USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 8
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(VII) David Newton, third child and son of David Johnson and Hannah Eliza (Roll) Crane, was born in New York City, October II, 1835, and is now living in Newark, New Jersey. For his early education he was sent to the private school of Union county and pub- lic schools of Plainfield, New Jersey, and in 185I came to Newark in order to learn the jewelry trade, in the same shop that he now oc- cupies at 13 Franklin street. Until 1861 he was a journeyman there; in that year he re- turned to New York, having accepted a po- sition as foreman for the firm of Arthur Rum- rill & Company with whom he continued to act as such for the succeeding nine years. For two years, beginning with 1874, he lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, as the representa- tive of the firm of Arthur Rumrill & Com- pany ; and in 1876 he returned to Newark to act as foreman for the firm of McIntire, Be- dell & Company, with whom he remained until 1883, when he formed a partnership with O. J. Valentine, under the name of O. J. Valen- tine & Company, which in 1895 became the present firm of Crane & Theurer, which makes a specialty of the manufacture of solid fourteen karat jewelry of all kinds. Mr. Crane is a Republican. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Since 1857 he has been a member of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, and since 1874 a-trustee and officer.
December 10, 1855, David Newton Crane married (first) Emily Augusta, eldest child and only daughter of Thomas and Anna Eliza (Taylor) Milledge, whose only other child is. George W. Milledge. Children: I. and 2., both of whom died in infancy. 3. Anna Au- gusta, referred to below. 4. Frank Newton, married Sophia Taylor and has two children: Ethel Corinne and Elizabeth Winifred. David
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Newton Crane married (second) Anna Maria Trilley.
(VIII) Anna Augusta, only daughter to reach maturity of David Newton and Emily Augusta (Milledge) Crane, married, Decem- ber 24, 1879, Robert Whitfield Sole, born in Newark, New Jersey, April 26, 1856, and now living in that city. Educated at the Newark public schools, when fourteen years old he en- tered the employ of Matthias Plum as feeder to one of his paper ruling machines. Seven years later he started in for himself in the business of ruling paper in which he is at pres- ent engaged. He is a Republican, and for- merly was a member of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, but now attends the Eliza- beth Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Sole's great-grandfather was Benjamin Sole, who died May 31, 1804; he married, in" 1800, Jane, born July 1, 1780, died September 8, 1791, and Catharine, born October 21, 1753, died August 24, 1839, daughter of Hubartus Dubois, born September 19, 1725, died Octo- ber 13, 1807, son of Benjamin Dubois, born April 16, 1697, died November 7, 1766, who married, March 30, 1721, Catharine Laytain, born April 3, 1696, died November 8, 1777. Robert Sole, born October 12, 1801, died June 6, 1870; married Sophia Wardrell, September I, 1824; she died June 15, 1879. Their son, Benjamin Lewis Sole, born September 5, 1829, died January 17, 1894; married, June IO, 1851, Margaret Z. Kitchell, and had five children : 1. Sophia Jane, born April 13, 1852, died July 28, 1889. 2. Charles Addison, born March 30. 1854, died March 7, 1861. 3. Rob- ert Whitfield, referred to above. 4. Lewis Hermance, born February 25, 1859, died Feb- ruary 14, 1861. 5. Ella Margaret, born May 1, 1867, died November 5, 1906.
The children of Robert Whitfield and Anna Augusta (Crane) Sole are: I. Walter Crane, born November 5, 1880; married, May 14, 1903, Alice T. Stephenson, of New York, and has two children: William Stephenson Sole, born November 2, 1903. and Robert Crane Sole, April 8, 1905. 2. Edna Gertrude, born February 20, 1883. 3. Herbert Whitfield, born May 2, 1889.
(For English ancestry see Sir Thomas Crane 1).
Jasper Crane, the first of
CRANE his name so far as we know to set foot in the new world, was born probably about 1605, somewhere near Bradley Plain, Hampshire. England, died in Newark, New Jersey, in 1681. His aunt was
Margaret Crane who married Samuel Hunt- ington, whose child, Jasper's cousin, Marga- ret Huntington, married, May 2, 1592, John, son of Edward and Margaret (Wilson) Og- den, and whose daughter, Elizabeth Hunting- ton, Margaret's sister, married Richard Ogden, the brother of John Ogden, who mar- ried Margaret, and the father of John Ogden, the emigrant to Southampton and Elizabeth- town. Jasper Crane's own daughter, Hannah, married Thomas, son of Margaret and Simon Huntington, a brother of Samuel and Mar- garet (Crane) Huntington.
