USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Vol I > Part 7
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Applicants for admission to the Home must not be less than sixty years of age, and must have been residents of Berkshire county for five years preceding application for admission. The entrance fee is three hundred dollars, and after this payment no charge whatever is made for maintenance.
CRANE FAMILY.
The Crane family of Massachusetts, numerously represented in present generations, has been conspicuous in the history of the com- monwealth from early colonial days.
Henry Crane, born in England, probably about 1621, died in Mil- ton, Massachusetts, March 21, 1709. married Tabitha Kinsley, daugh- ter of Stephen Kinsley. She died soon after 1681, and he married (second) about 1683, Elizabeth (name unknown) who survived him. The selectmen's records of Dorchester show that he had a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, with a house which he had apparently occu- pied several years prior to 1654. He was a selectman in Milton, 1679-
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80-81. and a trustee of the first meeting house built there. An auto- graph letter of May 7, 1677, is in Vol. 30. p. 239. Massachusetts Ar- chives. He had ten children. The second by his first wife was:
Stephen Crane, born about 1657. died July 20, 1738: married, July 2, 1676. Mary Denison, born 1660, died June 17. 1721. He mar- ried (second) August 13, 1723. Comfort, widow of Samuel Belcher, at Braintree, Massachusetts; she died at Milton, December 21. 1745. He had six children by his first wife. The sixth was:
Benjamin Crane, born December 17. 1692, married, December 27, 1722, Abigail Houghton. They had eight children. The seventh was :
Stephen Crane, born May 19. 1734, married, November 13, 1762, Susannah Badcock, born in Milton, Massachusetts. February 7. 1742. daughter of Nathaniel and Susannah (Tucker) Badcock. Stephen Crane removed to Canton, Massachusetts, and built a house on Punka- poag brook, near its junction with Neponset river. His grandmother, Susannah Tucker, was baptized August 23. 1719, she was a daughter of Ebenezer Tucker, and granddaughter of Manasseh Tucker, of Mil- ton, who was born about 1681, son of Deacon Manasseh Tucker, who before 1681 married Waitstill Sumner, probably daughter of Roger and Mary (Josselyn) Sumner, of Dorchester, and granddaughter of William Sumner, who was in Dorchester as early as 1636. Deacon Manasseh Tucker was probably son of Robert Tucker, who was in Weymouth in 1638, and removed to that part of Dorchester which became Milton, and was representative in 1669-80-81.
Nathaniel Badcock, who married Susannah Tucker, was baptized in Milton, July 5, 1719, son of Nathaniel Badcock, Jr .. who was born December 16, 1684, and died January 22, 1719: he married May 3. 1710. Mary Field, born 1682, died December 3. 1759. He was a son of
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Nathaniel Badcock, born March 14, 1658, died January 7. 1719, and had a wife Hannah and four children. This Nathaniel was son of Robert Badcock, who was in Dorchester as early as 1648.
In 1730, Daniel Henchman, a Boston bookseller, having had some encouragement from the general court, built at Milton the first paper mill in New England, but it ceased operations in a few years from a lack of skilled workmen. In 1760 it was revived. In 1775 Massa- chusetts had only three small mills. The home of Stephen Crane was in that corner of Canton, now near Dedham, Hyde Park and Milton, near the paper mill. His son Stephen having learned the business there, established himself at Newton Lower Falls. He had five chil- dren besides Stephen J. The sixth child was :
Zenas Crane, born May 9, 1777, died in Dalton, June 20, 1845, married, November 30, 1809, Lucinda Brewer, born 1788. died May 2. 1872, ætat. 84, daughter of Gaius and Lucretia ( Babcock) Brewer. of Wilbraham.
When he had to choose his life employment, he went to his brother Stephen and learned the rudiments of the business of paper making, then he went to Worcester and completed his studies in the mill of General Burbank. In 1799 he started westward on horseback in search of a suitable location. At Springfield he found a mill established be- fore 1788, probably by Eleazer Wright, and went further west until he reached the upper Housatonic, and passed his first night in Berk- shire at an inn near the border line between Dalton and Pittsfield, not far from where his sons. Zenas M. and James B., afterward built fine mansions, and where the Crane mills are still turning out products that have a worldwide as well as a national fame.
