Ancestors

Charles Crane

Charles Crane was born on 6 July 1819 at East St. Johnsbury, in Caledonia County, Vermont. He was the son of James Crane and Anna Archer, and the next to youngest of their ten children. From the age of six he lived on a farm.

He had little schooling, but he made good use of what he had and became a well regarded teacher while still a young man. He went on teaching after he married. His two eldest children remembered sitting in the school their father kept in their own district of Danville, the Centre.

On 10 July 1842 he married Mary Fiske, who had been born at Guildhall, Vermont, in 1820. Her older sister Climena had already married his elder brother James Crane, and both couples made their homes in Danville. A third Fiske sister, Marilla, married William Hoyt and lived there too.

Charles began farming with a single purchase, the old sawmill lot east of what is now Danville Green, and cleared it for farming. He bought the farms that bordered it one after another until his land was very large. Later he bought a farm from his brother James, which his son Edwin worked.

During the Civil War he was one of Danville's selectmen, the small board elected each year to run a Vermont town between town meetings. His obituary judged that this was probably his largest service to the town. He took an interest in the village schools and for many years gave strong financial support to the Congregational church.

Charles and Mary had seven children, five sons and two daughters. John Henry was born in 1843, Calista Jane in 1845, Denzil Mansfield on 19 February 1848, Edwin Elmore in 1850, Emma Louisa in 1856, Frank Austin in 1859 and Nelson in 1863. Emma married Harry W. Hedgecock and died on 22 September 1878, aged twenty two.

About 1895 Charles had a severe attack of the grip, as influenza was then called, and he handed the running of the farms to his sons. Mary died at the homestead on 7 October 1902, after an illness of several months. They had been married sixty years.

By 1907 Frank and Calista were still on the home place. Edwin farmed nearby, John lived with a son on the farm bought from the Stocker brothers, Denzil lived in Barnet, and Nelson was in the real estate business in New York City.

Charles had been feeble for more than a year. On Friday, 11 January 1907, he was taken ill, and he died two days later, on Sunday, 13 January, aged 87. He was the last of his parents' ten children. His obituary said that his "life from the age of six had been spent on the farm and, for forty years, in the home where he died," and called him "a man of activity and force." The funeral was held at the house, with the Rev. George H. Cummings of the Congregational church officiating.

He is buried in Danville Green Cemetery under a grey granite stone carved CRANE. It names Charles, Mary Fiske his wife, their daughter Emma L., wife of Harry W. Hedgecock, and their daughter Calista J., who died in 1918.

If Charles Crane is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Charles Crane (1819-1907)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/charles-crane-1819-1907-a3622a.