June 4, 1639, Jasper Crane, who was one of the original settlers of the New Haven col- ony, was present at the meeting held in Mr. Newman's barn, and signed the first agree- ment of all the free planters. He took the oath of fidelity at the organization of the gov- ernment, together with Campfield, Pennington, Governor Eaton, and others; and in 1644 he was "freed from watching and trayning in his own person because of his weakness, but to find some one for his turn." With Robert Treat he was a member of the general court, and for many years he was a magistrate. In 1651 he was interested in a bog ore furnace at East Haven ; and in 1652 he removed to Bran- ford, where he was elected a magistrate in 1658, having held the office of deputy for some years previous to that date. Thomas Lechford, Esquire, a lawyer in Boston, Massa- chusetts Bay, who kept a diary from June 27, 1638, to July 29, 1641, which has been pre- served, makes this following note in connection with Jasper Crane :
"Samuel Searle of Quinapeage Planter in behalfe of Jasper Crane of the same Agent or Attorney for Mr Roe Citizen of London De- miseth unto Henry Dawson and John Search of the Same one house and house lott and three acres of land lying in Boston wherein William Herricke now dwelleth from 20 Sept. next for five years four pounds ten shillings rent half yearly, to fence to the value four pounds ten shillings, to repaire 21-6-1640.'
This transaction, showing Jasper Crane's connection with a gentleman of London, has led some persons to think not only that Jasper was known in London, but also to conjecture that he had lived there. It is also probable that this entry furnished the tradition that Jas- per came to America from London, which has always been cherished by some of his descend- ants, although an extensive research among the record offices in London has failed to find any trace of him there, and it has remained for
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the investigators into the English ancestry of the Ogdens of Elizabethtown to bring to light Jasper Crane's connection with Bradley Plain and Hampshire.
Another tradition with regard to Jasper is that he came over to Massachusetts Bay in the ship "Arbella," with Governor Winthrop. Whether he came from parents occupying high or middle stations in life can as yet hardly be determined by the records that have come down to us. He was assuredly one of the staunch and active men among the first settlers of the New Haven colony as well as one of the fathers of the new settlement in New Jer- sey. With Captain Robert Treat, he seems to have had a large share of the weight of re- sponsibility of that young colony upon his shoulders, and its success greatly at heart. It is said that he did not go with the first com- pany to "Milford," as the new "town upon Passaick river," was at first called; but he did sign the first articles of "fundamental agree- ment" in 1665, his name being the first among the list of the signers, not only to the articles agreed upon October 30, 1666, between the Branford and Milford companies of settlers, but also January 20, 1667, on the list of signers and church members of the first church at New- ark, where he became one of the most influ- ential and prominent men, second only to Robert Treat and Sergeant John Ward. Jas- per Crane and Robert Treat were the first two magistrates of the town.
It is said, and is most probably true, that the cause of Jasper Crane's coming to Newark was his dissatisfaction at the New Haven col- ony's becoming united with the Connecticut colony, but his governing incentive most likely was that which animated the majority of the settlers, namely, the desire to hold and prac- tice their own religious opinions in peace and the wish to escape swearing allegiance to the English crown, now that Charles II had been restored. Jasper Crane was a surveyor and a merchant, as well as a magistrate, and with Mr. Myles he laid out most of the New Haven town plot, located grants, established division lines, and settled disputed titles. He is also said to have been the steward of the Rev. John Davenport's property in 1639. In March, 1641, he received for himself a grant of one hundred acres of land in the East Meadows. He was one of the New Haven company con- cerned in the settlement of the Delaware river in 1642, who were so roughly handled by the Dutch. In 1643 his estate was voted at £480, with three persons in his family, himself, his
wife, and his son John. In 1644-45 he re- ceived a grant of sixteen acres of upland sit- uated in East Haven, upon which he built a house and in which his son Joseph was born. It was also while residing at this place that he engaged in trade as a merchant ; but not being satisfied with the location, he sold it, Septem- ber 7, 1652, and became one of the first plant- ers of Branford, Connecticut, which was just then being instituted as a new settlement by families from Wethersfield under the leader- ship of Mr. Swaine, and a number of other families from Southampton, Long Island, the flock of the Rev. Abraham Pierson.
