Crain, Clarence S. (1928)

CRAIN, BURTON, CONAWAY, ROBINSON, REED

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 1/16/2012 at 09:51:47

The Grinnell (IA) Herald; Nov. 20, 1928

CLARENCE S. CRAIN

Word from Victorville, Calif., reaches us that C.S. Crain died at his home in San Bernardino, Nov. 16, after an illness of about one month.

Mr. Crain was one of the outstanding men who grew up in Poweshiek county and also one of a trio of brothers who have made a remarkable reputation in the world of letters and business.

Mr. Crain was the elder brother and a full brother of ex-President Marion L. Burton of Michigan University and of Charles E. Burton, D.D., now Secretary of the National Council of Congregational Churches.

There were four boys who spent their early life in Lincoln township and three at least rose to positions of eminence among their fellow men. Two are still living, Will Crain, of whom the writer knows nothing, lives in California, and Rev. Charles E. Burton, eminent Congregational Secretary as noted before.

When but a boy C.S. Crain went from his farm home to Brooklyn. He possessed the character and the qualities which made him later one of the most promising young men in this county.

After serving several years as devil and printer and foreman for his distinguished friend Freeman Conaway, in connection with Fred S. Robinson he bought the Chronicle in the spring of 1894 when Mr. Conaway became state printer and for eight years he was its editor. Mr. Robinson was at that time superintendent of the public schools and his connection with the Chronicle was chiefly in name. Clarence was the editor and when Mr. Robinson relinguished his place in the schools and went to Oelwein as joint owner of the daily paper at that place, Mr. Crain became sole editor and owner of the Brooklyn Chronicle. He was a young man of exceptionally fine character. He was a friend whom one might well be proud to have and he possessed some business instincts that the Chronicle under his charge became a paying business. He found time to mingle a little in politics but at that time that was not his game. He married and settled in Brooklyn and his extreme devotion to his wife was always a matter of comment among his friends.

We do not know the exact date that Mr. Robinson sold his interest in the Chronicle to Mr. Crain, but we do know that the last issue of the Chronicle went to press under the name of C.S. Crain was April 11, 1902.

He left Brooklyn without word to his friends and absolutely without a stain on his character, leaving only his attorney and friend, U.M. Reed, to know of his whereabouts and to clean up the Chronicle and to present to his wife practically all of his savings in the few years that he had been owner, something over $5,000.00.

He went to Ely, Nevada, and engaged in the newspaper business and later moved to San Bernardino county, Calif., where he later served eight years as member of the Board of Supervisors. While in San Bernardino county, he became not only a leader in public improvement movements but a leader of men and an orator of much power and was high in the councils of the republican party of the state of California. U.M. Reed of Brooklyn was his most intimate friend in all these years and he has maintained his friendship and his interest in Mr. Crain until his death and has only words of high praise for the success which he won and maintained in his California home.

The intimate relations of the senior of the Herald with Freeman Conaway made him acquainted with Mr. Crain while he was still just a printer in Mr. Conaways's printing office. Those who remember the arrangement of the former Chronicle office recall that it was all in one room facing on Front Street and that the working department was in plain view of all who entered the office. Here the writer first knew Mr. Crain as a faithful worker of the owner of the paper. Later we knew him as a friend and co-worker in the newspaper business and in the Republican party.

Mr. Crain was eminently intellectual in character but he had a keen business instinct and it made no difference in what department he served he was a leader. As a friend in the latter half of the 90's the writer held him in highest regard. He was a friend worth having. He was a man who appreciated the friendship of others and who returned in full measure all that was given him. He was younger than the writer but we were proud of his growing success while still a resident of this county and we have been prouder still to know that the promise which he gave here was fulfilled in later years in his California home. There is sincere regret in the hearts of very Brooklyn citizen who knew him thirty years ago and in the hearts of every resident of Poweshiek county who understood and appreciated the manly, scholarly, and genial character of Mr. Crain.

It is not necessary to state here the cause which led to the fact that two of the brothers were named Crain and two of them went by the name of Burton. After the death of the father of these four boys the mother resumed her maiden name and the two younger boys adopted the name and were afterwards known by it. The two older boys who left home before the family had moved from Poweshiek county were residents of Brooklyn for a time and both kept the original family name.

In the death of Mr. Crain, Brooklyn loses one of the most distinguished citizens it ever raised and many a man in Poweshiek county loses one who twenty-five years ago was a worthy and devoted friend. He was no less intellectually strong than his two younger and distinguished brothers, and neither of them could have surpassed him in the elements of character which made them and him leaders in influence and action.