Portions of the letters were eventually read aloud in open court to the glee of those in attendance. The following excerpt from the San Francisco Call newspaper of August 31, 1894 alludes to Andrew's boy being "as beautiful as was ever born."
Further testimony established a history of questionable behavior on the part of Isabella J. Martin and allegations she'd made over the years.
As the trial wound down the primary attorney who represented Henry Martin's widow, D. M. Delmas, seemed to gain a good understanding of Isabella's plot and capabilities. To the right: the widow's attorney provided an insightful review of what had happened. The trial concluded on September 26, 1894 with the result that the original will, awarding Henry Martin's entire estate to his widow, Mary Martin, prevailed.
Post Script: according to the 1910 US Census, Isabella Martin was incarcerated in the Oakland, California city jail. The census also reported that Isabella claimed she had never had ANY children.
February 19, 1887
THE "MEMNON" DISASTER.
A Coroner's Jury Charges the Owners with Manslaughter
After an investigation yesterday into the cause of the death of Martin Kirkey, H. Elvin and Gastave Stoll, the three sailors who were killed by the breaking of a hawser on the bark Memnon on the 15th instant, the Coroner's jury returned a verdict in accordance with the facts, and added: "We further find the owners of said bark, Memnon, Leon Blum and Andrew Crawford, guilty of culpable negligence in not seeing that the vessel was in a proper seaworthy condition, and find the said Leon Blum and Andrew Crawford guilty of manslaughter, and we further exonerate the captain from all blame."
Three articles from the San Francisco Call newspaper
The evidence offered in the case was that just prior to the voyage Blum and Crawford, who are both large shipowners, had the vessel thoroughly overhauled and repaired at a cost of $5,003. The hawser was perfectly sound, but was parted by a setback the ship received from the undertow on the bar at the same moment the tug took up the slack in the tow-line. Warrants were issued for the arrest of the parties charged.
February 20, 1887
THE "MEMNON'S" OWNERS.
Leon Blum and Andrew Crawford Arrested for Manslaughter.
Leon Blum and Andrew Crawford, the owners of the bark Memnon, who were charged by the Coroner's jury with the crime of manslaughter, were arrested yesterday upon the Coroner's warrant. The owners of the vessel are accused of being responsible for the deaths of the three sailors who were killed last Tuesday morning by the breaking of a hawser while the ship was crossing the bar. Shortly after their arrest Blum and Crawford were released by Judge Lawler on giving bonds in the sum of $3,000 each. E. L. Goldstein, of B. Dreyfus & Co., and Charles L. Ackerman, an attorney, qualified as sureties upon the bonds.
February 22, 1887
THE "MEMNON" ACCIDENT.
Charge of Manslaughter Against the Bark's Owners Dismissed
Andrew Crawford and Leon Blum appeared before Judge Lawler yesterday to answer to a charge of manslaughter preferred against them by a Coroner's jury. Messrs. Crawford and Blum as the owners of the bark Memnon, on board which three sailors were recently killed by an accident as the vessel was being towed into harbor. The bits were torn from their fastenings, and, striking the sailors, killed them. C. L. Ackerman appeared for the defense, and moved that the charge be dismissed, as there was no evidence to warrant it. The evidence offered before the Jury at the inquest was read, and Judge Lawler thereupon immediately dismissed the charge. Coroner Stanton did not approve the verdict of the jury, because he thought the evidence did not sustain it.
The 1900 U.S. Census for Hayward, Alameda County, California shows Frances living in a residential hotel. She stated she arrived in the United States in 1848, was widowed, and had no children. By 1910 Frances' sister, Anne Love Dunleavy, was living with her in the same Hayward location.
The 1920 U.S. Census indicates that Frances' niece, Margaret F. McElroy (Anne Love Dunleavy's daughter) was living with her in the Hayward, California hotel.
According to a letter to Guy Love (Frances Walker Love Crawford's great-nephew) from the executive director of Woodlawn Memorial Park in Colma, California dated July 14, 1964, Frances purchased a multi-grave lot at the park in 1912 and had her husband, Andrew Crawford (died 1892), his brother, Edmund Crawford (died 1900), and her sister, Eleanor Love (died 1901) moved from the Masonic Cemetery in San Francisco to Woodlawn Memorial Park on August 20, 1912. When her sister, Anne Love Dunleavy, died June 5, 1918, her body was interred in the Woodlawn lot as well.
Frances Walker Love Crawford died March 19, 1922 in Hayward, California and was buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Colma with her family. The body of Frances' brother, Richard Love, was moved from the Odd Fellows Cemetery in San Francisco to the Crawford plot at Woodlawn on May 11, 1929, at the same time his son, Samuel Hilsinger Love, was interred there following his death on April 10, 1929.
