Kings County Biographies

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


J. A. CRAWSHAW, M.D.
 
While giving attention to general practice Dr. J. A. Crawshaw specializes along 
lines safely and sanely within the limits of the field of the family physician. 
His residence and office are in the Bissell Building, Hanford, Kings county, 
Cal. Born August 10, 1879, at Carbondale, Ill., he was there educated in the 
public schools and in the state normal school in the usual courses of such 
institutions. When advanced sufficiently in his professional studies, he 
matriculated in the medical department of the University of Illinois at Chicago 
in 1901, and after passing the prescribed examinations was duly graduated 
therefrom with the degree of M.D., June 5, 1905. After eighteen months devoted 
to the practice of his profession at Murphysboro, he came in 1907 to Hanford, 
where he has since prospered increasingly as a general practitioner of medicine 
and surgery, specializing in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat.
Dr. Crawshaw is a director of the Hanford Sanitorium, which he helped to 
organize and which is now in the course of construction. It is a modern 
structure, costing $30,000, and is to be completed February 1, 1913. The Doctor 
holds membership in the Fresno Medical Society, the San Joaquin Medical Society 
and the California State Medical Society. He is identified with the Kings County 
Auto Association, is a Blue Lodge, Royal Arch and Eastern Star Mason, a Forester 
of America and a member of the Independent Order of Foresters and its ladies' 
auxiliary order, a Modern Woodman, a member of the order of Fraternal Aid and of 
the Portuguese orders of U. P. E. C. and of I. D. E. S. In all of these 
societies he takes a helpful interest, greeting their members in fraternal 
brotherhood and advancing their many good works in every way possible.
Beside his professional work Dr. Crawshaw has found some time to devote to other 
interests, notably to ranching. He owns a farm of one hundred acres, eight miles 
north of Hanford, all under irrigation and devoted to stock-raising. At this 
time he is arranging to give special attention to the breeding of mules.
In 1904 Dr. Crawshaw married Miss Bessie Hagler, who was then a resident of 
Illinois. They have an interesting little daughter named Alleen.
The Doctor, although an adopted son of California and a comparatively late 
arrival to the city of Hanford, yet enters heartily into the political and 
social life of Kings county. He took part in the program of the "Kings County 
Karnival" in May, 1911, and rendered an original poem on the birth of Kings 
county, from which we quote the following:
" 'Twas in the spring of ninety-three, 
In the county then of Tu-lar-e,
With division talk on every tongue, 
That the battle of politics was sprung. 
Fast the missiles flew each way, 
Until the twenty-third of May,
When Captain Blakely with his dart 
Plunged the weapon in their heart.
"With the sun still shining in the skies,
And the tears undried in the mother's eyes,
Out from the wounded, bleeding heart, 
The "Baby County" made a start, 
To spread afar its honored fame 
And win itself a Christian name, 
Whose echo o'er the plain would ring, 
In honor of our Baby King."
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 629-630