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West
Virginia
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The Cranes of Greenbrier County
by
By Diane Crane Benelli, C. Michael Pavesi, Charles A. Cohenour,
Kathy Cohenour
Far from her native Manhattan, in 1820 at the age of 65, Sarah Kip Crane Scudder was on her way to Greenbrier County, (West) Virginia. A determined woman, she had lived through the Revolutionary War and buried two husbands.
Her legacy in this young country was a long one. The records of the West India Company show that Sarah's great grandfather, Hendrick Hendriksen Kip, arrived in New Amsterdam about 1637 with his wife and five children.(1) From that beginning, the Kip family took a prominent place in the politics of the day.(2) Hendrick was a member of Governor Peter Stuyvesant's popular Assembly known as the "Nine Men," a prestigious group of citizens who were appointed to cooperate with the Governor and his Privy Council in the administration of the colony.(3) The Kips coat of arms was painted on the stained glass windows of the first stone church erected in 1642 in the fort at New Amsterdam.(4) Much of the history of the Kip family resides in the colonial days of New Amsterdam, and to this day an area of midtown Manhattan is still known as Kip's Bay.
In December of 1774,(5) Sarah Kip married Joseph Crane in the Dutch Reformed Church in New York City, the same church where she was christened in 1755.(6) Joseph was a surveyor from Essex County, New Jersey; and it is the authors' belief that Joseph was the son of Ezekiel Crane and Elizabeth Holloway, one of five children. Ezekiel fought in the French and Indian Wars, and in 1758 he was taken prisoner by the French at Oswego, and then died in Canada.(7) After Ezekiel's death, Joseph's mother married John Range.(8)
The following September with the Revolution imminent, Joseph wrote his will and named Sarah as executor, along with Sarah's father, Richard Kip, and John Range, whom we believe to be Joseph's stepfather. Naming Sarah sole heiress to his estate, Joseph refers to her as his "... dear beloved wife... of the City of New York..." Sarah's brother, Richard Kip, and her brother-in-law, Daniel Ebbets, both witnessed the will.(9)
Joseph descended from Jasper Crane who emigrated from England to the New Haven Colony, June 4, 1639. Jasper played a prominent role in the settlement of New Haven, Connecticut and then in Newark, New Jersey. His name is the first on the list of signatures for the original church in Newark dated January 20, 1667.(10) "It has been said by one, not a member of the family, no more respectable people, no better citizens, are found in our communities than those who bear the Crane blood in them."(11) Joseph's line settled in Cranetown, now Montclair, New Jersey. They were religious people. Both Joseph's father, Ezekiel Crane, and his step-father, John Range, were active members of the Mountain Society, the precursor to the Presbyterian Church of the Oranges.(12)
Sarah Kip and Joseph Crane had at least one son, Joseph S. Crane, born about 1783. It is this Joseph S. Crane who is the focus of this story. By the time Joseph S. Crane was ten years old, his father was dead and his mother was remarried. Sarah's second marriage was in 1792(13) to William Scudder, a Lieutenant in the New York First Regiment during the Revolution.
William Scudder was a widower, born in Westfield, New Jersey, and he had five children by first marriage.(14) During the Revolution, he was captured by Indians at Fort Stanwix and held prisoner in Canada for three years. He authored a privately printed book on the subject, detailing his ordeal during the years 1779-1782.(15) Well-read and religious, education was important to him. In his writings, he often complains of health ailments and frailties and laments that his first marriage was not by his choice. In 1791, a year prior to his marriage to Sarah, William Scudder purchased 5,490 acres of land in western Virginia from Francis Graves, one of many land speculators who were non-residents of Greenbrier County.(16)
In the early years of their marriage, William and Sarah lived in Orange County, New York, where William was running a freighting business from the wharfs of Old New Windsor Village.(17) In 1794, Sarah and William relocated to Manhattan (18) with the birth of their daughter, Sarah; and four years later, their son, William Kip Scudder, was born. Within a year, Sarah Kip Crane Scudder was once again a widow.(19 20)
With two young children and no husband, Sarah was fortunate to be in New York City, where she had the support of family members. Sarah's brother, James, a brass founder, had a business on Broadway. Her brother, Richard Kip, an upholsterer by trade, had a shop at Hanover Square in New York City; (21) and her sister's husband, Daniel Ebbets, was a well-respected New York merchant in the fine china and glass firm of Ebbets & Gale.(22) After the turn of the century, Daniel Ebbets was commissioned by the City Council to lay out Canal Street in Manhattan.(23) Today that street borders Chinatown and Little Italy and stands near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel on the West and at the Manhattan Bridge on the East.