Legal proceedings began in July 1894 regarding the two wills and, of course, the paternity of Isabella's son became a focal point of the trial. Testimony was given during the trial by an attorney who stated he had been retained by Mrs. Andrew Crawford not long after Andrew's death, to search his office for letters that had been written to him by Isabella J. Martin. The existence of these letters became a sensation in the trial because the judge, James V. Coffey, would not allow them to be read in open court. They became known as the mysterious "Crawford letters."
The trial ran from early July until late September and seemed to have a rather "circus atmosphere" based on newspaper reports.
Mrs. John (Isabella) Martin's legal representatives came and went, citing issues with a client who was impossible to deal with, etc. Her antics in court were the fodder for many newspaper articles and talk on the street.
The drawing to the left shows Isabella hurling a law book from the defense table at the plaintiff's attorney due to her anger over the testimony being elicited. The book actually hit the back of the attorney's head and bounced off, connecting with the nose of the man to the attorney's right.
Andrew Crawford, one of San Francisco's leading merchants, died at his home in this city at 3:30 o'clock yesterday morning in the sixty-third year of his life. No man was more highly esteemed in the commercial quarter, and the announcement of his death was immediately followed by a general lowering of the flags to half-mast in the business portion of the city.
He was married in 1875, and his widow and two sons survive him. He was a Royal Arch Mason and one of the founders' of Calvary Presbyterian Church. Andrew Crawford's death will be heavily felt by the men engaged in commerce here and elsewhere, and his keen, clear-headed way of handling all vexed questions will be missed by those with whom he had been so long associated.
Mr. Crawford was advised by his physician about a year ago that he had heart disease. He was advised to take a respite from business cares or to reduce his own amount of work. In consequence, the A. Crawford Company was organized as a corporation, and Mr. Crawford committed a large part of the details to other hands. Recently, however, the business not being satisfactory to him, he returned to his larger activities spending night after night In his office until about three weeks ago, when his
fatal illness began its attack. He then took to his bed, from which he never rose again.
Andrew Crawford was born at Glenarm, County Antrim, Ireland, in 1829, his ancestry being Scotch-Irish. When 15 years of age he left home, going to Liverpool to learn the trade of a sail maker, and from that age up to the time of his death be worked constantly and energetically.
His trade mastered, in 1849 Mr. Crawford sailed for America, landing in Boston, and there experienced much difficulty in obtaining employment owing to the hostility manifested In Boston at that time to the employment of foreigners of any nationality.
He remained In Boston, however, until 1852, when he came to California under an agreement to go into partnership with an acquaintance in a mercantile business, but on arriving here he found things different from what he had been led to expect, and in consequence went to work once more at his trade.
He came around the Horn in the Staghound, landing in this city on July 4, 1852.
His first enterprise on landing was to join in the common hunt for gold, but as a miner he was not successful. Times, however, were good In California in those days. Money was plentiful and wages high, and in a short time Mr. Crawford found himself possessed of quite a snug little capital, and at once went into business for himself, opening his lofts over the business-house of Tubbs & Co., in a wooden building on Front Street, near Pacific.
He continued in the sail-making business until 1869, but In 1862 be began to branch out in the ship-chandlery line which in turn led him into a general exporting and importing trade with the South Sea Islands, which he conducted up to his death.
The more he experimented as a trader In the South Seas the more convinced he was that there lay the fortune he was seeking, and he built up his trade very rapidly. In 1871, the firm of which Mr. Crawford was the head took a contract for carrying the mails for the French Government from this city to the Islands and kept it alone until 1873, when he went in with other parties In the contract, which they retain at the present time.
His rapidly growing trade in the south made it necessary for him to have a branch house somewhere in the islands, and he selected Tahiti as the place, founding a business there and at once adding to his fleet of vessels engaged in the trade. Among the vessels he owned were the Annie Johnson, the Margaret Crocker, the Staghound, the Greyhound and the Tropic Bird, the vessels, save the last-named, averaging about 150 tons and worth from $14,000 to $20,000 each.
The success of the Tahiti house led Mr. Crawford to establish other branch houses in Taiohae, in Marquesas, one in Jaluit, Marshall Islands, and one in the Gilbert group, and all of which proved paying investments.
Note: the information contained in the last paragraph of this obituary conflicts with a great deal of other available information. The biography of Andrew Crawford from the "Bay of San Francisco" shown near the top of this page was based on an interview with Mr. Crawford, who stated that his marriage to Frances W. Love took place in 1854; in addition, the 1870 U.S. Census record above shows Andrew and Frances Crawford married as of 1870. In census records from 1900 and 1910, Frances Love Crawford stated she had no children.
Below: another obituary for Andrew Crawford sharing much additional information about his life. However,
this obituary states the Crawfords were married in 1874; again, this statement is refuted by many other sources of information.
