CAPT. JAMES J. CROW. – Mr. Crow, a portrait of whom will be found in this work, is one of the early pioneers of Oregon, as well as one of the early and substantial residents on White river. He was born in Lincoln county, Missouri, April 5, 1842, and is the son of George and Mary E. (Howdeshell) Crow, both of whom were pioneers of the above state. In the summer of 1848 his parents, with their family of five children, started to cross the plains to Oregon; but, on reaching the Missouri river, it then being late in the season, they concluded to return to their former home. However, they again, early in February, 1849, started with a good outfit and with ox-teams to cross the trackless plains to the far West, arriving near Oregon City late in the fall of 1849, where they passed the first winter. In the spring of 1850 they moved to the Kellogg ranch, south of Portland. In the following fall his father purchased a farm near Milwaukee, on the Willamette, where in 1852 the family suffered the irreparable loss of the husband and father.
On the death of his father our subject, with the pluck and energy that has so often been displayed by the early settlers to the Pacific coast, began to do for himself, and followed different occupations until 1860. He then came to the Puyallup valley, Washington Territory, and in 1862 located a claim, but a short time thereafter abandoned it and went to Seattle. In 1864 Mr. Crow took up a claim on White river, one and a half miles south of the present beautiful little city of Kent. Here he has cleared up and made a magnificent farm, consisting of one hundred and fifty-four acres.
In 1875 he embarked in the cultivation of hops, in which he has been very successful, and is recognized as one of the men who have brought that industry to the front, and who have made that section of the country famous for the quantity as well as quality of hops. In 1883 Captain Crow embarked in steam boating on the Sound, and for four years was owner and master of the steamer Lilly, in which undertaking he was also very successful. He has held the office of constable for the White river precinct for eighteen years. The Captain is well and favorably known all over the Sound country, and is a gentleman whom it is a real pleasure to meet.
He was united in marriage in Seattle September 18, 1862, to Miss Emma Russell, a daughter of S.W. Russell, a pioneer of 1852 and among the very first locators on White river in 1853. By this union they have a family of thirteen children, all of whom are living and residing with their parents in their magnificent home in Kent, where the Captain has retired from the active pursuits of farm life, and is prepared to take the comforts that are to be found in his happy and beautiful home.