Not much is known of Joseph S. Crane's young years. Possibly Joseph apprenticed in Daniel Ebbets' business, or his uncle may have arranged for his apprenticeship as a shoemaker. It is certain that Joseph had a close relationship with the family. A decade later, when his first son was born, Joseph named him Edward Ebbets Crane; and the name "Edward Ebbets" was passed down to successive generations.
In 1803, Joseph appeared in court in New York City to testify on behalf of his stepbrother, Charles Scudder. With him were Joseph's stepbrother, Asa Scudder, his stepsister, Susan Lyon and her husband, David Lyon. The case involved relieving Charles from his apprenticeship to James Hallet, Jr., citing the cause as unreasonable correction.(24)
Financially, these were difficult times for Sarah. In spite of William Scudder's distinguished ranking during the Revolution, and regardless of his membership in the elite Society of the Cincinnati, (25) the inventory of his estate only amounted to some forty dollars. In order to pay off his debts, Sarah had to appeal to the court to sell property in Onondaga, New York, to which William Scudder held title. (26) She received aid from the Society of the Cincinnati fund.(27) Sarah took on jobs as a teacher and a seamstress, while Asa started up a business making and repairing saddles, and her son, Joseph, worked at a boarding house.(28)
In 1806, Joseph opened a business as a shoemaker on the West side of lower Manhattan.(29) In 1808, he married Catharine Sopp in the Zion Lutheran Church in Baltimore, Maryland.(30) It is interesting to note that then, as now, the Zion Church services were conducted only in German.(31) It would seem that Joseph was conversant in German as well as Dutch and English, as were many merchants of the day. The last record of Joseph's business in New York City was in 1809, where he is listed in the New York Directory as Joseph S. Crane, shoemaker at 152 Cherry Street.(32)
It is probable that Joseph was not only a shoemaker but also was an astute businessman. By 1812, he had established a business as a cordwainer on Liberty Street in Baltimore.(33) Baltimore was manufacturing and exporting large quantities of shoes, and the Association of Cordwainers was a politically powerful force in that city.(34)
During the early years of his marriage, Joseph fathered two sons, Edward Ebbets Crane and George Washington Crane. With the War of 1812, Joseph enlisted as a corporal in Captain Stephen H. Moore's Company of Baltimore Volunteers.(35) The fighting took him to Canada, where in 1813 his company served under the command of Brigadier General Zebulon Pike. There, at the battle of York, the Americans won a large victory, but General Pike lost his life. With Joseph absent from the business and his wife, Catharine, caring for their two young sons, Joseph's mother, Sarah, moved to Baltimore, bringing her children, Sarah and William.
In 1814, while still on the Canadian frontier, Joseph was discharged with a rank of Quartermaster Sergeant. He returned to Baltimore and to his cordwainer business; and he and Catharine had two more sons, William Henry Harrison Crane and Joseph S. Crane, Jr. His half-sister, Sarah, was approaching the marrying age; and in 1817 in Baltimore, she wed Reuben Tisdale, originally from Massachusetts.(36)
It was in December of 1819 that Sarah, along with her son, William, and her daughter and son-in-law, first contracted to sell 150 acres of land in (West) Virginia.(37) Joseph witnessed the document on the sale of the tract of land, which was part of the 5,590 acres that Lt. William Scudder had purchased in 1791 while living in Orange County, New York.(38)
Within months of the sale, Joseph, Sarah and the Tisdales traveled to Greenbrier County. Such a trip was no small endeavor and would have taken two to three weeks. Nonetheless, early in 1820, Joseph was surveying the land originally purchased by William Scudder; and Sarah was living in Greenbrier with two boys under the age of 11, probably Joseph's two oldest sons, Edward and George.(39) Reuben and Sarah Tisdale, along with their first-born son and another soon to be born, set up their home in Greenbrier, (40) but Reuben died unexpectedly.(41) Sarah Tisdale, a young widow, returned to New York City, where she raised her two sons, John Henry Tisdale and William Scudder Tisdale. She married again much later in life to Jacob Anthony, (42) and died at the age of 86 in New York City.(43)
Back in Baltimore, Joseph fathered his first daughter, Mary Jane; and he continued to run his business in Baltimore, adding two more sons to his family, Benjamin Franklin Crane and James Amos Crane. Over the next decade, we can only speculate about the number of trips that Joseph made between Baltimore and Greenbrier County.
