William Ayers Crawford

William Crawford was elected Saline County sheriff in 1852 and served until 1858, ran a licensed ferry across the Saline River, and contracted to build the county courthouse at Benton in 1857. A shell exploded at his feet at Shiloh and badly injured him. His house served as a Union headquarters during the 1863 occupation of Benton. In 1873 Governor Elisha Baxter made him a brigadier general of militia, and a head wound in a skirmish in front of the Anthony House in Little Rock on May 9, 1874, sent him home. He died of tuberculosis on June 22.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pinnacle Mountain State Park — 19 mi
  A day-use state park west of Little Rock around a 1,011-foot Ouachita peak, with a strenuous summit trail, the Arkansas Arboretum and a visitor center above the Arkansas River.
• Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site — 19 mi
  The 1927 high school where nine Black students entered under federal troops on September 25, 1957, with a National Park Service visitor center across the intersection.
• Big Dam Bridge — 19 mi
  A 14-foot-wide walking and cycling bridge built onto Murray Lock and Dam, 90 feet over the Arkansas River between Little Rock and North Little Rock.
• Arkansas State Capitol — 20 mi
  The neo-classical Capitol built from 1899 to 1915 on the old penitentiary site with state convict labor, free to enter, with the Little Rock Nine monument on the grounds.

More markers nearby

• George M. Holt — steps away
• The Niloak Pottery — 0.6 mi
• 11th Arkansas Infantry, C.S.A. — 1.0 mi
• The Benton Courier — 1.4 mi