Crawford County
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Vonola Levere Johnson was the second of two daughters born on May 17, 1909 to
William Harrod Johnson and Pearl May Foss in Prairie Township, Crawford County,
Illinois. The attending physician at her birth was S. A. Smith. William worked
as an oil field tool dresser, moving his family frequently as his work took him
from oil field to oil field. Perhaps as a result, Von grew up tough and
self-reliant. She appears to have doted on her older sister, Vivian (nicknamed
Nicky) who was born August 18, 1906.
According to her daughter, when Von
was a junior in high school she put a red polka dot dress on layaway for her
junior prom. She saved her money to buy pumps to go with it. She never got to go
because her family needed the money for food or because Nick got sick and needed
medicine.
Money must have been a lifelong shortage. Von never finished
high school because her family needed money. She quit school and went to work
for a baking powder company. The company paid her to go around to various parts
of the state and teach women to use their product. She taught women to make pie
crusts and bicuits.
When Von was about seventeen she met Homer Crawford
in Winfield, Kansas. She and her sister Nicky worked as waitresses at the Naylor
Hotel. Von married Homer on June 7, 1921 in Ballinger, Runnels County, Texas.
They returned to Winfield to live, working and running Crawford's service
station. In 1933 they bought a farm just outside of Winfield. There they stayed
to raise chickens, pigs, 3 head of beef cattle and their two children: a boy,
Jack, born in 1928, and a girl, Jackie, born in 1929. In the 1940's Vonola (Von)
worked at a music store in Winfield, Kansas.
Jackie remembers that she
and her brother would pretend in the kitchen of their home, singing about "Von
Crawford's little biscuits" that they remember being so good.
Von
Crawford was always very proud of her strength. She would demonstrate to me, her
granddaughter, how she could place a heavy book on her abdomen and make it
bounce into the air. Her daughter remembers her doing one-armed pushups.
At the time of her death Von was 69 years, 5 months and 20 days old. She was
buried next to her husband at Lawnhaven Memorial Gardens in San Angelo, Texas.
Contributed by Jackie Crawford
When John R. Linburg arrived in Pittsburg in 1877, the population was only 42. In
partnership with John STRYKER, Lindburg opened a drug store at 324 N. Broadway. Later
Lindburg purchased Styrker's interests and conducted the business until 1887,
when he disposed of it to W. E. PIERCE.
Linburg was the founder of the
Commercial Club, the forerunner of the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce and was a
member of the first city council. In March 1883, he became president of the
Pittsburg Building and Loan Association, a position he held for more than 20
years. With his associates, he erected 10 brick business houses in the new city
and over 200 homes. When the First National Bank was established in 1886, he was
made its first vice-president being elected president in 1888.
Born in
Wimmerby, Sweden on December 23, 1849, Lindburg received his education at the
Wimmerby Collage. In 1868, at the age of 19, he immigrated to the United States,
locating first in Chicago where he worked in a sawmill for six months. He then
went to Peoria, Illinois for a short period, returning to Chicago to work in a
store. Eventually he went into the mercantile business for himself. From
Chicago, he went to Red Oak, Iowa where he also clerked a store.
John R.
Lindburg died on July 10, 1915 and is buried in Pittsburg. The pharmacy that he
sold to Pierce in 1887 retained his name, and today, in 1997, the Lindburg
Pharmacy is still in existence.
Contributed by Mark Hill
James Patmor was born in 1851 in Ohio, and came to Kansas in
1877 to forget the death of a close friend. Because this area reminded him of
Ohio, he decided to stay.
Several assistants traveled with him to
introduce surface mining for coal in this area. As business boomed, Mr. Patmor
had the first machinery shipped to this area for use in strip mining. Although
he found a challenge in strip mining, problems that involved hauling the coal
disillusioned Patmor. A fire that destroyed his steam shovel climaxed the
problem and put him out of business. However, Patmor's motivation and unusual
interests gave rise to the enormous coal industry that located in Pittsburg.
Although he received most of his education in Ohio, Patmor attended night
classes and became an accountant after his mining experiences. In 1883, Patmor
became a purchaser for the Bank of Pittsburg, then a branch of the Bank of
Girard. He eventually became cashier. When the bank nationalized and changed its
name to the National Bank of Pittsburg in 1886, Patmor was elected
vice-president and remained at the bank for almost twenty years.
In 1903,
he resigned from the bank, which at the time was one of the most prosperous and
largest banks in the nation. On his 47th birthday, January 25, 1904, Patmor
opened the doors of the First State Bank and was elected president. The bank is
still in existence today.
Patmor continued his active service until his
health compelled him to resign. He died December 15, 1909. His son, Jay Patmor,
continued with the bank.
Contributed by Mark Hill
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This page was last updated
11/27/2025