W.E.
CRAWFORD CAME TO HARTNEY in 1892 and opened a jewellery store. He had
been in Manitoba for several years, having arrived with his parents
before 1870 and settled with them on a farm in the Erinview district
near Stonewall. He disliked the school which seemed boring and
uninteresting in comparison with the one he attended in Ontario, and he
disliked his task of herding his father’s cattle when the school
closed, so, at the age of 14 he ran away to Winnipeg and found work as
cook’s assistant in a circus that was set up near the railway track.
When his first day’s work was over he went to his designated bed in a
box-car on the railway track and fell sound asleep. He awoke to find
himself surrounded by rough men, smoking and swearing as they played
cards by the light of a lantern.
Willie Crawford had been brought up in a strict Presbyterian home to
believe that smoking and card playing were evil, and on taking stock of
his surroundings in the box-car he was convinced that he had died and
was in Hell as punishment for his running away from home. He eventually
grew accustomed to circus life, gained experience as cooks’ helper, and
later found work in the camps of a CPR construction gang and traveled
with it west to the Rockies in the years that followed. He returned to
Winnipeg and became an apprentice to Major Forest, a capable
watchmaker. On the completion of his apprenticeship he married and
opened a jewellery business in Stonewall. The lure of the prairie
horizons brought him and Mrs. Crawford to Hartney with their small son
and daughter, Edgeworth and Jessie. Two other daughters, Lillian Rossa
and Evelyne, were born in the Hartney home.
In 1902 Mr. Crawford built and occupied the store now owned by J.
McDowell. Although this building never boasted a clock, it had a high
clock tower that the Hartney Star declared “lent to the store a certain
novelty and grace.” When, in 1906 the Union Bank sought to enlarge its
premises Mr. Crawford sold this store to the bank and built beside it
the one-storey building that is now L.H. Gabel’s jewellery store.
Mr. Crawford served on the school board and the council and was mayor
of the town in 1909. He took a leading and vocal part in planning the
town hall and was one of the company who started the Lyceum theatre.
Many of the school children used to stand before Mr. Crawford’s store
window to admire the rings, brooches and clocks displayed there, but
they were most interested in a miniature golden steam engine that Mr.
Crawford constructed with tiny wheels and pistons, which they were told
would actually run.
Although there had been engines installed in old buggies that ran on
Hartney’s streets before 1908, it was in that year that Mr. Crawford
brought the first factory-built automobile to the town. It was a Ford.
He enjoyed driving it but was so concerned for the effect its
appearance had on the horses that when he saw one approaching he used
to sop his car, walk around to meet the horse and driver, lead the
horse past the automobile and wait until the horse was on its way
before starting his motor again.
Text adapted from The
Mere Living, page 100.
![](images/11.Town.jpg)
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![](images/11.CrawforsBldg.jpg)
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The high clock
tower on Mr. Crawford’s jewellery store is seen in the archival image
above and as it appears today, without the
pyramidal roof cap.
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