Joseph Halsey Crane
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Joseph Halsey Crane (August 31, 1782 – November 13, 1851) was an attorney,
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, jurist, and
legislator A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for ex ...
. He was born in
Elizabethtown, New Jersey Elizabeth Township, also called Elizabethtown, was a township that existed in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, from 1664 until 1855. The area was initially part of the Elizabethtown Tract, purchased from the Lenape on October 28, 16 ...
He was the son of General Wiliam Crane and Abigail (Miller) Crane and the grandson of
Stephen Crane Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...
, member of the First Continental Congress, his brother was Colonel Ichabod B. Crane. Joseph Crane was a student at
Princeton College Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
. He studied law with Governor
Aaron Ogden Aaron Ogden (December 3, 1756April 19, 1839) was an American soldier, lawyer, United States Senator and the fifth governor of New Jersey. Ogden is perhaps best known today as the complainant in '' Gibbons v. Ogden'' which destroyed the monopoly ...
and was admitted to the bar of New Jersey in 1802 and practiced there briefly. He went to
Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...
in 1804 and became the first attorney to practice in there. Crane took on Daniel C. Cooper as a client. In 1809, Joseph Halsey Crane married Julia Ann Elliott, the daughter of one of Dayton’s first doctors, Dr. John Elliott, who was a surgeon in the
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during the Revolution and had been at
Vincennes, Indiana Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville and Terre Haute. Founded in 1732 by French fur ...
with General "Mad Anthony" Wayne and General Arthur St. Clair. Joseph and Julia had a large family, but most of the children, like Ann (died February 22, 1812, aged 18 months), died young. Two sons, William Elliott Crane and Joseph Graham Crane, followed their father into the legal profession. His son Joseph,
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a major in the
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for his participation in the Second Battle of Bull Run, later became mayor of
Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...
during the Reconstruction era in the south. He was stabbed to death by a former colonel in the Confederate Army named
Edward M. Yerger Edward M. Yerger (1828 – April 22, 1875) was an American newspaper editor and military officer. After a career in the newspaper industry, Yerger was arrested for the stabbing death of the provisional mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. His claim of ...
. He was elected a member of the
Ohio House of Representatives The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate. The House of Representatives first met in Ch ...
in 1809. During the session in Columbus, Ohio, he authored the Practice Act – modeled after the practice of the
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at
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– under which legal proceedings in Ohio were regulated until the adoption of the revised
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of 1851. Joseph Crane served in the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
as a private, Fifth Brigade, First Division of the Ohio Militia. His brother Ichabod Crane served as a captain in the United States Army during the war. He was Montgomery County recorder in 1813 and prosecuting attorney of the county from 1813 to 1816. In 1814, he was on the Board of Directors of Dayton's first bank, the Dayton Manufacturing Company. In 1819, he was a Trustee at the founding of the Dayton Academy. Joseph Halsey Crane was elected President Judge of the Ohio First Circuit Court of Common Pleas in 1817 serving two terms until he resigned in 1829 to take his seat in Congress. He was elected in 1828 as an Anti-Jacksonian from Ohio's 3rd congressional district to the Twenty-first Congress. He was subsequently elected to three more terms, serving until 1837. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1836.A Princeton Companion, by Alexander Leitch, Princeton University Press (1978). Joseph H. Crane returned to Dayton after his congressional service and resumed the practice of law. For several years from 1831, he was in partnership with Robert C. Schenck. When
Clement Vallandigham Clement Laird Vallandigham ( ; July 29, 1820 – June 17, 1871) was an American politician and leader of the Copperhead faction of anti-war Democrats during the American Civil War. He served two terms for Ohio's 3rd congressional district in t ...
came to Dayton in 1847 and became actively engaged in the practice of law a few years later, he often availed himself of the superior facilities afforded by Judge Crane's extensive law library in preparation of his cases. Judge Crane mentored and encouraged the aspiring young attorney and a warm personal friendship developed between them that was never broken. Joseph Halsey Crane died in Dayton, aged 69, and was interred in Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio.


References


Sources

* History of Union County, New Jersey from 1664 to 1923. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1923, 1234 pgs. * History of Dayton, Ohio. Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1889, 753 pgs. * Edgar, John F Pioneer life in Dayton and vicinity from 1796 to 1840. Dayton, Ohio: W.J. Shuey, United Brethren Publishing House, 1896, 307 pgs. * Gilkey, Elliot Howard. The Ohio hundred year book : a hand-book of the public men and public institutions of Ohio, from the formation of the North-west Territory (1787) to July 1, 1901. Columbus: F.J. Heer, state printer, 1901, 779 pgs. * Hover, Barnes, Jones, Conover, Wright, Leiter, Bradfords, Culkins, eds. Memoirs of the Miami Valley, 3 vols, Chicago: Robert O. Law Company, 1919. {{DEFAULTSORT:Crane, Joseph Halsey 1782 births 1851 deaths Members of the Ohio House of Representatives Ohio state court judges Princeton University alumni Politicians from Dayton, Ohio Politicians from Elizabeth, New Jersey Burials at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American judges Crane family of New Jersey