The early 1830s brought many changes in Joseph's life. He purchased 5,575 acres in Greenbrier from his half- brother, William Kip Scudder; and Joseph's wife, Catharine, although she could not sign her name, opened her own bank account in Baltimore.(44) It is probable that Joseph was spending more time preparing for their new life in Greenbrier County. Baltimore was rife with disease and difficulties, and there was a great movement westward. He had plans to build a gristmill on his land on Meadow River in Greenbrier.(45)
But surrounding the time that Joseph was granted permission to erect his gristmill dam, (46) both his wife (47) and his mother died: Although Joseph's mother, Sarah Kip Crane Scudder, undoubtedly died in Greenbrier County, there is no record of her death, nor have the authors been able to locate a burial site.
Joseph, now a widower with six children, the youngest of them just five years old, married within a year of Catharine's death.(48) Sarah Ann Woodfield became Mrs. Joseph S. Crane in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Baltimore City Station in 1833. Joseph's oldest son, Edward, at 21, was running a ladies' shoemaker business on Liberty Street in Baltimore.(49) And over the next five years, Joseph and Sarah Ann had three children, Richard K. Crane, John Quincy Adams Crane and Sarah Catharine Crane. Knowing the customs of naming children, it is most probable that the middle initial K in Richard's name is for Kip, although no proof has been found. Possibly Sarah Catharine was named for Joseph's mother, Sarah Kip, or his wife, Sarah Ann Woodfield, or even his half sister, Sarah Tisdale; but the middle name of Catharine was doubtless given in memory of Joseph's first wife.
Joseph purchased additional land in Greenbrier in 1834, the prime 212 1/2 acres of property on Meadow River, (50) where he cleared some land and built a home. Over a hundred years later, three millstones were uncovered on that same property along Mill Creek. The log house, built without nails, still stands today on US Route 60, although it was moved from its original nearby location.(51)
The Cranes seemed to constantly travel between Baltimore and Greenbrier County. George Washington made a trip to Baltimore in 1835, while Joseph was indicted on a charge of assault and battery in Greenbrier. Edward had abandoned the business in Baltimore and returned to Greenbrier with his new bride, Martha, a native of Cambridge, Maryland.(52) In 1836, Edward was working in Greenbrier with his uncle, William Scudder, surveying a road from Big Clear Creek to Meadow Creek.(53) When Joseph was absent from (West) Virginia, Edward represented himself as Joseph's agent and sold off smaller parcels of his land and collected payments.(54) Edward also made several trips to both Baltimore and to Richmond, Virginia, on behalf of his father's business.
Names which are well-known in Greenbrier County history - McClungs, Shawvers, and even Colonel George Alderson, - purchased land from Joseph.(55) Other parcels of the land were rented.
Over the years, folklore and a published article in The New River Post speculated that Joseph was murdered while traveling to Baltimore from Greenbrier County. He supposedly was carrying a large sum of money and was never heard from again. In reality, Joseph diedof consumption (56) in Baltimore on April 6, 1839, (57) and was buried in a small cemetery near the present Johns Hopkins Medical Center.(58) Today, there is no trace of a burial site. The neighborhood has declined from what was once a pastoral and pristine section of Baltimore During the 1800s, numerous cemeteries were paved over as the city made way for new roads. No doubt the same fate befell the Methodist Protestant Cemetery where Joseph was buried. As recently as 1995 excavation for a construction project in that same area unearthed over 185 graves that will forever remain nameless.(59)
Joseph's will, written in Baltimore two months prior to his death, appointed his wife, Sarah Ann, as Executrix, which would prove to be a difficult responsibility for her. Joseph divided his land among his sons from his first marriage; and a codicil gave rights to his daughter, Mary Jane, to a portion of the property willed to Sarah Ann, the prime 212 1/2 acres on Meadow River.