Jasper Crane, Esquire, and William Swaine, Esquire, were the first deputies to the gen- eral court of electors from Branford, in May, 1653, Jasper being returned for the four suc- ceeding years. In May, 1658, he was chosen one of the four magistrates for the New Haven colony, and he continued to hold this office by appointment until 1663. He was also one of the magistrates called together by the governor at Hartford, 1665 to 1667. In the union of the colonies he was chosen one of the assistants, and he was also trustee of the county court at New Haven during 1644. In . New Haven his house lot was located on what is now Elm street, at the corner of Orange street, the site now being occupied by the church of St. Thomas.
In 1667 the first church of Newark was founded and a building erected. The second meeting house was built about 1714 or 1716; while the third was erected between 1787 and 1791. The people of Bloomfield, Orange and Montclair communed with the Newark church until about 1716. In fact for considerably more than a hundred years after the founding of Newark, the crest of the First Mountain was the western boundary of the town, and until the year 1806 the town of Newark was divided into three wards: Newark ward, Orange ward, and Bloomfield ward. In 1806 Orange became a separate town, and six years later Bloomfield ward became the town of Bloomfield. This part of Newark took in the territory from the Passaic on the east to the crest of the First Mountain on the west, and as this section was so thoroughly occupied by the descendants of Jasper Crane it was at a very early date called Cranetown. Jasper Crane was also one of the purchasers of the "Kingsland Farms," an immense estate near Newark, now known as Belleville. The exact date when Jasper Crane took leave of Bran- ford has not yet been definitely fixed. In the
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spring of 1666 the people of Branford, becom- ing dissatisfied with respect to the union of the New Haven and the Connecticut colonies, more particularly because the right of suffrage was to be granted to the inhabitants who were not members of the church, resolved at once to remove to New Jersey, as their agents, who had been sent thither, had come back, bringing most favorable reports of the new country. In October, after adopting a code of laws for their own government, the Rev. Abraham Pier- son, with a portion of his congregation, left Branford for their future home, Newark, New Jersey. Apparently Jasper Crane was not one of their contingent ; because although he was one of the twenty-three original signers of the first contract in 1665, he was still active in the public affairs of Branford, and held the office of assistant magistrate during the years 1666- 67. January 30, 1667, however, he headed the list of signers to a new covenant, and dispos- ing of his property at Branford he that year took up his permanent home at Newark and became very prominent in all the transactions of the town, especially during the first four- . teen years of its growth and development. He · was the first president of the town court, and for several years the first on the list of the deputies to the general assembly of New Jer - sey. At the drawing of the home lots, Febru- ary 6, 1667, Jasper Crane's lot was number 49, while number 40 fell to Deliverance Crane, and number 62 to John Crane, these two being Jasper's eldest sons.
At the town meeting of Newark, held Janu- ary, 1668, Jasper Crane and Robert Treat were chosen magistrates for the year ensuing, and also deputies or burgesses for the same year to the general assembly. From January, 1668, until his death Jasper Crane was now with Sergeant John Ward, the first citizen of the town, as Robert Treat, who was among other things the first recorder or town clerk for Newark, returned in 1671 to Connecticut, where later on he became for several years the governor of that colony. May 20, 1668, Jasper Crane was one of the committee who signed the agreement fixing the dividing line between the town of Newark and Elizabethtown. July 28, 1669, together with Robert Treat, he was chosen by the town to take the first opportun- ity "to go to 'York' to advise with Colonel Lovelace concerning our standing. Whether we are designed to be a part of the Duke's Colony or not, and about the Neck, and liberty of purchasing lands up the river, that the town would petition for," In January, 1669, he was
re-elected magistrate for the town and deputy for the general assembly "if there shall be any." He and Robert Treat were chosen the same year as the moderators of the town meetings for the year ensuing; and January 2, 1670, they were once more chosen as magistrates and deputies, Jasper Crane serving annually in that capacity until 1674. At the town meeting of February 20, 1670, it was voted that the gov- ernor be requested to confirm Jasper Crane and Robert Treat as magistrates or justices of the peace. The same honors were conferred in 1671, and in addition it was voted, January 22 of that same year, that "every man should bring his half bushel to Henry Lyon & Joseph Waters and have it tried and sealed when made fit with Mr. Crane's which for the present is the standard." During 1672 Jasper Crane was one of the committee to see to the burning of the woods; and May 13, 1672, he and Lieu- tenant Swaine were chosen representatives of the town to consult with other "representatives of the country to order Matters for the safely of the Country." June 17, 1672, he was once again chosen magistrate and also elected "President of the Quarterly Court to be held in Newark to begin September next;" while the following February 28, it was granted that "Mr. Crane having Liquors for Six Shillings a Gallon and One Shilling and Six Pence a Quart, they paying Wheat for it hath Liberty to sell Liquors in the Town till the Country Order alter it." In the one hundred acre grant of lands drawn for by lot, May 26, 1773, Jas- per Crane drew number 10, he being the first to draw, while Delieverance Crane drew num- ber 32, and John Crane number 61.
