Berkeley County WV Archives Biographies.....Crawford, Col. William 1734 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Alice Warner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 August 22, 2008, 4:28 pm

Author: Virgil A. Lewis

COLONEL WILLIAM CRAWFORD. Among the natives of Berkeley county whose names are
preserved in history, no other, perhaps, has excited so much attention and
sympathy as that of Colonel William Crawford. He was born in this county in
1734. In 1754, at the head of a company he marched with Washington against Fort
Du Quesne. His behavior on this occasion won for him the esteem of his
commander, which in after years ripened into a warm  friendship. In 1765 he made
his first visit to the West, and two years later removed his family and settled
on the Youghiogheny river, within the present limits of Fayette county,
Pennsylvania. He was among the first settlers in the Valley, and his reputation
for generosity and hospitality lived long after his cabin home was in ruins. In
Washington's journal of his tour to the West in 1770, he frequently refers to
Colonel Crawford, with whom he spent several days, it seems, most pleasantly.
Crawford accompanied him to Fort Pitt, and thence to the great Kanawha, and
located most of his lands on the Ohio. When the Revolution began, Crawford, by
his own personal efforts, enrolled a regiment, in compensation for which he
received a Colonel's commission in the Continental army. This commission he held
when he unwillingly became the leader of an expedition against the Wyandots,
which terminated so fatally for him. His papers and records have all been lost
and his family scattered, so that very little is known of his personal character
save what has been preserved in the traditions of the pioneers whom he so
gallantly defended.

Additional Comments:
"History of West Virginia" by Virgil A. Lewis 1889

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