Mary Jane had no desire to live in Greenbrier, as she had been planning her wedding to the Reverend William Starr, son of a prominent minister in the Methodist Protestant Church in Baltimore. Sarah Ann, who could not read or write, was faced with the task of inventorying Joseph's estate both in Baltimore (60) and in Greenbrier.(61) The inventory in Baltimore was completed within a month; and Sarah Ann and her infant daughter, Sarah Catharine, made the long journey to Greenbrier. Since there is no evidence that Joseph owned property in Baltimore, Sarah Ann likely intended to make a home for her family in Greenbrier. Within a few months, Sarah Ann made the journey back to Baltimore and then returned to Greenbrier with her sons. A letter from Mary Jane to Sarah Ann in January of 1840 (62) inquires about the success of her business, and it can only be assumed that Sarah Ann intended to fulfill Joseph's plans of running a mill.
But Sarah Ann and Edward were in conflict over property sales and mortgages. Edward had been representing himself as his father's attorney and as such had been collecting payments on land that was rented or contracted to be deeded. As administrix of Joseph's estate, Sarah sued to have those payments directed to her. Edward responded with an accounting of the substantial monies due to him as a result of his work for his father.
Edward also brought suit against Sarah Ann on behalf of his sister, Mary Jane, not yet of legal age, to prevent Sarah Ann from selling or receiving payment for any portion of the 212 /12 acres on Meadow River.(63) Only four months after Joseph's death, Sarah Ann engaged William Scudder, Joseph's half brother, as her "true and lawful attorney."(64) Sarah Ann had no income and little skill to deal with such a situation. In trying to make her new life, Edward was not her ally.
Within two years of arriving in Greenbrier County, Sarah Ann married John McClung Martin, an itinerant preacher and 13 years her junior.(65) In addition to Sarah Ann's three children with Joseph, she had two children with her second husband, John Martin. The lawsuits between Edward Crane and the Martins continued for decades. At one point, when the courts were attempting to determine the value of the Meadow River property, it appears that John Martin sold the 212 acres to a cousin at an undervalued price and then repurchased it for a dollar.
Sarah Ann lived to the age of 74 and was buried at Arnwell Baptist Church cemetery in Rupert, West Virginia, (66) ironically the same cemetery where Edward was buried.
All of Joseph's sons from his first marriage, except for Joseph Jr. married and settled in Greenbrier and raised their large families there. Joseph Jr. served in the Navy for three years, (67) although there are no surviving records for that time period. He is referred to as "Captain" Joseph S. Crane in the Lewisburg Chronicle dated 1851 where he ordered the Lewisburg Light Infantry Company to a "parade in full uniform, arms and accoutrements, on Saturday the 12th April at 4 o'clock p.m."(68) He also served in the State Militia during the Civil War.(69)
Following his father's death, Joseph Jr. became guardian of his father's children by Sarah Ann; and through his efforts, he was able to secure a land bounty on their behalf for Joseph S. Crane's service m the war of 1812. Sarah Catharine sold her portion and her rights to Mill Creek farm to her stepfather, John Martin for $200. It is not known what use Richard or John Quincy made of the land. For a time, Richard K. lived with Joseph in ahotel in Lewisburg in the 1850s.(70) A printer by trade, (71) Joseph Jr. published a newspaper called The Western Era that evolved into The Greenbrier Weekly Era, of which he was sole owner until he sold it in 1860. He maintained contact with his sister, Mary Jane, and her husband, William Starr in Baltimore and was a Lewisburg representative for the Wesley Star & Sons business in "tobacco and all kinds of western produce and provisions."(72)
In the 1880s, Joseph Jr. lived with his oldest brother, Edward, (73) and in 1898, he died at the home of his niece, Mrs. Anna Catharine Crane Hines, on Mill Creek.(74) His obituary describes him as "Captain," and portrays him as a man who "... was charitable to a fault, giving away all he ever made to relatives and friends..." He, too, is buried at Amwell Baptist Church cemetery in Rupert.(75)
George Washington Crane married Jane "Jenny" McClung a month prior to his father's death. Jenny's parents were "Cranberry Joe" McClung and Jane Cavendish.(76) Together they had nine children. He spent his life as a farmer in Greenbrier County and died at the age of 46.(77)
