Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 722
ALEXANDER T. CRANE

Alexander T. CRANE, a highly respected citizen of Little Sioux Township, is a native of New Jersey, and came to Harrison County in the month of June, 1857. He was born in Newark, N.J., October 5, 1829, and is a son of Isaac W. and Hannah S. (CONDIT) CRANE, his mother being a sister of Silas CONDIT, who platted the village of Little Sioux. On the paternal side, Nehemiah J. and Mary (WARD) CRANE, were the grandparents, while on the mother's side Jeptha and Charlotte CONDIT were the grandparents.

Our subject is the oldest son of a family of seven children, and his early life was spent in New York City, where he received his education in the Public Schools, in school "No. 11," and attended Prof. MILES' preparatory school one term. In 1851, our subject saw visions of the rich gold field of California, and went to that country, by the way of the Isthmus of Panama. He tried prospecting for a time but finally went to work at the jeweler's trade which he learned in New York.

When our subject was a boy he was office boy for Edgar Allen POE, author of "The Raven," when he was editing the Broadway Journal, which was the first illustrated paper printed in New York. He remained in California one year, and then returned to the Empire State, where he worked at his trade until he came to Iowa. He came to Harrison County in 1857, remained two years, and became sick and discouraged, and returned to New York. In 1861 the Erie Railroad started the Pavonia ferry from New York to Jersey City. Mr. CRANE held the position of ferry master on the Pavonia ferry during the Civil War, and was one of the successful six who procured such position from about five hundred applications. In 1867 he left the ferry and returned to Iowa, and improved the land he had previously bought. He now owns two hundred acres of which eighty acres are under the plow and all well improved. His farm house, just completed, is a well-built structure which is among the best in the community.

Mr. CRANE was married at Iowa City, November 22, 1857, by George W. McCleary, ex-Secretary of State, to Kate E. WILLIAMS, the daughter of Harvey D. and Matilda (CONDIT) WILLIAMS, who were natives of New Jersey, but residing in Pennsylvania, where Mrs. CRANE was born. Our subject had been acquainted with his wife in the East, and she came as far as Iowa City to meet him, and there they were married and started through the drifting snows in a "prairie schooner" for their new home, having to maske their own trail. In the winter of 1857-58, Mr. CRANE taught school at Little Sioux, in a log school house, chinked but not plastered. The desks and seats were made of slabs. Forty pupils attended, and his salary was $27 per month, ten from the county and the remainder from the patrons of the school, which came in bacon, potatoes, etc., as there was no money in the country. It was a "cold day" for school teaching those early days!

Mr. and Mrs. CRANE are the parents of seven children -- Nettie, Charles, Fred and Theodore, are the names of the living children. Politically, our subject is a Prohibition-Republican.

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