The town of Crawford was formed from the town of Montgomery, March 4, 1823. That older town covered such a large extent of territory that it was found inconvenient and expensive to conduct the public business to advantage. A convenient and practicable arrangement of boundary lines for a division of the town was found possible whereby there might be a central point convenient of access for the citizens of each town. The name Crawford was given in honor of that pioneer family, as before stated, many of its descendants having become so closely identified with the local interests of the region. The first town meeting was held at the house of Edward Schoonmaker, April 1, 1823. William W. Crawford was then chosen the first supervisor; Oliver Mills, town clerk, and a full list of officials was selected. Every man was authorized to act as his own pound-master, and every farm was regarded as a pound. A bounty of $25 was voted for every wolf killed in the town, which shows that these hungry animals were still roaming through the forests at that time. At a special meeting held later in the month, $460 was voted to be raised for the support of the poor for that year. There were then thirty-nine road districts in that little town, and each district had its accredited road-master. But the records are not clear as to the character or extent of the road work done in that early period. Of course every male citizen was required to appear for service upon the road at such time or times as the master of his district would designate, and put in such number of days' work as his property possessions called for under the prevailing provisions of the State road laws. The road-master was the boss, and if he said the roadway must be highly rounded in the center, a plow was run deeply along each side of the track and the loose mud or dirt was scraped up into the road with hoes or shovels. Then the wagon wheels would throw out this mud during the rest of the year when it was not frozen, where the workers of the succeeding year would find it again, waiting to be scraped back into the roadway. This was the old process of road repair for two hundred years, and there seems to have been general satisfaction with the curious method as far as the records disclose. In fact, the public highways were not regarded of great importance in those days in spite of the fact that they were the leading if not the only arteries of transportation throughout the country before the advent of railways and cheap water-line shipment. These observations are made in this connection because of the recent dawn of a new era in roads and road work, when the great importance of public roads and their proper repair and maintenance has at last been more nearly recognized. Very soon these antiquated methods will be among the curious events in history.