Brooks County GaArchives Biographies.....Crane, William Nelson 1859 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 19, 2004, 10:10 pm

Author: William Harden
p.821-822

   WILLIAM NELSON CRANE. A man of good business capacity, intelligent and
enterprising, William Nelson Crane holds high rank among the extensive and
prosperous agriculturists of Brooks county, his well appointed estate being
situated about six miles from Quitman, on the Tallokas road. A native of Brooks
county, he was born October 26, 1859, on the farm of his father, Ephriam Thayer
Crane. He comes of Revolutionary stock, and is the descendant of a New England
family of prominence and worth, being a lineal descendant of the immigrant
ancestor, Henry Crane, the lineage being thus traced: Henry [1] Crane, Ebenezer
[2] Crane, Abijah [3] Crane, Abijah Barry [4] Crane, Ephraim Thayer [5] Crane,
and William Nelson [6] Crane.

   Henry [1] Crane was born in England in 1621, and died in Massachusetts in
1709. He was twice married, the maiden name of his second wife, from whom
William Nelson Crane is descended, having been Elizabeth Kinstry. Their son,
Ebenezer [2] Crane, born in East Milton, Massachusetts, August 10, 1665, married
Mary Tolman, a native of Dorchester, Massachusetts. Abijah [3] Crane, born in
Milton, Massachusetts, November 2, 1841, was a member of the party that, on
December 16, 1773, threw the tea overboard in Boston Harbor, and was a brother
of Col. John Crane, of Revolutionary fame. He married first Sarah Field, of
Braintree, Massachusetts, and married second Sarah Beverly. Abijah Barry[4]
Crane, a life-long resident of Massachusetts, was born August 24, 1777, in
Boston, and died in 1854, in Medfield. The maiden name of his wife was Rachel
Hatch Curtis.

   Ephraim Thayer [5] Crane was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1816. Brought
up and educated in his native city, he remained in Boston until about eighteen
years of age, when, following the southward course of migration, he came to
Georgia, locating in Savannah, where he found employment in the gun factory
owned by Ned Lovell. A few years later he settled in what is now Brooks county,
and having purchased a tract of land lying ten miles north of the present site
of Quitman engaged not only in farming, but in the manufacture of fire-arms. He
built up a substantial business, and continued his residence on the farm which
he improved until his death, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. He married
Mary Wilson, who was born in Brooks county, Georgia, a daughter of Jeremiah and
Betty (Lucas) Wilson, of whom a more extended record may be found on another
page of this work, in connection with the sketch of Joseph D. Wilson. She
survived him, passing away at the age of four score and four years. Four
children were born of their marriage, as follows: Abijah Barry Crane, who lost
his life in the Confederate service; Julia E.; Isabelle; and William Nelson.

   William Nelson[6] Crane was reared in Brooks county, educated in the rural
schools, and early in life chose the free and independent occupation of his
ancestors. Inheriting one hundred and fifty acres of the parental estate,
located in the western part of the county, he was there prosperously employed in
tilling the soil until 1897. Selling out in that year, Mr. Crane purchased his
present fine property, which consists of four hundred acres of rich and fertile
land, situated six miles north of Quitman, on the Tallokas road. Continuing his
agricultural labors, he has met with most satisfactory results as a general
farmer, each year reaping abundant harvests.

   Mr. Crane married, in 1880, Annie M. Folsom, a daughter of Thomas and
Victoria (Williams) Folsom. She was born in Brooks county, and here spent her
entire life, her death occurring on the home farm in 1909. To them the following
children were born: Eugene Thomas, who died at the age of eighteen years; Lucy;
Ettie; Myrtie; Annie May; and William Bennett. Lucy, wife of A. J. Moraii died
in 1912, leaving three children, Gladys, Glenn, and Mary Lee. Ettie married
Bluford Smith, and they have one child, Bluford Smith, Jr. Mr. Crane belongs to
the Primitive Baptist church, of which Mrs. Crane was also an active and valued
member.



Additional Comments:
From:

A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

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