Butte County
Biographies
NOE
B. CRANE
NOE B. CRANE.—A Californian by adoption, but proud of his birth as a
New Yorker, and still prouder of the fact that his family can be traced back
through the nobility of England not only to Charlemagne, but to the far
distant, mysterious year of 443 B. C., Noe B. Crane
was born in Penn Yan, N. Y., on March 3, 1843. His
father was Thomas F. Crane, who was born in Chenango County, N. Y., a member of
a family that can be traced back to Jasper Crane, who came to New Haven, Conn.,
in 1637. His son, jasper, was a member of the Committee of Safety during
the Revolutionary War; and when three ships were built for the protection of
the coast one was named after him, Crane. Ebenezer Crane was in the
Lexington Alarm, and others of the family served in the Colonial and
Revolutionary Wars.
The Cranes really descended from Lord Arundel, and he may be traced back
through Charlemagne and Hugh Capet to Pharamond, and then to the King of Cimarowan,
who flourished 443 B. C. Sudbury, Suffolk, in England, was the home of the
Cranes. Sir Robert Crane was knighted by James I. The family had five
different coats of arms, and this fact alone is some evidence of the various
and important roles they played in official and social English life.
Grandfather Crane, who was named Noah, was born in Chenango County, N. Y.,
and grew up there a farmer. He and his brother served in the Revolutionary
War, where they were in the commissariat department. When the grandfather
was sixteen he hauled provisions to Washington’s soldiers at Valley Forge,
using an ox-cart to transport the precious load. His son, Thomas F. Crane,
was for a time a farmer and then a business man in Dundee, N. Y., after which
he removed to Michigan and joined the subject of our sketch, who was then at
Paw Paw; and there he died.
Noe’s mother was Samantha Comer Baker before her
marriage, and her birthplace was Yates County, N. Y. She was the daughter
of Gilbert Baker, who was born in Providence, R. I. and the granddaughter of an
early patriot of the same name, who was born in Paris, came to providence and
was later a prominent farmer in Yates County. He was married in Dutchess County, N. Y., to Miss Comer, a direct descendant
of the Knickerbockers. Mrs. Thomas F. Crane died in Michigan, the mother
of two children.
The only son in the family, Noe B. Crane, attended
the New York State public schools, and finished with a private academy
education. After that, he tried his hand at railroading, and then taught
school in Yates County. While he was railroading he first worked as a
brakeman in Pennsylvania and Northern New York, and then was advanced to the
responsible position of conductor. This brought him to the front in the
Civil War, and he hauled both soldiers and ammunition for the Battle of
Gettysburg. Finally, when he was injured in a collision, he quit
railroading, in 1865, and came to Van Buren County, Mich., where he located at
Paw Paw.
His first work was that of a house-painter, working in summer while he
taught school in winter, but as painting did not agree with him he decided to
come still further west and, in 1873, migrated to the Pacific Coast. Here
he spent two and a half years, traveling up and down, seeking to improve his
health and getting posted on the country. During the Centennial year, he
returned for his family, and arriving once more in
California he located at Riverside; and so early was he there that he was
present when the first ditch was brought in.
Continuing to contract for painting, Mr. Crane in 1877 removed to Portland,
and there resided for twenty-three years. For a while he was with a
manufacturing establishment, and then he was in the mail service; and in each
of these fields of activity he proved himself an efficient workman, and a man
of enterprise.
In 1904, Mr. Crane returned south and located in Oroville, where he engaged
in horticulture. He set out an orange grove south of the town, cultivating
sixty-six acres, but later he sold it to the dredgers. Then he bought,
east of Oroville, a tract of three hundred ninety acres covered with woodland,
and having cleared and improved this and brought it under the ditch, he set out
twenty acres of orange trees and forty acres of olives, having twenty-five
varieties of fruit in eighty-five acres. Some trees were already old, and
Mr. Crane has packed as many as twelve boxes to the tree. Being long
interested in scientific horticulture, he gets the surest and best results,
budding and grafting the trees himself.
On January 1, 1872, Mr. Crane was married at Paw, Mich., to Miss Mary N.
Currier, a native of that town, She was the daughter
of Jacob S. Currier who was born in Massachusetts, on December 19,
1809. He was wedded to Everline Pettingill, who was born March 18, 1811,
a native of Essex County, Mass., to which state her father had come from
England. In early days the Curriers moved to Michigan, where the father
was a machinist, he and his brother having conducted the oldest machine shop in
Newark. Then he sold out to his brother, and taking with him a saw mill,
he set himself up in the midst of the timber country. For a while he did
well, manufacturing lumber, but as he did not understand dam-building the high
water washed him out. Then the father sold out and bought a farm near Paw Paw, Mich., and there he died March 15, 1841. Mrs.
Currier being left with small children, she married a second time to William Markillie, an Englishman and a farmer; she died, September
26, 1893, at the age of eighty-two. By her first marriage she had four
children, three of whom grew to maturity. The third eldest of these
children, Mary N., was educated at the public schools in Michigan, and there
she grew up until her marriage. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Crane
are: Charles Edward, who is in the employ of the Western Pacific Railroad at
Oakland; Clifford Wells, who lives on his home ranch here; and Lucia May, Mrs.
Andrews, of Oakland.
Mr. Crane was made a Mason in Portland Lodge, No. 46, A. F. and A. M., at
Portland, where he is a life member. He is a member of Franklin Chapter,
R. A. M., and also of Oroville Commandery, K. T., in
which he is a Past Eminent Commander. He is a member of the Islam Temple,
in “San Francisco, and also of the Eastern Start, and is a Past Grand Patron of
Oregon. In Portland, he installed and organized the first Eastern Star
Chapter, and he is a life member of Martha Washington Chapter, O. E. S.,
Portland, as is Mrs. Crane. His prominence there brought about his
election as a city councilman, and he also served as the Republican Mayor of
Portland. Being a well-known horticulturist, he belongs to leading
societies in that field, and also to the Pomological
Society. For several years he was secretary of the Chamber of Commerce
here, and he was the representative for Butte County on the California
Development Board.
Transcribed 4-4-08 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "History
of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 851-853, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
©
2008 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies