Adapted from an article in the Altoona Mirror by Walt Frank.
If ever there’s been a reluctant winner of a prestigious award, it’s James B. Crawford. Jim, who’s been farming in Sinking Valley for forty-five years, received the 2011 Blair County Agricultural Community Excellence (ACE) Award last October at the annual Farm-City Dinner at The Park at Morrisons Cove, in Martinsburg.
Crawford, who turned seventy in December, said he was surprised to be selected for the award, which had been started as a continuation and expansion of the Blair County Chamber’s successful Farm Family of the Year Award initiated in 1970. “I never expected to be considered for the ACE Award. I didn’t think that I would have what they were looking for in a recipient. I’m certainly appreciative of it, but I didn’t think I had contributed sufficiently to the agriculture community in Blair County.”
The humble Crawford said his family has been involved in farming in Sinking Valley since the 1780s, when whom he calls the “original James Crawford” had purchased acreage from John Penn, William Penn’s son. “I’m a descendant of one of the original settlers of Sinking Valley.”
Coming Home to Farm
After graduating from Tyrone Area High School in 1960, Crawford went on to Penn State and earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics and rural sociology. His parents, James and Kathryn (who had been a school teacher), encouraged him to get a college education. After graduating from Penn State in 1964, Crawford had several job offers but decided to return to the family farm. In 1965, Crawford and his wife Bonnie purchased the neighboring farm.
“As people say, ‘It’s in your blood.’ Growing up on the home farm was my intent — what I wanted to do,” Crawford said. “We were able to get the farm, and we were able to make it work. It’s what I enjoy doing.”
Crawford bought the family farm from his mother in 1978 and ran the neighboring farms until 1990. He sold his dairy cows in 1990 but has had tenants who owned their own herd of cows. “I grew the crops and sold to the tenants what they needed to feed their cows until 2006.” In 2006, he sold one-half of the family farm acreage to his brother Tom and the other half to Todd and Marcie Lewis. In 2009, he sold Farm 2 (the farm he and Bonnie had bought) to the Lewises.
Crawford credits his survival as a farmer to being conservative. “I’m not the first to try the latest technology. I’ve never got too deep in debt with machinery. I take it sort of slow, evaluating something new and different before I jump into it.”
School Board, Church, and Krislund
Crawford has served on the Tyrone Area School Board for twenty-eight years and currently serves as board president. “My mother was a teacher. My dad and mom always promoted education. I saw the significance of education. I feel it’s undeniably important, and that’s the reason to serve on the school board.”
Crawford also is a member of the Tyrone Township Planning Commission and is active in the Sinking Valley Presbyterian Church, serving as clerk of session and as an elder. In January, he was installed as moderator of the Huntingdon Presbytery for 2012.
Crawford is also proud of his volunteer work at Krislund Camp, located on 875 acres of land between Lamar and Madisonburg in Centre County. Krislund is a joint outdoor ministry of the Carlisle, Huntingdon, and Northumberland Presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church USA.
Barry Vance, of Tyrone, who’s been a friend of Crawford for forty years, said, “Every organization depends upon people who are faithful, can be counted on, and have the best interests of the organization at heart. Most recently, I’ve observed his faithfulness to Krislund Camp. He has blessed the camp with his labor and his resources. Every camper experiences Jim’s generosity as they take hayrides on the wagon he helped donate and build.”
Crawford has some advice for young people who might want to get into farming. “Anyone who’s interested in farming needs to realize that he or she needs a good work ethic. It’s not something where you work eight to five, five days a week; it’s sort of twenty-four/seven. They need to be prepared to give the hours necessary to do the best job they can.”
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