Crawford Family papers, 1838-1901
Held by The Filson Historical Society
Creator: Crawford Family
Title: Crawford Family papers, 1838-1901
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.
Size of Collection: 0.5 cu. ft. (in 1 cu. ft. box)
Location Number: Mss. A C899
Biographical Note
Robert Irvine Crawford (1821-1901) was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, and educated at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. In December 1845, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and in 1853, he married Margaret Craig (1825-1892) of Augusta County, Virginia. They lived in the Parkland neighborhood of Louisville for the majority of the rest of their lives. Robert Irvine was a clerk and bookkeeper for various Louisville businesses and an active member of the Presbyterian Church. According to his 1901 obituary in The Central Presbyterian, he was a member of First Presbyterian Church (“the old First Church”) in Louisville for 33 years and was “leader of the music, Sunday school superintendent, deacon, elder, clerk of the session.” He then “served as an elder in the Central (now Fourth Avenue) Church and afterward, until his death, in the Woodland Church.”
Robert Irvine and Margaret Crawford had five children:
- Carrie Lena Moffett (known in the collection as “Lena”) (1854-1898)
- Lived in various towns throughout Kentucky and Virginia and died in Lebanon.
- Married to Presbyterian minister Rev. Alexander Stuart Moffett (known in the collection as “Sandy”) (1847-1921) and had at least ten children (according to Ancestry.com)
- George Marshall Crawford (1856-1932)
- Lived in Whatcom, Washington, and died in Seattle.
- Alexander Warwick Crawford (known in the collection as “Sandy”) (1857-1924)
- More information in the paragraph below.
- Newton Guthrie Crawford (1859-1931)
- Stayed in Louisville throughout his life and worked in the warehousing and storage industry, in 1896 becoming manager of the New Phoenix Storage Company. According to the Courier Journal, Newton was an avid bicycle racer.
- Married to Martha Woodson (1855-1885), then after her death married to Frances Evans (1870-1944).
- Brown Craig Crawford (1861-1937)
- Stayed in Louisville throughout his life; was a graduate of Male High School, worked in the Louisville tobacco industry, including serving as secretary-treasurer of Louisville Tobacco Warehouse Company, and was an elder at Second Presbyterian Church.
- Married to Mary Clifton Crawford (1862-1932).
Rev. Alexander Warwick “Sandy” Crawford (1857-1924) was a Presbyterian minister who traveled throughout the South and lived away from his parents and siblings for the majority of his life. In 1879, he attended the University of Virginia, then from around June 1880 to August 1884, he did mission work as a traveling Bible salesman, mostly in rural West Virginia. He then attended Union Theological Seminary in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia, from around September 1884 to June 1887, after which he became a minister and received church postings throughout Kentucky. In 1889, he married Elizabeth “Lizzie” Taylor (1867-1963), and in 1891, they moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where he was in charge of two congregations, one in the Woodlawn neighborhood and one in East Lake. While working in Alabama, Sandy raised money for and oversaw the construction of the East Lake Presbyterian Church. In 1894, he received a new posting in Paint Lick, Kentucky, where he remained until at least 1898. According to Ancestry.com, he lived the last years of his life in Greensboro, North Carolina.
A more detailed family tree is included in the collection’s finding aid folder.
Scope and Content Note
This collection consists of papers relating to the Crawford family of Louisville, Kentucky, and other places in the South. The majority of the correspondence was written by Robert Irvine Crawford, who lived in the Parkland neighborhood of Louisville, and by his son Rev. Alexander Warwick Crawford (known in the collection as “Sandy”), who traveled throughout the South as a Presbyterian minister. Places Sandy lived include West Virginia; Hampden-Sydney, Virginia; Campbellsville, Kentucky; Woodlawn, Alabama; and Paint Lick, Kentucky.
Folder 1 contains writings by Robert Irvine Crawford, dated 1838-1852. These include memos, notes, poems, hymns (including one piece of handwritten sheet music, dated 1 May 1838), and other material, most of a moral or religious nature.
Folders 2 and 3 contain early correspondence between members of the Crawford family. Folder 2 contains Robert Irvine Crawford’s early correspondence in Virginia, before and after his time at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, dated 1838-1855. Folder 3 contains correspondence mostly between the Crawford children and their parents, dated 1865-1875.
