"The Crawford House in Clinton, Oklahoma is significant because it is the only extant structure associated with Isabel Crawford, one of the first women missionaries to the Kiowa Indians in Oklahoma. It is also one of the few restored plains cottage homes in Southwest Oklahoma. Isabel Crawford was born in 1865 to Irish parents in Cheltenhaw, Ontario, Canada. Crawford's parents had moved to Canada after her Presbyterian father converted to become a Baptist. At age eleven, Isabel was also converted and baptized.

Crawford first encountered Indians after her family moved to St. Thomas, North Dakota in 1882. Crawford's career as a missionary to the Kiowa Indians began in 1893, the year she graduated from the American Baptist Missionary Training School in Chicago. She came to Oklahoma and founded the Saddle Mountain Mission near present day Hobart, Oklahoma. Crawford ran the mission from 1893 until 1906. She did not establish a school as there was one at the Presbyterian Mission at nearby Rainy Mountain, Oklahoma. Crawford left the Kiowa Church work to do organization work, traveling, and writing in 1906, but continued for the American Baptist Home Mission Society until she retired in 1930.

Her brother owned the Clinton house from 1908 to 1916. She bought the house from her brother, Hugh Crawford, in 1916. She kept the house until she sold it back to her brother, Hugh, in 1941. Crawford wrote three books about her missionary experiences: Joyful Journey, Highlights on the High Way; An Autobiography, Kiowa; The History of the Blanket Indian Mission, and Jolly Journey. Crawford retired to Grinsley, Ontario, Canada, where she lived until her death at age 97. She was buried at Saddle Mountain Mission in 1961"--From the NRHP nomination form.

This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 84002998.