George Wilbur Crane History of Montana,by Joaquin Miller, 1894 USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material must obtain written consent of the archivist or submitter. George Wilber Crane, a successful merchant of Fort Benton came to Montana in 1866. He was born in Middlebury Vermont, November 27, 1843, remotely of English ancestry. His American ancestry he traces back to the Mayflower, at Plymouth Rock. His great-grandfather, James Crane was born in Connecticut and rendered his country valuable service in the Revolution as a soldier and in the hazardous work of carrying messages and was the trusted bearer of the death dispatches of Major Andre. After the Revolution he engaged in the quiet vocation of agriculture, and lived to be ninety-six years of age. It is said that very late in life he could vault into his saddle as actively as in the days of his youth. His son, Ezra Crane, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Vermont, on the farm that had for a very long time belonged to the family. He lived on the farm on which he was born until 1854 when he sold his farm and moved to East Greenbush New York, where he died in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He brought up five children. His son, James Edgar Crane (Mr. Crane's father) was born at the same home in Vermont in 1818 and married Miss Eliza B. Corlew, a native of Springfield Vermont. He also lived on the same farm and like his father, reared five children, three sons and two daughters. In 1857 they emigrated to Illinois and remained there until his death, in his sixty-second year, which occurred in Champaign County in 1880 resulting from an injury received in a runaway. His wife has attained the ripe age of eighty-two years, residing now with her youngest son, in Jacksonville Illinois. The subject of this sketch, the second child, attended school both in Vermont and Illinois, learned telegraphy at sixteen years of age, was employed as operator on the Great Western Railroad, in Illinois and was attending school again when the news flashed over the country that Fort Sumter had been attacked. Mr. Crane enlisted in the Lyon Guards, an independent rifle company. They organized at St. Louis, and were stationed at several points in Missouri. At the close of the term he was mustered out and returned to his home in Illinois and at once became engaged in enlisting and forming Company I of the Twenty-sixty Illinois Infantry Volunteers. With this company he served in the Fifteenth Army Corps, the Army of Tennessee and for eighteen months of the time of his service was on detached duty in the Quartermaster's department and before the close of his service was its chief clerk, and was mustered out of the service July 19, 1865 at Washington, D.C. He was an active participant in the following battles: Island No. 10, New Madrid, Farmington, siege of Corinth, Iuka, the battle of Corinth, October 3 to 5, siege of Vicksburg, Jackson Mississippi and Missionary Ridge--in which latter engagement his brigade covered themselves with glory by their gallant charge, which resulted in the capitulation of the rebels on the ridge. For a short time he was employed on a railroad. July 10, 1866 he started for Montana, crossed the plains as far as Fort Kearney, where his party was caused to stop by the soldiers there on account of the hostilities of the Indians. Accordingly they wintered there. By spring their numbers had so augmented that it was considered safe to proceed. They reached Virginia City, September 10, 1867 and proceeded to and wintered in the Gallatin Valley. For four years he mined in the vicinity of Helena, in a number of gulches and mining camps. He made several raises but "dropped" it all before abandoning the vocation of mining. He was next engaged in agricultural pursuits for a time and in the fall of 1873 began merchandising at Clancy, in Jefferson County which he continued until March 5, 1889, when he came to Fort Benton and opened a news and novelty store. As his business increased he enlarged his establishment and at length opened a general merchandising trade, in which he has since continued doing a large and successful business. He now owns two residences one of which he occupies. It is a brick house, with a mansard roof and located opposite the courthouse on Franklin Street. February 14, 1877 he married Miss Julia Ione Payne, of Helena, who was born in New Mexico, the daughter of Rufus and M.E. Payne of Kentucky and they have had ten children, of whom five sons and two daughters are now living: Edgar R., Oliver B., Ezra L., George W., Jr., Julia Ione, Florence Elizabeth and James Payne.