Boyd Crumrine Profile

Boyd Crumrine
Commemorative and Biographical Record 
of Washington County, PA (1889)

   "Why is a love for local history to be justified and encouraged? First, for the reason that it is so absorbing, in the leisure hours when other subjects may have lost their interest; and second, and the better reason perhaps, because when one of the present had brought before him the honest, strenuous life and bravery of his pioneer ancestors, he is most likely himself impelled to courage and endurance"

                     Boyd Crumrine
                     The Daily Notes
                     Canonsburg, PA
                     December 24, 1903







     I found this quotation by Boyd Crumrine of the 85th Pennsylvania to coincide with my own motivations for writing "Such Severe and Hard Service" published by Monongahela Books. After the war, Crumrine had a distinguished career as an attorney and local historian in Washington County.
    Crumrine (1838-1916) had just been admitted to the bar of Washington County, PA in 1861 when he decided to enlist into Company B of the 85th Pennsylvania as quartermaster-sergeant. He spent the winter of 1861-2 with his regiment in Washington, DC. Crumrine then transferred to another unit that was soon disbanded; he consequently was discharged and went home in 1862 to began his career as an attorney. In this capacity, he represented many veterans' widows and mothers who were seeking survivor benefits. Their husbands or sons were men from his former regiment who had lost their lives in battle or from disease.
     Crumrine wrote a comprehensive history of Washington County in 1882 as well as several other books and articles on western Pennsylvania history. At one time he was the president of the Washington County Historical Society. He also wrote and edited several law books during his career as a writer.

Boyd Crumrine 1910
The Centennial Celebration....of Washington, PA