San Francisco County
WILLIAM WALTROUS CRANE
WILLIAM WALTROUS CRANE, deceased July 31, 1883, in Oakland, while an attorney practicing in San Francisco, was born in New York city, September 14, 1830, a son of W. W. and Nancy (McAlpine) Crane. The mother, born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1809, of a distinguished Scotch family, died in New York city, in 1874. She was a lady of high literary attainments and elevated character. Of her seven sons and three daughters two are yet living,--Alfred in this State, and Harold L., a business man of New York city, the youngest of the family. The Crane family originally settled in New Jersey, where they have held their residence for several generations. W. W. Crane, Sr., a native also of New York city, born in 1807, was for many years a merchant in Maiden Lane. He was a great student, notwithstanding his mercantile disposition and career, especially of botany and general literature, a thorough scholar and a great linguist, a master of German and French, largely self-educated from the age of sixteen years. He died in August, 1883, a few days after his son W. W., Jr. The grandfather, David Crane, born in New Jersey, was also a merchant in New York city, and died there at an advanced age. His wife, nee Hannah Cleveland, lived to an old age. They left a large family. All are now dead.
W. W. Crane, Jr., our present subject, was educated in New York city, spent some time at the University of New York, was admitted to the bar in New York in 1853, practiced a short time, came to California by the Panama route, arriving in San Francisco in August, 1854, and began to practice law, commencing in the office of Doyle, Boyd & Barber, then alone for a time and afterward as a member of the firm of Crane & Boyd for many years.
He was married in 1856, in San Francisco, to Miss Hannah Austin, who was born in Boston, a daughter of J. H. and Elizabeth (Burton) Austin, both families having been of New England descent for several generations. She had come to California in 1854. When married, Mr. Crane was practicing alone. In 1862 he settled in Oakland, when he was a member of the firm of Crane & Boyd, practicing in San Francisco. He was prominent as a Republican, and was elected State Senator from Alameda county. In 1867 he was elected Mayor of Oakland, but did not quite finish his term on account of the failure of his health. In 1868-’70, his health continuing poor, he made a trip to Europe, accompanied by the elder Mr. and Mrs. Crane; and in 1880 he repeated the trip. At his death he left one child, Mary N., now the wife of Horace Hussey, a merchant of Cleveland, Ohio, a native of that city, of a Quaker family of Delaware. Their daughter, Evelyn Hussey, was born in 1885, in Paris, France, and is the only descendant of Mr. and Mrs. Crane.
Mr.
Crane was the author of a college textbook on Politics, being engaged upon it
at the time of his death. It was
published by Putnam’s Sons, New York.
Transcribed
by Joyce and David Rugeroni.
Source: “The Bay of
San Francisco,” Vol. 2, Pages 348-349, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2006 Joyce & David
Rugeroni.