William Henry Harrison Crane married Elizabeth Douglas in Greenbrier in November of 1839.(78) She was the daughter of Benjamin Douglas and Abigail Dickinson McClung. William was a farmer, and together he and Elizabeth had seven children. One of their sons, William, was killed during the civil war in the battle of Kernstown. After Elizabeth died at the age of 61, William married Susan Martin Osbome in 1877. He died at the age of 72 in Big Clear Creek, Greenbrier County.(79)
Benjamin Franklin Crane and James Amos Crane married sisters, Hannah McClung and Martha McClung, daughters of William Joby McClung and Mary May "Polly" Callison. Benjamin and James were farmers, and both served in Company F of the 27th Virginia Regiment, Stonewall Brigade, during the Civil War. James Amos and his wife had eight children. He died at his home near Big Clear Creek at about 61 years of age.(80)
Hannah and Benjamin had four children. Their oldest son, Cyrus, and his wife, Nancy, were charter members of the Orient Hill Baptist Church and donated the land where the church was built and an additional acre "... for the resting place of the members.."(81) Benjamin died at the age of 67 at his home on Laurel Creek Mountain in Greenbrier County (82) and was buried on the "additional acre" at the Orient Hill Church. Benjamin and Hannah's youngest son was Snowden Crane, known in his advanced years as a wealthy recluse. He was found murdered near his home in 1927. Greenbrier newspapers gave several accounts of the murder trial that shocked the peaceable community.
Mary Jane, the only child who remained in Baltimore, married Rev. William McKendry Starr in September of 1839, five months after her father's death. Early in their marriage, Mary Jane and William lived with William's parents until he became established in a business.(83) By 1848, the couple had four children. In a letter to Edward Crane, William Starr writes: "We have our fine hearty children, one of whom Mary Jane was extremely desirous should represent you, and he now bears the name of Edward - another is named after my Sister Anna and your mother, Anna Catherine, - another named Mary Jane, and a little Emma, a fancy piece and name, one of the most charming little cherubs that ever visited this sphere."(84) Mary Jane and William had two more children, Elizabeth Starr, who died at the age of one, and Laura Virginia Starr, who was born just three months before Mary Jane's death.
Mary Jane died at the young age of 30, after a lingering illness.(85) Her husband remarried a year later to Laura M. Reamy of Baltimore.(86) In 1842 he was a delegate from Baltimore City during the session of the Maryland General Assembly (87) and was a member of the Maryland Legislature several times.(88) Portraits of Mary Jane and William hung in the Starr Church in Baltimore and are now in possession of the Starr family. Their grandson, William Starr Myers, was a professor of politics at Princeton University and was the authorized biographer of General George McClellan.
He also authored books on Woodrow Wilson and a five volume History of New Jersey. His alma mater was the University of North Carolina where he wrote the school song and where his portrait hangs today.
Mary Jane Crane Starr is buried with her husband at Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. It is interesting to note that an announcement of Mary Jane's death in a Greenbrier County newspaper refers to her as the "only" daughter of Joseph S. Crane. One can only speculate who may haye been responsible for the notice, which could have intentionally disregarded Joseph's daughter by his second marriage, Sarah Catharine.
Sarah Catharine married William Shawver, the son of Robert S. Shawver and Mary Jane Callison, and they had eight children. Sarah Catharine died in 1910 in Corliss in Fayette County at the age of 71.
Of Joseph's two sons by his marriage to Sarah Ann, Richard K. Crane served in the Confederate Army and was released from active duty in Lewisburg, having received a parole from a prisoner of war camp in April of 1865. The 1860 census listed his occupation as a wheelwright. He died in August of 1921 in Corliss at the age of 87. It is not known whether he married. John Quincy Adams Crane disappeared from Greenbrier County, and some believe he died in 1850, although there is evidence that he may have relocated to Richmond and married and fathered a daughter there.
Edward, it seems, never made peace with Sarah Ann, and the litigation over Mary Jane's share in the land continued into the 1860s. There is even correspondence from William Starr's second wife, wherein she engaged a lawyer to file suit in 1866 on behalf of Mary Jane's children. The matter was eventually settled for the sum of about $60.
Edward and his wife, Martha, daughter of Loftus Kirby and Delia Dorsey of Dorchester County, Maryland, had eleven children. Their son, Loftus, who was named for Martha's father, died of measles at age 19 while serving in the Civil War. Edward was a farmer, (89) and he was elected to the office of Justice of the Peace in district four of Greenbrier County in 1853.(90) It is believed that he also ran a general store in Quinwood.(91)
Edward and Martha had a daughter Mary Jane, who was, no doubt, named for Edward's sister; and in 1856, they named their next to last child William Starr Crane for Mary Jane's husband. It is worth noting that to this day many mistakenly believe that Joseph S. Crane's middle name was Starr. The confusion originated from an error-laden newspaper article (92) where Joseph's name was cited as being William Starr Crane. Some years later, the article resurfaced with some corrections, and the name William was rightly changed to Joseph, but the middle name of Starr mistakenly remained.
Edward died in Rupert at the age of 77.(93) At the time of his death, he had twenty-four grandchildren.(94) One of his granddaughters, Liuba Prudence Crane Piercy, still lives in Greenbrier County today at the age of 95.
Joseph S. Crane never realized his dream of living out his life in Greenbrier County, but his children inherited his legacy. Most of his descendants made their homes on the property he purchased in 1832 and intermarried with the notable families of the area: McClung, Shawver, Heaster, Callison, Walkup, Price, Burns, and Hunter. As patriotic members of society, the Cranes of Greenbrier fought in service to their country beginning with the Civil War, where in Meadow Bluff, five Cranes enlisted in the Confederate Army on the same day. The Cranes continued to serve through World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. Their dedication to religion, evidenced by those Cranes who entered the ministry, continue to bring spiritual comfort and strength to families in the area From generation through generation, descendants of these settling pioneers continued to populate Greenbrier County, each making his contribution to the history, development and growth of the land of their fathers.
NOTES
1 Frederick Ellsworth Kip, History of the Kip Family in America, 1928, p. 19.
2 Margherita Arlina Hamm, Famous Families of New York, Volume I, Heraldic Publishing Co., Inc., New York, NY; 1970, p. 218.
3 Ibid., p. 219.
4 Kip, op. cit., p. 14.
5 Marriages from 1639 to 1801 in the Reformed Dutch Church, New Amsterdam - New York City, Collections of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, Volume IX, 1940, New York, p. 242.
6 Kip, op. cit., p. 153.
7 Ellery Bicknell Crane, Genealogy of the Crane Family, Volume II, Press of Charles Hamilton, Worcester, MA, 1900.
8 Ibid.
9 New York Calendar of Wills 1626 - 1836, compiled & edited by Berthold Fernow, Will of Joseph Crane of Essex County, NJ, p. 88.
10 Philip Doremus, Reminiscences of Montclair, S. C. G. Watkins, New York, A. S. Barnes and Co., 1929.
11 Francis Bazley Lee, Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, 1910.
12 Stephen Wickes, M.D., History of the Oranges in Essex County, New Jersey, Printed by Ward & Tichenor for the New England Society of Orange, 1892.
13 Marriages from 1639 to 1801 in the Reformed Dutch Church New Amsterdam - New York City, op. cit., p.266.
14 Westfield Presbyterian Church, Westfield, NJ; Christening records.
15 William Scudder, The Journal of William Scudder, an Officer in the Late New-York Line, Who was taken Captive by the Indians at Fort Stanwix, privately printed 1794; reprinted by Garland Publishing, Inc., 1977.
16 Otis K. Rice, A History of Greenbrier County, Published by the Greenbrier Historical Society, Lewisburg, WV, 1986, p. 93.
17 Correspondence with Glenn Marshall, New Windsor, NY Town Historian, with reference to E. M. Rutterber's History of New Windsor.
18 William Duncan, The New York Directory and Register for the Year 1794, printed by T. and J. Swords, No. 167 William Street, 1794.
19 Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution, April, 1775 to December 1783, Reprint of the New Revised & Enlarged Edition of 1914 with Addenda, by Robert H. Kelby, 1932, p. 487.
