"Pettis County Missouri - A Pictorial History" by William B. Claycomb, 1998

Only index entry for Crawfords is pages 105-106.

page 105-6:  (Chapter 5, which talks about Sedalia in the 1920s & 30s)
    In the fall of 1931 the Crawford Loan and Abstract Company, a private 
loan company at 410 South Ohio, Sedalia, holding mortgages on hundreds of 
Pettis County farms, went into bankruptcy. Its president, Grant Crawford, had 
been vice president of the $3,000,000 Citizens National Bank since 1909, as 
well as a large borrower. He had been making and then selling farm real 
estate loans for thirty years to local and Eastern investors. Most of his loans
were now in default. 
    Late Sunday afternoon, November 1, William H. Powell, Crawford's 
friend and president of the Citizens National Bank, shot himself. His bank 
at the southeast corner of Main and Ohio Streets, the largest in the area, 
closed the next day. Powell died the following Wednesday. On January 28, 
1932, Charles C. Evans of the Sedalia Trust Company, shot and killed him-
self. His $600,000 company closed February 8. On February 15 Conrad H. 
Bothwell, president of the Sedalia National Bank with assets of $1,000,000, 
seems to have panicked and closed his bank. The panic was contagionus 
despite the efforts of local officials and newspapers to dampen it. 
    Mean while, banks outside Sedalia in the county were closing--the 
LaMonte Bank on September 14, 1931; the Bank of Longwood on 
November 3; and the People's Bank of Green Ridge on January 20, 1932. 
Six Pettis County banks with assets of $4,562,000 closed in a five-month 
period. All went into receiverships and liquidations lasting up to five 
years. In 1926 there had been seven banks in Sedalia; by February 1932, 
only the Third National Bank and tiny Union Savings Bank remained, 
although later in that year investors led by John McGrath (son-in-law of E. 
G. Cassidy) organized the Sedalia Bank and Trust Company. These banks 
survived the depression and prospered in the postwar years. 
    The events of the winter of 1931-1932 had a devastating impact on 
most Pettis Countians. For instance, the Citizens National Bank's six thou-
sand depositors lost fifty-one cents on the dollar, and even the forty-nine 
cents they recovered took many years to receive. The stockholders in the 
bankrupt banks, of course, lost all their investments. The hundreds of 
investors in Crawford Loan and Abstract Company real estate notes also 
lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Its receiver, Donnohue Loan and 
Investment Company, foreclosed on hundreds of Pettis County farms and 
managed them for decades until they were finally sold. In the darkest days 
of the depression there simply was little if any money to be had. Franklin 
Roosevelt's New Deal pumped several million dollars into the county 
which alleviated distress somewhat. The aid and welfare programs ranged 
from the sprawling Osage Cooperative Farm in north Pettis County to WPA 
road, bridge, and school projects; and from U.S. Department of Agriculture 
"Triple A" farm subsidy payments to a mattress factory, to name but a few.

[The following two excerpts do not mention the Crawfords, but are relevant.]

Page 19-20:
    The county's population on the eve of the Civil War was 9,392: 7,506 
whites, 1,880 slaves, and 6 free blacks. This was an 82 percent increase for 
the decade.
    When war finally came, both sides actively recruited in Pettis County. 
Georgetown lawyer John F. Philips was commissioned colonel of the Seventh 
Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, and he recruited 623 of his 978 men from Pettis 
County. The remainder came from Johnson and Saline Counties. This regiment 
saw a good deal of bloody action for three years in Missouri, none of it at 
home. The ranks of the Fortieth Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, Colonel R. 
R. Spedden commanding, were largely filled with Pettis COuntians. In addition, 
there was a home guard unit that did some service in the area.

[Note: James H. Crawford fought in the 7th Cavalry, while his older brother 
John D. Crawford fought in the 40th Regiment.]

Page 30:
    The prosperity of the postwar years was cut short by the Panic of 
1873. The supply of farm products by then exceeded the deman, prices 
fell drawtically, and loarns that could not be paid came due at banks. 
Looking for someone to blame, the farmers, among others, blamed the 
railroads, who were perceived to be riding roughshod over their customers, 
especially their smaller ones, by charging them whatever the traffic would 
bear. The perception was in fact the case, as the unregulated railroads 
were indeed charging freight rates worthy of monopolies, although favor-
ing some of their biggest customers with sweetheart deals. Farmers and 
their allies felt betrayed because their taxes had largely built the railroads.

[Note: could the Panic of 1873 be one factor in JHC's decision to go to 
Colorado?]