Judge Crawford i one of the prominent and popular residents of Nez Perce and is entitled to especial representation in the volume of his County history, being a man of excellent business qualifications and possessed of a goodly holding of property and withal a man of sound principles and first class standing among the people.
Jervis R. Crawford was born in Wisconsin on October 1, 1854, being the son of Leonard and Lydia (Sweet) Crawford, natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively. The father came to the vicinity of Pullman, Washington, took land, and remains there still, being aged seventy. The mother of our subject came to Wisconsin with her parents, who are now dead, and the family resided there for fifty years. She died in 1874, aged forty.
Jervis was raised in Missouri, and educated in the common schools and the College of Pharmacy in St. Louis. After he graduated he accepted a position in Oroncgo, Missouri, and clerked in a drug store for two years and then bought the store and remained six years longer. A move brought him to Kansas and two years more were spent in a drug store. It was 1881 that he came to Whitman County, took a half section of land and farmed for twelve years. The rust ruined him, and when the reservation opened he came to its fertile regions and at once entered the building and contracting business in Nez Perce. He has erected one third of the buildings in the town and is a skilled hand in the business. Mr. Crawford has been elected justice of the peace and he is especially fitted for this position, being a man of logical turn of mind and given to careful weighing” of evidence and condition. He is popular in this line and is a man of sound judgment.
Mr. Crawford is a member of the A. F. & A. M., Hiram Lodge, Number 36; of the I. O. O. F., Morning Star Lodge, No. 56; of the W. of W. and the M. W. A. He has one brother, Clyde L., a farmer at Vollmer. Politically the Judge is a strong Democrat and can give a good reason for the hope within him.
On January I, 1879, Mr. Crawford married Miss Sarah E., daughter of Edward E. and Melinda J. Richardson. She was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, on April 1, 1861, and received a high school education. Her father was a physician from Louisville, Kentucky, and her mother was a native of Indiana. One son and three daughters were in the family besides Mrs. Crawford, namely: Harry J., in Nez Perce; Allie, wife of Edward Barber, in this County; Edna, wife of Joseph Donaldson, also on the reservation. Two children have been born to Judge Crawford and his wife, Cora M., wife of Harvey J. Harris, a farmer at Mohler; Gracie D., wife of Roy W. Adams, on the reservation. Mrs. Crawford is a member of the Rebekahs and also of the Methodist Church.
Judge Crawford and his wife are prominent in the best social circles; he is a progressive and substantial citizen, ever in the lead in lines of improvement and advancement of the town and County.
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Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903