20 Last Will and Testament of William Scudder, New York Genealogy and Biographical Society, Microfilm Liber: 44, p. 262.
21 Collections of The New York Historical Society for the Year 1948, The John Watts DePeyster Publication Fund Series, Volume LXXXI, The Arts and Crafts in New York 1777-1799, Advertisements and News Items from New York City Newspapers, by Rita Susswein Gottesman, Compiler of The Arts and Crafts of New York 1726-1776 to which the present volume is a sequel, New York Historical Society, 1954.
22 David Longworth, Longworth 's American Almanac, New-York Register and City Directory, 1802, 1803, 1804.
23 Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909, 1915- 1928, Volume 5, p. 1507.
24 New York City Court Records 1801 - 1804, Minutes of the Court, Genealogical Data from the Court of General Sessions, compiled by Kenneth Scott, National Genealogical Society, Arlington, VA, 1988, p. 58.
25 Bryce Metcalf, Original Members and Other Officers Eligible to the Society of the Cincinnati (1783-1938), original 1938, Reprinted by The Historic Trust, Los Angeles, CA, Eastwood PublishingCo., 1995, p. 279.
26 Record of Real Estate Proceedings, Surrogates Court, New York, Book I, Dated 1800-1812, p. 174
27 John Schuyler, Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati, Formed by the Officers of the American Army of the Revolution, 1783, With Extracts, from the Proceedings of its General Meetings and from the Transactions of the New York State Society, printed for the Society by Douglas Taylor, New York, 1886, p. 289.
28 David Longworth, Longworth's American Almanac, New-York Register and City Directory, printed and published by D. Longworth, No. 11 Park, New York, 1800 and 1801, p. 173, p. 322 and 1801, p. 147 and 270.
29 David Longworth, Longworth's American Almanac, New-York Register and City Directory, printed and published by D. Longworth, No. 11 Park, New York, 1806, p. 146
30 Zion Lutheran Church, Baltimore, MD, Marriage Register, p. 259, line 53.
31 Communication with Olga K. Hutchins, Archivist, Zion Church of the City of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, letter dated January 5, 2000.
32 David Longworth, Longworth's American Almanac, New-York Register and City Directory, printed and published by D. Longworth, No. 11 Park, New York, 1809, p. 145
33 Fry's Baltimore Directory for 1812, printed by B. W. Sower & Co. for the publisher, p. 20.
34 Charles G. Steffen, The Mechanics of Baltimore, Workers and Politics in the Age of Revolution, 1763-1812, University of Illinois Press, Chicago, IL, 1984.
35 NARA Records; Statement of Joseph S. Crane, Jr. in claiming land warrant for Richard K. Crane, John Q. A. Crane and Sarah Catharine Crane.
36 Rosa D. Tisdale, Meet the Tisdales: Descendants of John Tisdale of Taunton, Massachusetts, 1634 - 1980, Baltimore, MD, Gateway Press, Inc., 1981.
37 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records: Land Records.
38 Greenbrier County Deed Book 6, p. 240. Francis Graves to William Scudder deed.
39 Greenbrier County, VA 1820 US Census Population Schedule
40 Ibid.
41 Tisdale, op. cit.
42 New York City Marble Cemetery, Vault Directory, Vault 153 - Anthony.
43 The Evening Post, Volume 79, Friday, May 23, 1880, Obituary of Sarah Ogden Anthony.
44 Savings Bank of Baltimore 1829-1831, Maryland State Archives, Special Collections, 4313-9-221, p. 138, Number 10909.
45 Greenbrier County Court Orders 1780 1850, by Helen S. Stinson, p. 354.
46 Greenbrier County. WV. Court Orders 1780-1850 by Helen S. Stinson, pg. 354.
47 On October 8, 1832, Joseph closes out Catharine's bank account in the amount of $264.90. Maryland State Archives, Special Collections (1st Fidelity Bank Collections) Collections/Deposit Ledgers 1832.
48 Methodist Records Baltimore City 1830 -1839, p. 24. Record of Marriages solemnized by the Ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore City Station from 1830 - 1939.
49 Matchett 's Baltimore Directory, 1831.
50 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records: General Index to Deeds, p. 11, Deed from Charles Rodgers et. al. to Joseph S. Crane.