In 1799 Dalton had nearly one thousand inhabitants, chiefly en- gaged in agriculture, among them were such men as William Williams,
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son of the distinguished loyalist. Colonel and Judge Israel Williams, of Hatfield, and a cousin of Ephraim Williams, founder of Williams College, who entrusted to him chiefly the execution of his plans; Cal- vin Waldo, a graduate of Dartsmouth, and a prominent lawyer; Dr. Perez Marsh, a graduate of Harvard. and a county judge; and other men of like character. At that time the nearest mills were at Spring- field, Massachusetts: Bennington. Vermont; Troy, New York; and Hartford. Connecticut. While the site was selected in 1799, the mill was not built until the spring of 1801, as is shown by the following advertisement in the Pittsfield Sun of February 8, 1801 :
" Americans !
" Encourage your own Manufactories, and they will improve. " LADIES, fave your RAGS. " As the Subferibers have it in contemplation to erect a PAPER- MILL in Dalton, the enfuing fpring; and the bufiness being very ben- eficial to the community at large, they flatter themfelves that they shall meet with due encouragement: And that every woman, who has the good of her country, and the intereft of her own family at heart will patronize them, by faving their rags, and fending them to their Manu- factory, or to the neareft Storekeeper-for which the Subfcribers will give a generous price.
HENRY WISWALL, ZENAS CRANE. JOHN WILLARD.
Il'orcefter, Feb. 8, 1801."
Martin Chamberlain, a son of Joseph, who was an early settler of the town, was at first apparently skeptical, and would give only oral permission to erect a building and make the experiment, but finally (De- cember 25, 1801) executed a deed to Henry Wiswell. Zenas Crane and Daniel Gilbert for about fourteen acres of land, with a paper mill and appendages thereon standing, for $194. Gilbert had taken the place of John Willard. The building was a one-vat mill, and its main part
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was of two stories, of which the upper one was used as a drying loft. Its capacity was twenty posts, a post being one hundred and twenty-five sheets of paper. When the mill started there were two weekly news- papers in the county, and one of them purchased much of its supply from this mill. In 1779 there were only five postoffices in Berkshire county, and in 1801 only seven. The nearest one to Dalton was at Pittsfield, where Mr. Crane received his mail matter until 1812, when the Dalton postoffice was established.
Mr. Crane conducted the mill since known as the " Old Berkshire " until 1807, when he sold his undivided third to his partner, Wiswell, and went into the mercantile business in the eastern part of town, in which he continued until 1810. In that year (April 28), he bought David Carson's interest in what was later known as the " Old Red Mill," which was run for a time by Crane. Wiswell, Chamberlin and Cole until 1822, when Mr. Crane, who had from the date of his purchase been superintendent and chief manager, became sole owner. In 1842 he transferred his interest in the Old Red Mill to his sons, Zenas Marshall and James Brewer, who were already his partners. That year the B. & A. railroad was opened. In the fall of 1870 the mill was burned, but was rebuilt. In 1879 the firm was awarded the contract for sup- plying the United States government with paper for bank bills, United States bonds, etc. To fill this contract the firm bought the brick mill which had been built a few years before by Thomas Colt, in Pittsfield, very near the Dalton line, not far from the site of the inn where the first Zenas Crane passed his first night in Berkshire. It is now known as the Government Mill. Several of its employees are detailed from the Treasury Department at Washington, and not the slightest irregularity has ever come to light, such is the perfection of the system employed.
The introduction of silk threads into the fibre of the paper was the
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discovery of Zenas Marshall Crane, in 1846, but he did not apply for a patent at the time, although his idea was adopted by several state banks. Twenty years later, when the United States government adopted the plan, an Englishman endeavored to establish a claim as the patentee, but the fact that the state banks could show issues made by them at an earlier date saved the government much more in royalties than any profit the Cranes may have received.
In 1850 the firm of Crane & Wilson leased a stone factory which had been built in 1836 as a woolen factory, between the Old Red Mill and the Government Mill, the youngest son of the pioneer, Seymour Crane, being then a member of the firm. In 1865 the property was rented by Zenas Crane, Jr., the eldest son of Zenas M. Crane. The mill was burned May 15, 1877, and rebuilt on a larger scale, and has since been operated by Z. and W. M. Crane.
