Isabel Alice Hartley Crawford (May 26, 1865 – November 18, 1961) was a
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
missionary who worked with the
Kiowa people
Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and eve ...
in the
Oklahoma Territory
The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as th ...
. Crawford, who had lost most of her hearing due to an illness, communicated with the Kiowa using
Plains Indian sign language
Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), also known as Hand Talk, Plains Sign Talk, and First Nation Sign Language, is a trade language, formerly trade pidgin, that was once the lingua franca across what is now central Canada, the central and weste ...
. She lived among the Kiowa for about eleven years, sharing their lives and helping them build their first church and, when she died, she was buried in their cemetery.
Early life
Isabel Alice Hartley Crawford was born in
Cheltenham, Ontario, Canada, the fourth child of John and Sarah Louise Hackett Crawford.
John Crawford was raised a Presbyterian in
County Londonderry
County Londonderry ( Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry ( ga, Contae Dhoire), is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty two counties of Ireland and one of the nine counties of Ulster. B ...
, Ireland, but converted to the Baptist church as a teenager.
When he was a new pastor in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, he met Sarah Hackett, who was originally from
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, Ireland. In about 1858, they immigrated, with their two oldest children, to Canada.
The Crawford family settled in Cheltenham, north of
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, where Isabel and her brother were born.
In 1868, her family moved to
Woodstock, Ontario
Woodstock is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The city has a population of 40,902 according to the 2016 Canadian census. Woodstock is the seat of Oxford County, at the head of the non-navigable Thames River, approximately 128 km from ...
, where her father became a professor of
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
at the
Canadian Literary Institute. In 1880, when the Institute moved to Toronto, John resigned and opened a school in
Rapid City, Manitoba
Rapid City is an unincorporated community recognized as a local urban district that also once held town status in southwest Manitoba, Canada within the Rural Municipality of Oakview. It is located about 30 km north of Brandon. Rapid City is ...
, Canada. The school was not a success and, in 1883, John was offered the pastorate at St. Thomas in the
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of No ...
.
Isabel and her mother remained in Manitoba to close up the school. During that time, Isabel became gravely ill, and suffered fevers and pain for about six months.
When she recovered, her hearing was severely impaired, "from an overdose of
quinine
Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg cr ...
", according to Crawford.
The Crawford's remained in the Dakota Territory until 1890 when John and Sarah returned to Ontario and, shortly afterwards, moved in with Isabel's sister and her husband, due to John's failing health.
After her parents moved back to Canada, Isabel attended a two-year course at the Baptist Missionary Training School in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, graduating in 1893.
She hoped to get a foreign posting but, instead, the Women's Baptist Home Mission Society (WBHMS) appointed her to the Elk Creek Mission on the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation in the
Oklahoma Territory
The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as th ...
.
Missionary work
Because she was nearly deaf, Crawford had to communicate with the Kiowa through an interpreter, by
lip reading
The lips are the visible body part at the mouth of many animals, including humans. Lips are soft, movable, and serve as the opening for food intake and in the articulation of sound and speech. Human lips are a tactile sensory organ, and can be ...
, or using a hearing device that hung around her neck.
The Native American used a sign language to communicate between tribes with different spoken languages; it became known as
Plains Indian sign language
Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), also known as Hand Talk, Plains Sign Talk, and First Nation Sign Language, is a trade language, formerly trade pidgin, that was once the lingua franca across what is now central Canada, the central and weste ...
. A Kiowa man, named Koptah, took it upon himself to teach this sign language to Crawford. She used sign language to teach the Kiowa about "the Jesus road".
Crawford had been at the Elk Creek Mission for three years when she was invited to move to
Saddle Mountain, on the northern edge of the
Wichita Mountains
The Wichita Mountains are located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the principal relief system in the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, being the result of a failed continental rift. The mountains are a northwest-southea ...
near
Mountain View, Oklahoma
Mountain View is a town in Kiowa County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 795 at the 2010 census, a decline of 9.7 percent from 880 in 2000.
History
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (Rock Island) extended a line from Chi ...
, about thirty miles away. She agreed without consulting the board of the WBHMS and, in 1896, she moved to Saddle Mountain. Lucius Aitsan, a Kiowa who had been educated at the
Carlisle Indian Industrial School
The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from 1879 through 1918. It took over the historic Carlisle ...
in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
and had served as an interpreter for other missionaries, interpreted for Crawford (in addition to her sign language). He was the first person to be baptized at Saddle Mountain.
To win the trust of the Kiowa people, she shared chores with them, cleaning, baking bread, gathering firewood, caring for the sick. Crawford also taught the women to sew and used that time to teach them about the Bible.
Saddle Mountain Baptist Mission
The Kiowa who converted had to be taken 17 miles away to the Rainy Mountain Church, to be received as members. This was a very long trip, so the Saddle Mountain converts decided that they wanted a local church. Crawford secured a 160-acre allotment from the federal government for a mission and 40 additional acres for a cemetery. She taught the women to sew quilts, which they sold to raise money to build a church. According to Crawford, the $1000 for building the church came from: Indian contributions, $355.98; Quilt money, $311.63; Unsolicited, $250.00; Missionaries, $65.69; Miscellaneous, $16.70. The Saddle Mountain Baptist Church opened on Easter of 1903 with a congregation of 64 people.
The new church had no pastor, but they wanted to celebrate the
Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
, so Crawford told them to elect one of their own to perform the service, and they chose Lucius Aitsan. The denominational mission board and the nearest baptist missionary pastor disapproved of this move. However, they continued to hold their own services when the visiting pastor was not available. In 1904, the congregation was censured by the Oklahoma Indian Baptist Association for having "deviated from the orderly practice of Baptist churches in the administration of the Lord's Supper", and Crawford resigned her position.
In 1963, the church was purchased by Herbert Woesner and moved to Eagle Park,
Cache, Oklahoma
Cache is a city in Comanche County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,796 at the 2010 census. It is an exurb included in the Lawton, Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the location of Star House, the home of the Comanche c ...
, an amusement park and village of historic buildings. Local congregations in Cache began to use the church on Sunday mornings.
Later career
The WBHMS had supported Crawford through the doctrinal dispute, and she continued to work for them, traveling around the country and speaking at churches and other gatherings.
She became well known for ending her presentations with her Plains Indian sign language-version of the Lord's Prayer. Crawford back-translated the prayer into English, and it was published as a pamphlet:
["The twenty-third Psalm as Rendered by Isabel Crawford in the Indian Sign Language", (Philadelphia: Judson Press, n.d. ]919
__NOTOC__
Year 919 ( CMXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By Place
Byzantine Empire
* March 25 – Romanos Lekapenos, admiral (''droungarios'') of the ...
, as cited in Whitely, 2016.
Death and burial
Crawford retired in 1929 and moved in with two nieces in
Grimsby, Ontario
Grimsby is a town on Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. Grimsby is at the eastern end of the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area. It is named after the English fishing town of Grimsby in north-east Lincolnshire. The majority of re ...
. Before she left Saddle Mountain, Crawford declared that she "would sooner lie hidden among the tall weeds of the unkept Indian cemetery . . . than in any other burial ground in the whole world." When she died on November 18, 1961, the Kiowa buried her in the Saddle Mountain Indian Baptist Church Cemetery near the graves of her first converts. The inscription on her tombstone read, "I Dwell Among Mine Own People."
Bibliography
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References
External links
Picture of the Saddle Mountain church and eating pavilion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Isabel
Baptist missionaries from the United States
1865 births
1961 deaths
Female Christian missionaries
Baptist missionaries in the United States