Miner Crawford
Silverton, Briscoe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(June 21, 1867 - Nov. 17, 1928) Born in Benton County, Ark. In 1892, when Briscoe County was organized, won election as first sheriff; also later served single terms, 1913-1914 and 1921-1922. First official act was arrest of two horse thieves from New Mexico; in last term he and two deputies waged a gun battle and captured a moonshine still. He bought law and order to area. Was recognized as "bearing the stamp of a gentleman." Recorded - 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Arkansas-born Miner Crawford became Briscoe County's first sheriff when it organized in 1892, later serving additional terms in 1913–1914 and 1921–1922. His first official act was arresting two horse thieves from New Mexico, and in his last term he and two deputies won a gun battle and seized a moonshine still. Remembered as bringing law and order while "bearing the stamp of a gentleman," he died in 1928.
Why it matters
His career embodies the frontier lawman who imposed order on the newly organized counties of the Texas Panhandle.
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Related people
- · Miner Crawford
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Briscoe County
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Created in 1876 and organized in 1892, Briscoe County honors Andrew Briscoe, a defender of Texas liberty who fought at the Battle of Concepción, the capture of Bexar, and San Jacinto before serving as chief justice of Harris County. Carved from the vast Bexar Territory, the county took shape as settlement pushed into the Texas Panhandle, with Silverton as its seat. Its very name links this frontier land to the generation that won Texas independence.
Briscoe County Jail
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Built in 1894 of stone hand-cut and hauled by horse-drawn wagon from Tule Canyon, this jail anchored law and order in newly organized Briscoe County. Early sheriffs and their families even lived in it as a residence, and during World War I its lower floor served as a workroom for Red Cross sewing volunteers. Sturdy and plain, it endured as a symbol of frontier justice on the High Plains.
First Methodist Church of Silverton
Silverton, TX
Organized as a Sunday school in 1891, the First Methodist Church of Silverton grew up with its Panhandle town. Its first pastor, the Rev. W.B. Ford, rode a circuit and preached here once a month, and early services filled a grocery store, a one-room schoolhouse, and the courthouse until the first sanctuary was finished in 1902. A replacement sanctuary, built in 1929 using some of the original materials, and later additions housed the growing congregation.
Pleasant Lafayette Crawford House
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Civil War veteran Pleasant Lafayette Crawford built this Queen Anne home, with its inviting wraparound porch, in 1904 on the High Plains of the Texas Panhandle. He had come from Arkansas in the late 1880s to buy ranch land and open a mercantile store, and his family followed by covered wagon to join him. One of Silverton's founders, Crawford opened the town's first hotel in 1894, and his family kept the house until 1917.