Mr. Crane was several times in the legislature after 1811, and was in the executive council in 1836-37 with Governor Everitt. November 30, 1809, he married Lucinda Brewer, daughter of Gaius and Lucretia (Babcock) Brewer, of Wilbraham, Massachusetts. The children of Zenas and Lucinda (Brewer) Crane were :
I. Lucinda, born March 19, 1813.
2. Zenas Marshall, born January 21, 1815; married Caroline E. Laflin ; married (second) Louise F. Laflin.
3. James Brewer, born April 31, 1817, married Eliza B. Thomp- son; married (second) Mary E. Goodrich.
4. Lindley Murray, born March 17, 1822.
5. Seymour, born September 16, 1826.
In 1847, Lindley Murray, third son of Zenas Crane, established a mill at Ballston Spa, New York, where he died, 1879. Robert B. and James, sons of James B. Crane, as Crane Brothers, established paper mills at Westfield, Massachusetts.
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ZENAS MARSHALL CRANE.
Zenas Marshall Crane, second child and eldest son of Zenas and Lucinda (Brewer) Crane, whose history appears in the Crane family sketch which precedes this in the work, was born January 21, 1815, in Dalton, Massachusetts.
Zenas M. Crane was a man whose name will not fade as long as Berkshire has a history, as he was a maker of the history of this county. His life was an ideal one, and success was his in everything he under- took. As a paper manufacturer he had no peer in Massachusetts or any- where else in this country. But it is not alone as a paper maker that he was strong. He had a large brain and a large heart, was strong in intellect, in sympathy, in everything which goes to make up the best in man which we call character. There was no sham about him, nothing which could be criticised as on a low plane. He never reached down except to grasp the hand of the lowly who needed lifting up. He was always reaching for those things which are known as the good, the true and the beautiful. It was not in his nature to do a man a wrong, and there is evidence on every hand to show that all these elevating char- acteristics were true of him. The living men and women who were employed in the Crane paper mills in Dalton during any part of the time while he conducted them are ever ready to speak of his kindness and generosity, and those who have passed over to the majority were never heard to say anything derogatory of the man who had for so many years employed them at good wages, had looked after them when they were sick or unfortunate, who never turned any of them away unless it was for some great misdeed which could not be overlooked.
Nothing shows the staunch, stable worth of a man better than the manner in which he treats his employees year after year, and the whole
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great army of those who were employed by him and his brother for so many years, if their tongues could speak, would rise up to call him blessed. But in a much broader sense should Zenas M. Crane be spoken of in this connection. Outside of his business affairs he was a man who held a high and honored portion. The paper trade from one end of this country to the other knew him to be a man of the highest integ- rity and the strictest honesty. The men who had dealings with him in the paper business knew that when he told them he would manufacture for them a paper of a certain quality that it would not fall below the grade he had promised. In short, he was a man of his word not only in business but in all things which pertained to his long and eventful life. He was not grasping in business by any means.
His charities were far greater than anyone knew about. One of the most lasting monuments to his memory is the Old Ladies' Home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. This substantial and artistic brick structure, which is one of the ornaments to South street. was given by him. There was, however, no provision in his will for it. In conversation with his sons, only a short time before his death, he expressed a wish to donate to his native county such a home. He made it so plain to them that he intended to leave such a provision in his will, that after his death his family made known his wish, and determined to carry out his desire. The result was the erection of this Berkshire County Home for Aged Women. It may be said here that the great regard and deep love his widow and children cherish for him found expression in carrying out to the very letter his idea to establish this beautiful home for the old ladies of the county of Berkshire, which not only those who have a very comfortable hime within its walls appreciate, but which the in- habitants of the whole county are very proud of and greatly admire. A bequest of Mr. Crane's was a sum of $5,000 to the House of Mercy,
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Pittsfield. He lived in a generous style, his house and grounds being among the most attractive in Berkshire. He was a good entertainer. although not on what might be called an elaborate scale.
In politics he was in his early years an ardent Whig. When the Republican party was founded in 1856 he became one of its most zealous members, and was connected with that party during the remainder of his life. He was one of the leaders of this party not only in his native county, but throughout the state of Massachusetts. The party honored him by sending him to the state senate, to which he was elected in 1856 and 1857. It cannot be said that he was ambitious politically, as he rather assisted other men in the party to succeed in securing political offices than to be elected himself. He was a staunch friend of the late Senator Dawes, and whenever the latter was a candidate for congress- man he was one of the most influential men in the district to further his interests. Mr. Crane was a lifelong political and personal friend of the late Judge James Robinson, of North Adams, and when the latter came to Pittsfield to hold probate court, Mr. Crane usually came in from Dalton and they would spend an hour together delightfully, usually talking over political matters and indulging in reminiscences. These conversations often resulted in furnishing Judge Robinson themes for editorials in his North Adams Transcript. This was especially true during the administration of President Cleveland, when Judge Robin- son was editorially delivering those memorable philippics against the president.
