Naomi Wood Crawford
Surnames: Bailey, Barnes, Crawford, Shankland, Wood
Source: Sketches of Wisconsin Pioneer Women, by Florence Chambers Dexheimer,
W. D. Hoard & Sons Co., Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
Pages 99-100
Naomi Davis Wood, with her husband, John B. Crawford, established their home in Baraboo, Wisconsin, in 1853, and became influential citizens, contributing much to the high character of that town. John B. Crawford's mother, Hannah Barnes, was the daughter of John Barnes and wife, of New York, who served in the war of 1812 and whose ancestors served in the Revolutionary war also. She and her husband, Colonel Alexander Crawford came from the east and settled in Baraboo, in 1844.
Alexander Crawford was the son of Joseph Crawford who served in the Revolutionary War and his wife, Margaret Shankland, who endured terrible endurances at the time of the massacre of Cherry Valley. Her father was Robert Shankland, who also rendered service in the cause of liberty. Thus John B. Crawford and his wife, Naomi, had in their blood feelings of patriotism, as well as principles of high honor and integrity. Their mothers, Hannah Barnes Crawford and Naomi Davis Wood were noble examples of brave, capable, refined Christian women doing their full share in making early Wisconsin so fine. Other elements have since those days come in with their alien influences which the descendants of these early patriots must strenuously battle against to preserve our great institutions and our federal Constitution.
Like her mother Naomi Wood Crawford conducted her home with efficiency. She had six children, one dying in infancy with scarlet fever. Two daughters passed away in early womanhood, but the eldest daughter and the two sons lived to bear their part in mature active life. Mrs. Crawford was a woman of unusual beauty, sparkling wit, and extraordinary good sense; an ornament to society, a spiritual force in her circle and the idol of her children and friends. She and her husband moved to Sumner, Washington, where he died early in 1893. The lovely daughter Mary passed away in November of that year and the two bereavements broke her frail strength. She and her son, Lewis, returned to Wisconsin and in June 1895, Naomi Wood Crawford slipped away from this world at the age of sixty-seven years. Thus the world lost a lovely personality enshrined in a body of unusual grace and charm.
She left her sons, J. C. Crawford and Lewis A. Crawford and daughter Alice C. Bailey to cherish her memory and emulate her virtues.
