Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It’s Saturday Night again – 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision. 

1)  The year is 1900. Choose an ancestor who was living in that year and write a short life sketch (no more than 300 words).*

2) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own blog post.

*  Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this challenge.

The hardest part of this challenge was reducing the biography to 300 words! The second hardest was selecting someone. I selected Mary Foster Crawford because I view her as a strong woman.

• She watched her husband go off to war and then come home from prison camp
• She saw her daughter die and then 3 years later lost her husband.
• She registered to vote.
• As a widow with a young son, she ran a boarding house.

Mary Foster was born on 28 Aug 1842 in West Lebanon, Indiana.She married Washington Marion Crawford on 4 Mar 1860 in West Lebanon, Indiana.

On 3 Aug 1861, Mary Crawford’s husband, Washington Marion Crawford, enlisted as a Sergeant in Company H of the 2nd Regiment of the New York Cavalry, also known as “Harris Light Horse”. On 22 Sep 1863, Mary Crawford’s husband, Washington Marion Crawford was captured at Liberty Milles in Orange County, Virginia. He was held prisoner at Belle Isle and Andersonville before being released in December of 1864.

Mary lived in Washington Township, Warren County, Indiana on 1 Jul 1880. She lived in Dodge City in 1884.

Mary witnessed the death of her daughter, Carrie, on 20 Jul 1886 in Dodge City Kansas. She purchased Lot 37 of the Prairie Grove Cemetery Association in May 1889 in Dodge City, Kansas. She witnessed the death of her husband, Washington Marion Crawford on 23 Aug 1889 in Fort Dodge, Kansas.

She received pension for her husband’s service during the civil war on 23 Nov 1889 in Kansas. She purchased a lot in Lewis Post No. 294 G.A. R. Cemetery on 24 Jan 1893 in Dodge City.

She registered to vote in 1897 in Dodge City, Kansas.

In Mar 1901, she was a member of the Home Missionary Society serving as president in Dodge City.

In Aug 1901 she had rooms for rent at the corner of 2d Ave and Elm Street in Dodge City, Kansas. She lived at 911 Second Avenue in Dodge City on 22 Apr 1910.

She  visited West Lebanon, Indiana in Sep 1920.⁷³ She died on 21 Jan 1929 at the age of 86 in Dodge City.

She was buried on 23 Jan 1929 at Maple Grove Cemetery in Dodge City.

This strong woman was my second great-grandmother.