Mr. Crane took the liveliest interest in the war of the rebellion. During the administration of Governor Andrews he was a member of the executive council in 1862 and 1863, and in this position he exhibited qualities of sound sense, business ability and adherence to principle
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which so strongly characterized him in private life and assisted the " war governor " greatly during those trying times of the nation.
It is not to be wondered at that Mr. Crane was a great lover of the " Berkshire Hills," as he spent his whole life among them. His father, Zenas Crane, removed from his native town of Canton, in Nor- folk county, to Dalton in 1801. Here he built the first paper mill west of the Connecticut river, and became well established in his business. He was a man of wide and general information, and had such sterling business ability that properly crowned his efforts in the paper making business from the first. Under the training and teaching of such a father, the mind and character of Zenas M. Crane was formed. The father gave him and his younger brother, James Brewer Crane, a thorough business education, including a minute knowledge of the de- tails of the paper manufacturing as it was at that early time conducted. In 1842 the father transferred the business to his sons, Zenas M. and James B., and they, like their father, were successful to such a degree that they were obliged to enlarge the plant from time to time. The Cranes always made " honest paper," and the product has always stood high in the market. Much of their success was due to the fact that they always had the most modern machinery, but the great business ability and manufacturing skill of the senior partner must not be over- looked. During the course of Mr. Crane's business life a great many inventions changed the process of paper making, and many of them were the results of his own ingenuity. He invented an attachment to the Fourdrinier machine to regulate the flow of paper and create an even surface, and in 1846 a way of introducing into the fibre of bank bills numbers corresponding to their value to prevent the raising of their denomination without detection. He did not apply for a patent on the latter ingenious contrivance, but some twenty years later, when
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the national banking system was established, the practical men at the head of financial affairs adopted a plan essentially the same as Mr. Crane's, to prevent the counterfeiting of the paper. Soon after the government had adopted Mr. Crane's ideas in this regard. an English- man came to Washington claiming the invention, but as bank bills in the Mahaine Bank in Great Barrington and some others had adopted Mr. Crane's invention long before the date of the Englishman's patent. it saved the government from paying the foreigner royalty. If Mr. Crane had secured patents on his various inventions they would un- doubtedly have brought to him a large fortune in themselves. By neglecting to do so other paper manufacturers profited by them without extra cost of paying royalties.
Mr. Crane married, August 29, 1839, Caroline E. Laflin, of Lee. Massachusetts, born May 31, 1818, died January 16, 1849. He mar- ried (second) Louise F. Laflin, born July 1, 1830, sister of his first wife. His children are: Zenas, born December 6, 1840, married Ellen J. Kittredge: Kate F., born October 17. 1843: Caroline L., born April 26, 1851 : Winthrop Murray, born April 23, 1852. married Mary Benner. Mr. Crane died March 12, 1887.
JAMES BREWER CRANE.
James Brewer Crane, who succeeded to a share in his father's busi- ness as heretofore narrated. was the third child and second son of Zenas and Lucinda ( Brewer) Crane, born in Dalton, Massachusetts, April 30. 1817, and died August 4, 1891. He married (first) Eliza Barlow Thompson, of Dalton, and (second) Mary E. Goodrich, who died Octo- ber 10, 1904. (For her ancestry see below. ) He had four children by his first wife :
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I. Robert B.
2. James.
3. Lizzie L., who married Dr. William L. Paddock, a leading physician of Pittsfield.
4. Jennie L., who married Dr. Frank M. Couch. a prominent physician in Dalton.
By his second wife, James B. Crane had :
5. Frederick G., who married Rose Paddock, daughter of the late Dr. Frank K. Paddock, of Pittsfield, and through her mother a grand- daughter of Dr. John Todd, one of the leading clergymen of his day. Frederick G. Crane succeeded to his father's share in the business of Crane & Co.
6. Mollie, who married the Rev. Herbert S. Johnson, now a well known Baptist minister in Boston.
Besides generous gifts to public institutions in his lifetime, Mr. Crane left in his will $15,000 to the Home for Aged Women, and $10,- coo to the House of Mercy, both in Pittsfield, besides $22,000 for public purposes not named.
