Colusa Biographical Sketches.
CHAPTER XII.
F.G. CRAWFORD.
Fredrick Gustavus Crawford was born in Tompkins County, New York, October 28, 1831. The first fourteen years of his life were spent in his native State, when he moved with his parents to Illinois, where he received a common-school education. In 1852 he set out with an ox-team for California, coming via Salt Lake and Carson City, arriving at Placerville August 1. He engaged in mining for one week, panning out $1.08, and paid out $36 for board. He concluded that mining was not his "strong suit," and he turned his attention to teaming to and from the mines. In 1854 he engaged in the hotel business, to which occupation he has proved himself so adapted, opening the Pleasant Grove House, near Sacramento. From that time to 1868 he kept the hotel, raised stock and did teaming. In 1868 he took a contract from the city of Sacramento to fill in low places in that place. In the fall of that year, after completing his contract, he went to Davisville and built the first house at that place, it being a hotel, and conducted the hotel business therein for twelve years. October 28, 1880, he moved to Colusa County and rented the old Willows Hotel, which was destroyed by fire May 30, 1882. On the ruins, after purchasing the lots, he built the Crawford House, at an expense of $18,500, which is one of the best-appointed hotels in Northern California. He was married to Miss Mary L. Foster, in El Dorado County, November 20, 1860, and is the father of three children, two daughters and one son.
Mr. Crawford's first vote was cast for Millard Fillmore; he supported Douglas for President, and has ever since been a member of the Democratic party. Colonel Crawford, as he is termed by his admiring friends, takes a great interest in fine horses, of which he has five thoroughbred trotters, and is President of the Willows Agricultural Association. He has the interest of Willows at heart and is not backward in aiding its advancement.
COLUSA COUNTY
ITS
HISTORY TRACED FROM A STATE OF NATURE
THROUGH THE EARLY PERIOD OF SET-
TLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT,
TO THE PRESENT DAY
WITH A
DESCRIPTION OF ITS RESOURCES, STATISTICAL
TABLES, ETC.
ALSO
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND
PROMINENT RESIDENTS
by Justus H. Rogers
Orland, California
1891
Page 343-465
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 7/5/2009
Colusa County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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