Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Crane, Ansel A. 1908
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Lyons Herald, 9 Jul 1908

Ansel A. Crane was born near Marion, Wayne Co., N.Y., January 7, 1826, and died 
at Lyons July 3, 1908.  His boyhood days were spent in New York, where at the 
age of twelve years he started out in the world for himself, working for his 
board and clothes until he was old enough to earn wages.

In 1845 he came to this state by way of the canal to Buffalo, boat to Detroit 
and railroad, composed of timbers with strap iron nailed on the top for rails, 
to Pontiac, where he worked for a time by the month, thence on foot to Lansing, 
where he helped to cut timber and draw logs from the streets of that place to a 
saw mill.  From there he came to Grand River, Ionia county, where following an 
Indian trail from Ionia to Lyons he bought the farm on which he resided for 
sixty years, the bargain being made before he was of age.  The price paid was 
two dollars per acre.  The deed was dated January 5, 1848, and on December 7th 
of the same year he was married to Sarah D. Way and commenced housekeeping in a 
cabin 10 x 12 feet with a stick and clay chimney and one window.

His personal reminiscences of his boyhood days on the hills and along the 
streams of York state and later of his pioneer life were always vivid and 
interesting and nothing pleased him more than to spend a whole evening talking 
of the “good old times.”

He was always greatly interested in public affairs, having voted at every 
election, excepting the spring of 1908.  His first vote for President was cast 
for Zachary Taylor, and during his last illness to the day before he died he 
asked to have the daily paper read to him. 

Having a sociable and cheerful disposition, he leaves many friends and 
acquaintances who will cherish his memory.  His family consisted of five 
children, three of whom survive.  Mrs. Eva Root, Harbor Springs, Mrs. James 
Cramer, Belding, Oscar Crane, Lyons.

The funeral was held Sunday at the home, being conducted by Rev. H. E. Wylie.  
The pall-bearers were D. S. Johnson, L.I. Faxon, George D. Faxon and L.W. 
Kelley.  The music was furnished by Messrs. Balch and Hale and Mesdames Bradt 
and Hawley.  Interment in Lyons cemetery.


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