Capt. William T. Crawford, Columbia, S. C., then Caddo Parish, Louisiana

Submitted by Mike Miller
Date: 1999-2000




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Capt.  William T. Crawford for four decades has been a prominent figure 

in the commercial life of Shreveport.  He is one of the founders and the 

president of Crawford, Jenkins & Booth, Ltd., wholesale grocers and cotton 

factors, is head of several other commercial organizations, and a very 

extensive road building program throughout Caddo Parish has been carried 

out under his leadership as president of the Board of Jury Commissioners.



Captain Crawford was born at Columbia. South Carolina, in 1857, son of 

William T. Crawford, his mother being a Miss Cathcart.  The Crawford 

family made many sacrifices for the lost cause of the Confederacy, W. T. 

Crawford and two of his brothers giving up their lives while soldiers, 

one of the brothers being killed at Gettysburg.



Capt. William T. Crawford was reared in the difficult period of the war 

and reconstruction, and early learned to rely upon his own initiative 

and energy for realizing a worthy career.  He has been a resident of 

Shreveport since 1884. Crawford, Jenkins & Booth, Ltd., of which he is 

president, has for many years been the largest concern of its kind in North 

Louisiana.  In later years an automobile department was added, which, like 

the parent business, has developed to large proportions.  There is also an 

auxiliary Company, Crawford, Jenkins & Booth Motor Company, Inc., housed in 

the same group of buildings at Crockett and Spring streets, handling a large 

trade in automobiles, motor trucks and tires. Captain Crawford is president 

of both of these concerns, which do a business of several million dollars 

per annum and constitute one of the largest commercial enterprises in the 

state.





Captain Crawford is also president of the Louisiana State Life Insurance 

Company, is vice president of the First National Bank of Shreveport, and 

vice president of the Shreveport Railway Company, owning and operating 

the local street railway system.



Captain Crawford has for twenty-one years been a member and for fifteen 

years president of the Caddo County Police Jury, which handles the fiscal 

and general business administration of the parish.  In addition to the 

routine administration the outstanding feature of the work of the jury 

commissioners has been a remarkable program of road construction, which 

far several years has averaged an outlay of about $7O0,000.  For several 

elections Captain Crawford has been returned to this office without any 

request or special activity on his part.



Captain Crawford married Miss Trala Jacobs, who was born and reared in 

Shreveport.  They have two children:  Edward J,  and Mrs. J, S. Meriwether.



A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 141, by Henry E. Chambers.  

Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.