The Goodrich family, of which the late Mrs. Mary E. Crane was a member, had its American founder in the person of William Goodrich (1), born in England, probably in or near Bury street, Edmunds, county of Suffolk, who presumably came to America with his brother John as early as 1643. The first entry on the Connecticut records is October 4, 1648, the date of his marriage to Sarah Marwin. She came in the ship " Increase " from London in 1635, at the age of three years, with her father, Matthew Marwin, her mother Elizabeth, and one brother and three sisters. Matthew Marwin was in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1638, an original proprietor. He was one of the original grantees of Norwalk, Connecticut, settled there in 1653, and was a representative
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the next year. He had three more children born in Hartford. In Hartford he lived on the corner of Village (now Pleasant) and Front streets. Sarah was christened at Great Bentley, in England, Decem- ber 21, 1631, where her father had been baptized, at St. Mary's Church, March 26, 1700. Her mother, Elizabeth, was born in 1604. Great Bentley is sixty-two miles from London, on the Tendring Hundred branch of the Great Eastern Railway in county Essex.
Matthew Marwin was a son of Edward and Margaret, grandson of Reinold and John, and descended from Roger Merwyn, who was born as early as 1430 and left a wife Matilda. His will, written in Latin, is recorded at Ipswich, county of Suffolk. He directed that his body should be buried there in the parish church at St. Stephen's, which is one of the oldest churches in Ipswich, and is mentioned in "Domesday Book." Much interesting matter may be found in the "Marwin Eng- lish Ancestry," published in 1900 by William I. R. Marwin.
William Goodrich ( 1) was admitted a freeman of Connecticut in 1656, and was one of the early settlers of Wethersfield, was a deputy to the general court at Hartford, May 15, 1662, and one of the grand jury. He was appointed ensign of the train band at Wethersfield in 1663, and is called " Ensign " William Goodrich in 1676, just after the close of King Philip's war. He died in 1676 and his widow married (second) Captain William Curtis, of Stratford, and died in 1702. Goodwin's " Genealogical Notes" state that William and John Good- rich were first at Watertown, Massachusetts, coming to Wethersfield with the first com-settlers about 1636. William Goodrich had nine children.
Jolin Goodrich (2) son of William Goodrich, was born May 20. 1653, and died September 5, 1730. He married, March 28. 1678. Re- becca Allen, who was born February, 1660. daughter of Captain J hn
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and Sarah Allen, of Charlestown, Massachusetts. Captain John Allen lived in Wethersfield, Connecticut. He came from the county of Kent, England, in 1635, in the ship " Abigail," with his wife Ann, each of the age of thirty years. Ann died and he married Sarah as his second wife. He joined the church May 22, 1641, was admitted freeman in June, 1642, was of the artillery company in 1639, was the wealthiest man in the town in 1657, and captain and representative in 1668. He died March 27. 1675. John and Rebecca Goodrich had nine children. The seventh was :
Allyn Goodrich (3), born at Wethersfield, Connecticut, November 13, 1690, died April 8, 1764. He married, December 29, 1709, Eliza- beth Goodrich, who was born November 19, 1691, and died at Farming- ton, Connecticut. August 25. 1726, daughter of Colonel David and Hannah (Wright) Goodrich. Colonel David Goodrich was born May 4, 1667, a son of William ( I), so that Allyn and Elizabeth were cousins ; he was a lieutenant-colonel in the old French war. Allyn Goodrich married (second) December 10. 1729. Hannah Seymour, who was born March 28, 1707, daughter of Samuel and Hannah ( North) Seymour. Mr. Goodrich settled first in Wethersfield, but removed to that part of Farmington called " Great Swamp Village," where he was a blacksmith. He had seven children by his first wife, and two by the second. His second child was :
Elisha Goodrich (4), born September 2, 1712. He married No- vember 21, 1734, Rebecca Seymour, who was born June 25, 1711, daughter of Samuel and Hannah (North) Seymour, and sister to his stepmother. Samuel Seymour and his wife were original members of the church in Kensington. Connecticut, then called the " Second Church in Farmington," which included Kensington at that time. Mr. Sey- mour was son of Richard and Hannah ( Woodruff) Seymour, and
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grandson of Richard Seymour, one of the original proprietors of Hart- ford in 1639.
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