July 1, 1673, "It was Voted and agreed by the General and universal Consent and Vote of all our People that there should be an Ad- dress by way of Petition sent to the Lords Pro- prietors of this Province for the removing of the Grievances incumbent and obtaining of what may be necessary for the Good of the Province and of this Plantation-in testimony of our Consent hereto and of our agreement ; what necessary Charge shall arise hereupon we will defray by way of rate proportionably to the number of those who join in the sd Petition. Mr Crane Mr Bond Mr Swain Mr Kitchell and Henry Lyon are Chosen a Committee to consider with the messengers from the other Towns about sending a Petition to England." Five days later, the same committee, with the exception that John Ward, the Turner, takes the place of Mr. Swain, "are chosen to agree with Mr Delevall about Money to send a
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Messenger to England; and as they did agree with him it should be paid by the Town."
August 4, 1673, Jasper Crane, Robert Bond, Lieutenant Samuel Swaine and Sergeant John Ward were chosen deputies "to agree with the Generals at N. Orange to have a priviledged County between the Two Rivers Passaic and Araritine or with as many as will join with us and if none wil join with us upon that account then to desire what may be necessary for us in our Town." The following week, August 12, Jasper Crane was again chosen magistrate, and three weeks later, September 6, 1673, he and Thomas Johnson form the committee to carry the town's petition in regard to the purchasing of the "Neck" to the generals at Orange, and to treat with them in regard to terms. Sep- tember 16, Thomas Johnson's place on the committee was taken by Robert Bond and Ser- geant John Ward. October 13, 1673, John Ward the turner and John Catlin are chosen to go to New Orange to buy Kingsland's part of the "Neck" as cheap as they can and about two weeks later, October 25, "Mr Crane Mr Molyns and Mr Hopkins are chosen to see after Confirmation of the Neck and to sue for further Easment in Respect to Pay;" while "Mr John Ogden Mr Jasper Crane Mr Jacob Molynes Mr Samuel Hopkins Mr John Ward Mr Abraham Pierson, Senior and Stephen Freeman are chosen to take the Pattent in their Names in the Towne's Behald and to give Se- curity for the Payment of the Purchase." Finally, November 17, 1673, "Captain Swain is chosen to be joined with Mr Crane to sue fir Easment in Respect of Payment for the Neck and what is else needful concerning that Matter."
In the following year, June 29, 1674, the town resolved that "there shall be a Petition sent to the Governor and Council for the ob- taining a Confirmation of our bought and paid for Lands according to the Generals promise ;" and Jasper Crane and "Mr Pierson Junr were chosen to cary the petition and obtain its con- firmation at New Orange."
August 10, 1674, Jasper Crane was once more chosen magistrate ; but he was now be- coming quite advanced in years and the im- portant and exacting services required of him by the town must have proved a heavy tax upon his strength, for he now drops out of political office, while his sons, John, Azariah, and Jasper, Jr., begin to fall in and take his place. February 19, 1678, the town having discovered that many of the settlers had taken up lands contrary to a town agreement, Jasper
Crane stated at the town meeting that he would lay down all lands so taken if others would do the same, and March 10, following he with Robert Dalglish and his son Jasper Crane, Jr., was chosen to lay out Samuel Potter's lot again. So far as the public records of New- ark show this was Jasper Crane's last official act.
"Judging from the entries in the Newark town records, we should say that, next to Rob- ert Treat, Jasper Crane was the most promi- nent figure in the early settlement of that town." After Treat returned to Connecticut, Jasper's name comes first in the filling by pop- ular vote of the highest and most responsible positions of public trust in the community. The strength of his hold on the confidence of the people is clearly manifested by their re- turning him annually for so many years to the various positions which he held, and the con- tinuing him therein until the infirmities of age unfitted him for further public service. The family name and traits of character were, however, appreciated, for no sooner does the name of Jasper Crane, Jr., disappear from the records of the town's proceedings than the names of three of his sons are brought into prominence, John, Azariah, and Jasper, Jr., falling heir not only to their father's public responsibilities but also to the trust and confi- dence which placed those duties on their shoulders.
