May, 1918 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
135 
Matthew Crawford. 
Matthew Crawford, a well-known 
horticulturist, for many years a 
resident of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, 
died at the home of his cousin, 
Mrs. M. J. McFarland, at Belle 
Center, Ohio, on April 2 after five 
days 1 illness of pneumonia. His 
funeral was held at Cuyahoga 
Falls on April 4. 
Mr. Crawford was born in Coun- 
ty Antrim, Ireland, July 5, 1839. 
His father died when he was very 
young, and, when he was about ten 
years old, his mother brought him 
and his younger brother to Ameri- 
ca. After a few months’ resi- 
dence in central Ohio, they moved 
to Cleveland. In the spring of 
1854 Mr. Crawford began working 
for the late George II. Lodge, then 
a prominent market gardener of 
Cleveland, and from that time 
until his death he was a horticul- 
turist. Though he continued to 
experiment with new varieties of 
vegetables all his life, his chief at- 
tention for many years was given 
to small fruits, especially the 
strawberry. 
In 1863 Mr. Crawford married 
Ellen Knight, who at one time had 
been his teacher in school, though 
more than a year his junior. Two 
sons were born to them, William 
S., now an insurance newspaper- 
man in Chicago, and Norman L., 
a gladiolus grower of Elyria, Ohio, 
who died March 16 of this year. 
In 1871 the family moved to Cuya- 
hoga Falls, Ohio, where Mr. Craw- 
ford became gardener to George H. 
Lodge, his old employer, who had 
moved there. Soon afterward Mr. 
Lodge introduced the Sterling and 
Margaret strawberries, which he 
had purchased from Mr. Crawford, 
who originated them. Mr. Craw- 
ford had collected a number of new 
and standard varieties of straw- 
berries and late in the Seventies 
he issued his first catalogue of 
strawberry plants and started the 
business in which he continued un- 
til 1916, when he sold out. Dur- 
ing that forty years he originated 
several varieties and introduced 
many which afterwards became 
popular. His plant business was 
never large in volume, but eonsist- 
MATTHEW CRAWFORD 
ed mainly in selling new varieties 
to growers, amateurs and experi- 
ment stations. During that per- 
iod he came to be recognized as an 
authority on the strawberry and 
its culture. He belonged to many 
state and county horticultural so- 
cieties, wrote somewhat for the 
horticultural and agricultural press 
and published a book on straw- 
berry culture. 
Early in the Eighties he became 
interested in the gladiolus and soon 
made a considerable collection of 
varieties. These multiplied rap- 
idly and he began selling bulbs. 
The demand soon outran his sup- 
ply. He imported a number of 
varieties from Europe. lie grew 
great numbers of seedlings, one 
year buying all the seed in this 
country and Europe available in 
quantity and planting fifty pounds 
of seed. lie originated a number 
of the varieties now found in the 
choicest collections. He wrote a 
book on gladiolus culture, besides 
a number of articles for tloral 
papers and for horticultural so- 
cieties. 
In his later years he disposed 
of most, of his gladiolus bulbs and 
following the death of his wife in 
1916 kept only a few thousand 
very choice bulbs. He had just 
shipped these to Belle Center and 
had gone there intending to spend 
the summer with his cousin when 
he was attacked by pneumonia. 
Mr. Crawford was a horticultur- 
ist for the love of it. While he 
earned his livelihood by it, he was 
an experimenter more than a busi- 
ness man. lie was a great read- 
er of horticultural and agricul- 
tural literature and had a large 
store of knowledge of many branch- 
es aside from those on which he 
specialized. He was a member of 
the Methodist church for many 
years, but for over thirty years had 
been a Congregationalist. In young 
manhood he became a Mason. He 
helped organize the first Grange in 
Ohio. He was especially faithful 
as a member of the Summit Coun- 
ty Horticultural Society, his home 
organization. He was a t borough 
workman, honest, strong in his 
convictions, kindly and generous 
to a fault. 
Try cakes that call for honey 
or sirup instead of sugar. 
