BY HUGH D. PALMER

Delta Business Journal

Driving through the town of Marks and trying to find Crawford Welding is a task in itself, as this unassuming welding shop is located just on the outskirts of this small Delta town. Once there, an extremely nice, once again, unassuming man tells me You found him when I ask if he knows one William Crawford. I get the feeling that there is more to this polite quiet man as I enter into a conversation with him. As Crawford leads me through his shop and shows me some of his creations, all of the things that I have been hearing about for several months are confirmed: this inventor/builder is creating some fabulous machinery.

Crawford Welding and Fabricating of Marks makes hydraulic pumps and power units which are used for any type of material that is liquefied enough to pump. From municipal sewer treatment plant waste applications to pumping sand out of the water down on the coast, Crawford has designed a hydraulic pump that can pump just about anything and has customers calling from as far away as Indiana.

Crawford has just started producing the hydraulic pumps and in the past two months he has built 14 diesel power units and 24 six inch pumps which are separate from the power units.

After his service, in the armed forces, Crawford attended school at Coahoma Junior College where he became interested in welding.

At first, welding was just a hobby and after awhile, I started thinking about trying to make a living at it, says Crawford. I later got a job at a company in Clarksdale and got a lot of experience there. I'm pretty well known in the pumping business because of my previous work with that company, says Crawford.

Crawford says that he works on developing the hydraulic pumping systems almost full time.

I'm also building a floating dredge for a company out of Decatur, AL. We used one in Rosedale a while back where they had a sand and sludge buildup where the barges were coming in. This dredge was used to pump the material from off the bottom of the lake over there and it worked perfectly, says Crawford.

The drawback in his business is that Crawford has a hard time finding qualified welders to help him.

Crawford says that plans for the future to increase production, work on developments and designs already in place as well as create new designs.

The pumping business is a great business, however I have not had the chance to really be able to go out and market the product like I'd like to. Marketing will be one of my goals for the future. DBJ

HOME || SUBSCRIBE || CIRCULATION || ADVERTISING || CONTACT DBJ

P.O. Box 129 - Shelby, MS 38774
601.398.9660 (ph) - 601.398.7314 (fax)
webmaster@deltabusinessjournal.com