August 25, 1675, there was patented to Jas- per Crane in Newark one hundred and sixty- eight acres of land as follows: "a House lot 14 acres 17 acres, being his first division on Great Neck; II acres being in part for his sec- ond division on said Neck; 6 acres on said Neck; 4 acres at the bottom of the Neck; 20 acres for his second division by Two Mile Brook; 20 acres for his third division by the head of Mile Brook; 20 acres for his third division at the head of the branch of Second river ; 14 acres of meadow for his first divi- sion at Great Island; 12 acres for his second division by the Great Pond; 14 acres for his proportion of bogs; 5 acres of meadow near the Great Island; I acre of meadow at Beef Point ; 4 acres of meadow. near Wheeler's Point, yealding one half penny lawful money of England, or in such pay as the country doth produce at merchant's price for every one of the said acres, the first payment to begin the 25th of March, which was in the year 1670." These lands were taken up and occupied some time prior to the date of the patents. May I, 1675, Jasper seems to have
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been granted another warrant for one hundred and three acres in Newark.
August 24, 1670, the town made and agree- ment with Robert Treat and Sergeant Richard Harrison, to "build and maintain a sufficient corn-mill upon the brook called Mill Brook." They were given the sole privilege of this brook, with all the town grists and all the stone within the town limits suitable for mill- stones, all the timber that was prepared by Joseph Horton for the mill, and two days, work of every man and woman "that holds an allotment in the town," and all the lands for- merly granted to Joseph Horton. They were to hold this land as their own so long as they held and maintained the mill; but they were not to dispose of the mill without the consent of the town. The town was also to give thirty pounds in good wheat, pork, beef, or one- fourth in good Indian corn, at such prices as would enable them to exchange it for or pro- cure iron, millstones, or the workman's wages, etc. "Winter wheat 5 shillings per bushel ; summer wheat 4s. 5d; pork 3d per lb; beef 2d; Indian corn 2s. 6d per bushel." When Robert Treat was about to return to Connecti- cut, Jasper Crane assumed his portion of the contract.
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Jasper Crane's descendants have been very numerous. One branch of them located west- ward of Newark, and about five or six miles distant from the town, and called the place of their abode Cranetown. Some of them took up their residence four miles to the southward of Newark at and near Elizabethtown. And from these three points, Newark, Cranetown and Elizabethtown, the family pressed their way further westward, crossing the Passaic river and settling in Morris county. "They were all remarkable for frugality, honesty and piety, and were mostly Presbyterians. It has been said by one, not a member of the family, 'no more respectable people, no better citizens, are found in our communities than those who bear the Crane blood in them.'"
October 30, 1666, at a meeting in Bran- ford, the preliminary agreement outlining the conduct of the proposed new settlement upon the "Passaick River in the Province of New Jersey" was signed by Jasper Crane, and his sons John and "Delievered." These three names appear among the first proprietors of the town of Newark, and at the town meeting held February 6, 1667, Jasper Crane, John and "Deliverance," all appear to have been present. Thenceforth for more than a century the name of Crane occupied a conspicuous
place in the annals of the town, and scarcely a town meeting was held for a period of one hundred years that there was not a Crane chosen to fill some office for the town, and it was not unusual to elect to public position sev- eral of the name at one meeting. March 13, 1759, the family seems to have reached the zenith of its popularity; for at that meeting, by vote of the town, eight different offices were filled by Cranes. Elijah Crane was elected town clerk and also clerk for the strays. John Crane became a freeholder ; John Treat Crane one of the surveyors of the highways, as did also Jedediah Crane. Elijah Crane was made collector for the town, and John Crane one of the collectors for the parsonage and bury- ing ground. John Crane, again, was one of the committee to settle a difficulty as to the line of the parsonage land ; and Solomon Crane became one of the overseers of the highways. As, however, the two John Cranes mentioned above may be one and the same, it may have required only seven Cranes to fill the eight positions, so that this election may have ex- ceeded by but one instead of two, the meeting of March 12, 1754, when six Cranes were elected to fill seven public positions ; John Crane being chosen collector; Timothy and Ezekiel, surveyors of the highways; Elijah and William, overseers of the poor; John, clerk for the strays; and Noah Crane, one of the overseers of the highways.
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