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Personal Life

Harriet Redmond, the oldest of eight children, was born in 1862 in St. Louis, Missouri, to emancipated slaves, LaVinia Blue and Reuben Crawford. The family moved from Missouri to Marysville, California in 1871, and then to Hood River, Oregon, finally estbalishing themsleves in Portland in 1880. LaVinia, who went by Vina, had a borther that lived in California, thus thier intentions as a family was to always remian on the west coast. Her father first worked as a rope maker then an expert ship caulker, he was named "the best ship caulker on the west coast" by the Oregonian in 1918, while her mother stayed at home and also worked partly as a domestic servant. It is not for certian known how the family was able to finance the dratsic move from Missouri to the west coast state of California, however the family either used the Freedman's Bureau which would have granted them railrood access since they were emancipated slaves fleeing the south, or that Reuban's new job at the ship consrutcion site paid for him to move.

The Redmond's became a socially well-known family in Portland's African American community, which housed hundreds of individuals. Reuben Crawford was an active member of Republican Party Orginizations and the Colored Immigrants Aids Society.The Crawford Family attended Olivet Baptist Church, the first established black baptist church, where in 1912, Redmond would hold educational conferences on womens sufferage. Harriet Redmond's first introduction to the church at age 12 was when her father signed her up to recite a poem that she wrote for the church's winter social, titled "Im So Happy", which had a positive reception.

Redmond grew up most likely in a boarding house, since African Americans could not own proptery, and there were few single family homes avalible in that area at the time. Redmond attended Portland's Colored School, a public school for African American Children.

In November of 1983, Harriet Crawford married waitor Emerson Redmond, who worked at notable Portland hotels, such as The Portland Hotel. However, it is reported that the marriage was unhappy, and her husband died at the Multnomah County Poor Farm on March 26, 1907. Harriet and Emerson Redmond did not have any children. Although jobs were limited to African Americna women at the time, Redmond was able to find work as a hairdresser, department store cleaner, domestic servant, and lastly, a janitor for the Oregon's U.S. District court Judges, for twenty nine years until her retirement in 1939.