Before 1955, if a newspaper had a poetry section, odds are Elizabeth Crawford Yates published a poem there. Born in Monmouth, Ore., Yates (1885-1955) moved to Vancouver after graduating from Oregon State University in 1905. She worked the next 50 years as a clerk, either at her attorney father William E. Yates’ office or elsewhere.
Yates descends from two pioneer families and is the grandniece of Kelso founder Peter Crawford and granddaughter of Joseph Yates, who traveled the Oregon Trail. Crawford signed the petition at the 1852 Monticello convention asking to split Washington from the Oregon Territory. She called on her frontier heritage in one of her poems, “Old Corvallis,” and wrote about the town’s pioneers, working in many of their names.
Although she’d written stories since childhood, she never pursued poetry until illness struck, and she had to rest. From then on, she pursued her literary effort and steadily gained readership. Yates wrote for middle-class, ordinary individuals on subjects they found appealing.
Her poetic form and style are reminiscent of the 19th-century landscape poets, and she was little influenced by poetry trends of the time. The native beauty of the Pacific Northwest is the deepest wellspring for her work. Although not preachy, her poetry carries an undertone of devout spirituality that sometimes bursts into direct references to God.