Folder 4 contains correspondence mostly between Margaret Crawford and her son Sandy, dated 1875 until the end of her life in 1892. Along with the letters to Sandy, there is also one Margaret wrote to her son Brown (8 February ca. 1875) and one to Sandy’s wife Lizzie (11 November 1891).
Folder 5 contains correspondence mostly written from Brown Crawford to his brother Sandy, dated 1880-1902. It also includes one letter written to Sandy from Newton Crawford, sharing the news of the birth of Brown’s child George Cary Crawford (5 July 1888).
Folders 6-25 contain mostly correspondence between Sandy Crawford and his mother and/or father, with a few exceptions. Folder 9 includes one letter from Lena Crawford to her mother, Margaret (29 July 1884). Folders 14 and 15 include two letters from Lizzie Crawford to her mother-in-law Margaret (6 December 1889 and 27 February 1890). Folders 18, 20, 22, and 23 include letters written between Lizzie and her father-in-law Robert Irvine Crawford (2 October 1893, 22 December 1893, 6 November 1895, 13 February 1897, and 16 December 1898). Folder 22 includes one letter from Lizzie to her sister Virginia (10 May 1897). Folder 25 includes an undated letter written “Monday 3rd,” possibly from Lena to Sandy Crawford.
Folder List
Box 1
Folder 1: Robert Irvine Crawford writings, 1838-1852 and undated
Folder 2: Robert Irvine Crawford correspondence, 1838-1855 and undated
Folder 3: Crawford family correspondence, 1865-1875
Folder 4: Margaret Crawford correspondence, 1875-1892 and undated
Folder 5: Brown Crawford correspondence, 1880-1902
Folder 6: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1879-1880
Folder 7: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1881-1882
Folder 8: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1883
Folder 9: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1884
Folder 10: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1885
Folder 11: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1886
Folder 12: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1887
Folder 13: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1888
Folder 14: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1889
Folder 15: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1890
Folder 16: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1891
Folder 17: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1892
Folder 18: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1893
Folder 19: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1894
Folder 20: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1895
Folder 21: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1896
Folder 22: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1897
Folder 23: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1898
Folder 24: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1899
Folder 25: Sandy Crawford correspondence, 1900-1901 and undated
Subject Headings
African American Presbyterians – History – 19th century.
Anti-Catholicism – Kentucky.
Anti-Catholicism – West Virginia.
Bicycles – 19th century.
Birmingham (Ala.)
Campbellsville (Ky.)
Cemeteries – Kentucky – Louisville.
Children – Diseases.
Crawford, Alexander Warwick, 1857-1924.
Crawford, Brown Craig, 1861-1937.
Crawford, Margaret Craig Gilkerson, 1825-1892.
Crawford, Robert Irvine, 1821-1901.
Dance – Religious aspects – Christianity.
Depressions – 1893.
Disabilities.
East Lake Presbyterian Church (Birmingham, Ala.)
Elections – Kentucky – Louisville.
English language – Terms and phrases.
Ethnic attitudes.
Fall Armyworm.
Financial crises.
Fortune-telling.
Goebel, William, 1856-1900.
Grief.
Household Employees.
Ibuka, Kajinosuke, 1854-1940.
Influenza.
Irish Americans – West Virginia.
Kentucky penitentiary.
Kentucky Sunday School Union.
Kentucky. Militia.
Louisville (Ky.) – Businesses.
Marriage – 19th century.
Medical instruments and apparatus – 20th century.
Medical supplies – 20th century.
Medicine – Practice – History – 20th century.
Mental health.
Mental illness.
Missions – Brazil.
Missions – Japan.
Mormons – West Virginia.
Mourning customs – Kentucky.
Natural disasters – Religious aspects.
Paint Lick Presbyterian Church (Ky.)
Parkland (Louisville, Ky.)
Presbyterian Church – Alabama.
Presbyterian Church – Kentucky.
Presbyterian Church – West Virginia.
Race relations – 19th century.
Rich Mountain, Battle of, W. Va., 1861.
Roller skating – 19th century.
Silver Question.
Southern Exposition (Louisville, Ky.)
Spousal Abuse.
Tennis.
The Ashland Tragedy.
Theological Seminary in Virginia (Hampden-Sydney, Va.)
Tobacco Industry.
Tornadoes – Kentucky.
University of Virginia.
Vaccination.
Wild animals as pets.
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
Women in the Presbyterian Church – United States – History.
