyler and Mary Crawford moved to Texas, first to Dallas for a brief period of time. In 1880 Tyler and Mary Crawford and their children lived in Crystal Springs in Stephens County, TX where Tyler worked in the retail grocery business and served as postmaster from 1880 to 1885. He served as a county commissioner and his name was engraved in stone in the county courthouse built in 1883 in Breckenridge in Stephens County. The courthouse was replaced in 1926. The family also lived in Cisco in Eastland County. Tyler worked as a railroad baggage master at the railroad depot in 1900 in Weatherford, Parker County, TX. In 1902 Tyler and Mary moved to Pampa, TX to be close to most of their children.

In August 1910 Tyler took his wife, Mary, to Texarkana, Arkansas to have an operation. She died within 48 hours following the operation.

Brother Crawford passed away in Pampa, Texas at the age of 90 on May 19^th, 1935.  Of curious note, his passing was only 2 hours after he had heard the news of his old friend T D Hobart passing on that very day.

    The following obituaries, the first from the Pampa News on May 20th, 1935 and the other from the  Chattanooga Times, 22 May 1935 – Chattanooga, Tennessee shed light on Brother Crawford’s amazing life and speak well to the character of this great man and Mason.

Obituary Source: Pampa Daily News, 20 May 1935 – Pampa, Texas

Sunday Marks Passing of Two of Pampa’s Pioneers
T. D. Hobart, J. T. Crawford
Shock is Fatal to Veteran of Civil War Here

     The “grand old man” of Pampa, J. T. Crawford, is no more. He had seemed ageless and deathless until yesterday afternoon when he died suddenly at 1 o’clock at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Katie Vincent at 303 East Atchison street. He was in good health and active until a few minutes before his death. Mr. Crawford celebrated his 90th birthday last Dec. 30. Funeral services will be held Wednesday afternoon at 3 o’clock from the First Methodist church with the Rev. L. Burney Shell, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, assisted by the Rev. Gaston Foote, First Methodist minister, in charge.

 

     Masonic services in charge of the local lodge will be held at the cemetery. The funeral will be held under the direction of Malone funeral home. The local Masonic lodge will furnish the pallbearers.

     Flowers will be in charge of Mrs. Tom Clayton, Mrs. P. O. Ledrick, Mrs. J. S. Wynne, Mrs. De Lea Vicars, Mrs. George Woodhouse, Mrs. Ruth Sewell. Members of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Harvesters and ex-Harvesters were invited to attend the services in a body.

      As a charter member of the local Masonic lodge, Mr. Crawford was the first worshipful master. He took pleasure in Masonic work and candidates for the degrees keenly appreciated his knowledge of the order and his assistance.

 

      The aged man’s death followed that of his friend T. D. Hobart, by only a few hours. He collapsed soon after he learned of Mr. Hobart’s death. Two daughters, Mrs. Vincent and Mrs. Margaret Bunting, the latter of Amarillo were with him when the end came.

 

 He is survived by four sons, J. T. Crawford of Palacios, W. H. Crawford, James Riley Crawford and W. A. Crawford of Amarillo, and three daughters, Mrs. Vincent, Mrs. Bunting and Mrs. Martha Riley of Claude. His wife, the former Mary C. Doss whom he married in December, 1867 in Chattanooga, Tenn., died Aug. 22, 1910 at Texarkana. She is buried in Pampa cemetery and Mr. Crawford will be laid beside her.

     Mr. Crawford had lived in Pampa since 1902, and was one of the town’s best- known and best-loved citizens. As a youth he fought through four years of flame and steel for the Lost Cause, and there was always in his appearance and xxxx something that suggested to those who knew him, the heroic personalities and incidents of the heart-breaking tragedy of the War Between the States – long lines of Confederate gray unfalteringly beating the Stars and Bars up Seminary ridge at Gettysburg, “Marie.” Robert E. Lee seated on Traveller amid the carnage of the seven-day battle of the Wilderness, and the heroic stand of Southern chivalry at Shiloh, the deathlers, immortal outrage of Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville. Mr. Crawford was as young as the day he died as when he followed Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson into the battle of Shiloh where 22,000 soldiers were slain in one of the major battles of the war.