51 The Old and the New, Side by Side, from an unidentified newspaper article.
52 The Greenbrier Independent, Volume 89, Number 41, March 14, 1889, Obituary of Martha Crane.
53 Stinson, op. cit., p.374.
54 Greenbrier County, WV Court Records: Title Bond, Edward E. Crain [sic] to John B. McClung.
55 Greenbrier County, WV Court Records: Sarah A. Crane, Executrix v. Edward E. Crane, audit.
56 Methodist Records Baltimore City 1830-1839, p. 173, Deaths and Interments in April 1839.
57 The Baltimore Sun, Tuesday April 9, 1839.
58 Early Baltimore City Burial Grounds and Their Interment Records 1834-40, compiled by William N. Wilkins, 1945, Maryland Historical Society, MF227W68.
59 Johns Hopkins Magazine, April 1996 issue.
60 Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, MD: Inventory of the goods, chattels and personal estate of Joseph S. Crane, late of Baltimore County, deceased.
61 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records: An inventory of the personal estate of Joseph S. Crane deceased.
62 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records: Edward Crane v. Sarah Ann Martin, et. al.
63 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records
64 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records: Deed Book 15.
65 Greenbrier County (WV) marriages from 1782 to 1900, p. 259, contributed by Dick Cook; John Martin line.
66 Greenbrier County Cemeteries - Meadow Bluff District, Greenbrier Historical Society, Lewisburg, WV, 1998, p. 2.
67 The Greenbrier Independent, Volume XXII, Number 48. April 21, 1898, Obituary of Joseph S. Crane, Jr.. courtesy of Kay Hunter.
68 The Lewisburg Chronicle, Volume II, Number 2, April 3, 1851 and Volume III, Number 3, April 10, 1851.
69 The Roster of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865, Volume IV, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1996.
70 Greenbrier County, VA, 1850 US Census Population Schedule.
71 Greenbrier County, VA, 1860 US Census Population Schedule.
72 Advertisement, The Western Era, February 23, 1853.
73 Greenbrier County, WV, 1880 US Census Population Schedule.
74 The Greenbrier Independent, Volume XXII, Number 48, April 21, 1898, Obituary of Joseph S. Crane, Jr., courtesy of Kay Hunter.
75 Ibid.
76 Personal communication with Karen Kessler Cottrill, Kessler Family Genealogist, Rock Hill, SC, August, 2000.
77 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records: Register of Deaths. 1858.
78 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records: Register of Marriages, 1839.
79 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records: Register of Deaths, 1888.
80 The Greenbrier Independent, Volume XXIV, Number 45, April 10, 1890, Obituary of James Amos Crane.
81 Orient Hill Baptist Church, Orient Hill, WV, History of Orient Hill Baptist Church, 75th Anniversary 1923 -1998.
82 The Greenbrier Independent, Volume XXVI, Number 3, June 18, 1891, Obituary of Benjamin Franklin Crane.
83 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records: Letter from Mary Jane Crane Starr to Sarah Ann Crane, dated January 23,1840.
84 Greenbrier County, WV, Court Records: Letter from William M. Starr to Edward E. Crane.
85 The Greenbrier Independent, Volume V, Number 33, November 7, 1850, p. 3, Obituary of Mary Jane Crane Starr.
86 Burgis Pratt Starr, A History of the Starr Family of New England from the Ancestor, Dr. Comfort Starr, of Ashford, County of Kent, England who Emigrated to Boston Massachusetts in 1635, Published by The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company Printers, 1879.
87 Correspondence with David Warner, Archivist, Manuscripts Department, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, December 15, 2000.
88 Starr, op. cit.
89 Greenbrier County, VA, 1860 US Census Population Schedule.
90 Lewisburg Chronicle, Lewisburg, VA, September 8, 1853. Notice of election as a Justice of the Peace of Edward E. Crane.
91 Greenbrier County, WV, 1880 US Census Population Schedule. Edward E. Crane's occupation is listed as Farmer and Merchant.
92 The New River Post dated 1954.
93 The Greenbrier Independent, Volume XXI, Number 50, May 19, 1887. Obituary of Edward E. Crane.
94 Ibid.