Renovo at 150 – Ode to Capt. Jack

An Ode to Captain Jack

by Lou Bernard

Captain Jack Crawford lived in Renovo in the 1870s. He had both a literary and a government career, working as a poet, reporter, and a plains scout in the West. Crawford was the first to report on Custer’s Last Stand in 1876, which brought him five hundred dollars from the New York Herald.

Every time I write about a poet, I have the urge to do it in poetry. The Record has let me get away with this twice before, writing about poets John Chatham and Mary Elizabeth Crocker. I don’t write in good poetry, you understand—It’s undeniably awful. Turns out, it’s really hard to make a poem conform to historical accuracy. But I have tried.

The editors at the Record have tolerated all this very patiently, never once telling me to knock it off with the poetry and at least pretend I have a real job. And I’ve never really been accused of knowing when to quit while I’m ahead. So, in honor of Captain Jack, here’s another one.

John Crawford, born in Ireland
In Eighteen-Forty Seven
When he was young, his father died.
He drank himself to Heaven.

He came to America to be the best
And never once looked back
He wrote about the Wild West
And they called him Captain Jack.

He worked the mines in Centralia
A town that’s now on fire
And came later to Renovo
Where the mountains were much higher.

He was a good guy in Renovo
And as popular as any.
The citizens enjoyed him.
He’s remembered well by many.

A train once crashed in Westport
In Eighteen-Seventy One,
And the Captain wrote about it
In a poem that he’d done.

He left in the 1870s
Going west, and getting out
He wrote articles and poetry
And they called him “Poet Scout.”

He joined up with the government
When Custer made his stand
Reported on the massacre
Got word to New York, and….

Was paid five hundred dollars
To write about the morn
When Custer’s men went down
Around Little Big Horn.

In 1886, he came back
In the month of May
To perform in the Opera House
On a great Renovo day.

He was at the anniversary
Of Renovo’s twenty years
He read his popular verses
To a borough full of cheers.

He was hurt in Eighteen-Ninety Six
When a rock fell on his head
The Republican ran an obit
But he wasn’t really dead!

As he approached his fifties
Beginning to get old
He gave up on his scouting
And went North to look for gold.

He never really found much
So he lectured and was witty
Traveled across the country
And lived in New York City.

He was living in Long Island
When he finally passed away.
It happened in February;
Twenty-seventh was the day.

He lived here for a while,
And he sometimes came on back.
So when you think of Clinton County,
Just remember Captain Jack.