    

 Old age and youth loved him. Members of the Harvester athletic teams knew him; they had his support and admiration. His ideal of sportsmanship was always a mark for local fans to aim at. Mr. Crawford seldom missed a Harvester athletic contest in football, basketball or track.

      The boy soldier at the age of 17 enlisted in the 26th Tennessee infantry in 1861 with two brothers. His father organized the company in which the youth enlisted. The father died in a northern prison after being captured at Fort Donelson by the Federals.

      Mr. Crawford was transferred to the fifth cavalry and served the remainder of the war under General Joe Wheeler. He fought in numerous battles in Tennessee and Northern Georgia, including the battles of Shiloh and Chickamauga.

    

 He was discharged at Charlottesville, N. C. Mr. Crawford, born in Rhea County, Tennessee, left his native state with his family in 1881 and came to Texas, first settling at Dallas. He later lived in Stephens County, Cisco, and Weatherford, moving to Pampa in 1902. One son, W. A., was postmaster here for several years, preceding D. E. Cecil. Another son, J. T. Crawford is a former sheriff of Gray county. The colorful and popular resident had attended many Confederate reunions.

      He was active in securing the National Reunion for Amarillo this year and had planned to take an active part in the convention. It was the first time the Confederates have ever met in this section and he was elated at the prospect of bringing them to the Panhandle.

      He was active in business at the time of his death and was connected with an insurance company. He was secretary of the Planters’ Mutual Hall insurance company here for years. He went to his office daily, and was seldom ill.

 

This attached article also appeared in the Pampa News on Tuesday the 21^st of May, 1935.

Obituary Source: Chattanooga Times, 22 May 1935 – Chattanooga, Tennessee

COLORFUL CAREER CLOSED BY DEATH

John Tyler Crawford

Former Soldier, Steamboat Clerk, Remembered Here.

     News was received here yesterday that John Tyler Crawford, Confederate soldier who fought at Chickamauga and Tennessee, steamboater who floated up Market to Fifth street in the big flood of 1867, died Satuday at his country home, “Pampa,” in Gray county, Texas.

      Following is a brief sketch of his life, written yesterday by Col. W. M. Nixon, adjutant of Forrest camp, United Confederate Veterans, here, who knew Mr. Tyler intimately: He was born Dec. 31, 1844, in Rhea county, Tennessee. He enlisted with three brothers and his father in the very first days of Tennessee’s allegiance to the Confederacy, and was ordered as a part of his father’s company, Company E, Twenty-sixth Tennessee infantry, into western Kentucky, under. Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston. He and his father were captured at Fort Donelson, and his father died in a Federal prison at Indianapolis. He carried on when the company was exchanged, however, and served under Capt. James A. Cash. He participated in the engagements of Murfreesboro, Chckamauga and Missionary Ridge. He survived the “100 days’ battles” from Chattanooga to Atlanta, including Resaca, Kennesaw, Alatoona and the defense of Atlanta itself under Joe Johnston and then Hood.

      Later he was in the last march under Gen. Hood behind the Union army to the battles of Franklin and Nashville. He fought with Gen. Joe Johnston again through the Carolinas and up to the surrender at Bentonville.

      After the War Between the States he became a clerk on the steamboat Cherokee, then later of the Last Chance and the Resaca. On the Cherokee he took passengers aboard at Fifth and Market streets during the 1867 high water mark in Chattanooga.

     He leaves four sons, living around Amarillo, Tex., J. T., Jr., W. H., J. R. and William, and two daughters, Mrs. Maggie Bunting, of Shattuck, Okla., and Martha, of Dallas.

Bro. Crawford wrote the attached  article for Confederate Veteran magazine in April 1907 entitled “Experiences Between Sharpshooters”, where he relates a story of being pinned down by a Union sharpshooter.   Records also indicate, within Bro. Crawford’s Confederate Pension application filed in December 1913, R. C. Knight attested “no better or braver soldier ever shouldered a musket.”