The following is a portion of a letter/history that is believed to have been written by Hannah Keith Towne. Who she was writing to and where the rest of the letter is is unknown.

I cannot remember but a very little of what I have heard Grandma and Ma tell of their people, but possibly can give you a little information. Grandma's Old Bible will give some dates. Will begin with Grandpa Crawford. Hiram Crawford was born Sept. 10, 1795, I cannot tell where but think in Orange Co. N.Y. If I remember correctly he lived with his grandparents from childhood until he was old enough to go for himself. Can't remember why he had to do that. He was a good scholar, and a great reader, taught school a good deal. Was not as particular about his dress as some of his sons. Grandma said he used to come and see her with his shoes laced with ______ strings. Should have thought it would have been all up with Nancy and Hiram then.

Grandma's father and mother. John Comfort was born April 10, 1767. Died Jan. 1830. Catherine Harris was born Oct. 10, 1777. Died Aug. 10, 1840. They lived in Orange Co. N.Y. Were farmers and quite well to do. When the U.S. and England began to talk war (1812) he had to get out of the U.S. for he was a rank Tory, and did too much talking. For his loyalty to England the English government gave him quite a tract of land near Beamsville, Ontario. Grandma has told me about his getting across Niagara river. The two governments were very careful about letting people go from one country to the other, and when they got to Niagara the officers rather objected to letting them go across, so grandfather treated them to all they wanted to drink, and while they were feeling good he got his teams onto the ferry boat and after they had crossed the center of the river he swung his hat and hurrahed for King George. Presume there was a sore lot of officials watching him. After a while Hiram Crawford drifted to Beamsville and liked the people well enough to stay and teach school and in time he, and Nancy Comfort married then he bought land six miles east of London on the Thames river and built a tannery. Was there a number of years, their eleven children were all born there. Ma was the oldest and Uncle Pros the youngest. When he was about four years of age, grandfather sold out his business and came to Mich. with the intention of locating in Grand Rapids as they were booming that town then. When they got to Galesburg they had to stop on account of sickness. Uncle D.C. was sick and the Dr. said he had typhoid fever. He was about twelve years old. Some of the people wanted ---