Surveyor and friend to Washington

Written By Kari Campbell

Surveyors including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, were key to establishing the United States as a nation. Surveying in the 1700s and 1800s was both arduous and perilous.  For example, one of Washington’s contemporaries, William Crawford, met a tragic end at the forefront of western expansion of European settlers in lands controlled by Native Americans.

Surveyor mentor to Washington

Colonel William Crawford. This This file appears in: William Crawford & the Destruction of Salt-Lick Town

In 1749, Crawford worked with the 17-year-old George Washington who had just been appointed as the surveyor of Culpeper Country in Virginia. At age 27, Crawford was a more experienced surveyor and provided guidance while accompanying Washington on several surveying trips which became the start of a friendship spanning nearly 30 years.  Indeed, their lives seemed to be on parallel paths. Both Crawford and Washington served under British General Braddock during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Both survived the famous Battle of Monongahela in 1755 that ended Braddock’s life. Three years later, they fought together at the battle of Fort Duquesne, in a sustained battle for control of the Ohio Valley.

Washington, G., Lewis, S. & Crawford, W. (1774) Eight survey tracts along the Kanawha River, W.Va. showing land granted to George Washington and others. [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

Subsequently Crawford settled down on a Pennsylvania farm and got married -- but was soon surveying with Washington again. Washington called on Crawford to help identify the best land in the Ohio valley in order to compensate Virginians who served in the French and Indian War. Crawford served as Washington’s western land agent and began to survey lands in West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley in 1771. Three years later, by 1774, Washington had claimed four tracts surveyed by Crawford.[1]

Ultimately, Washington claimed 23,000 acres for himself in what is now West Virginia[2].

Revolutionary War

After the surveying journey, Washington and Crawford continued to correspond and finally met again in 1776. Crawford joined Washington at the battle of Long Island and continued to serve as a Colonel under Washington’s command at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown.

In 1780, Crawford returned to western Pennsylvania as the commander of American forces in the west.  He was exhausted from years of fighting and retired his commission to farm. At the same time, Washington had returned to Mount Vernon and also planned to retire. Things did not go as planned for either man.

Fateful Expedition

Just two years later, when Crawford 60 years old, he was asked by General Irvine to lead a 500-man expedition against Native Americans living near the Sandusky River in Northwestern Ohio.[3] The settlers in the Ohio Valley had called for a defensive expedition in response to local tensions with area tribes. Unfortunately, a militia formed by the settlers carried out a tragic attack, resulting in the deaths of 90 Christian Native American men, women, and children. The aim was for Crawford to protect the settlers' land while ensuring a peaceful resolution and preventing further conflicts.[4]

Native Americans burning Colonel William Crawford at the stake. Painting by Frank Halbedel, 1915.

Crawford’s expedition met significant resistance and they decided to withdraw as more and more Native reinforcements arrived to fight. Unfortunately, Crawford was captured along with a physician who later escaped and documented an embellished version of Crawford’s fate. Indeed, Crawford was treated brutally by his captors, suffering beatings and torture before being scalped and burned to death. (This was the standard treatment suffered by anyone, Native or settler, who was captured by the tribe).

The highly publicized story of Crawford’s death changed the tenor of the struggle to seize land from Native Americans. Washington was aggrieved by Crawford’s fate and remarked that “No person at this time should suffer himself to fall alive into the Hands of the Indians”. The struggle for Native American land subsequently became a brutal war of attrition that continues to echo today.

Careers in surveying and the military were essential in the early days of our country. Both professions were fraught with danger. Some reaped the rewards of their work, while others paid the price. We are grateful for the sacrifices made by those who built this nation.

Kari Campbell
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