author
Mattie Crawford
1886–1973
A Pentecostal missionary writer, she turned a demanding journey through Mexico and Central America into a vivid firsthand story of faith, travel, and endurance. Her best-known book follows her family’s preaching work on the road and at sea in the early 1920s.
1 Audiobook
On Mule Back Thru Central America with the Gospel
by Mattie Crawford
About the author
Best known for On Mule Back Thru Central America with the Gospel (1922), this early 20th-century missionary author wrote from direct experience. The book presents her as both missionary and eyewitness, describing a family journey that began in Los Angeles and continued by ship and mule through Mexico and into Central America.
Her writing is practical and personal, focusing on travel hardships, evangelistic work, and the people her family met along the way. That firsthand, memoir-like style gives the book much of its appeal today, especially for listeners interested in religious history, women’s life writing, and unusual travel narratives.
Available records also identify her as Martha Lavina "Mattie" Dickey Crawford, with life dates commonly given as 1886–1973. While many details of her life remain lightly documented online, her surviving book preserves a clear sense of her voice: determined, sincere, and deeply committed to the mission she believed she had been called to serve.