Samuel Crane (1794 – November 13, 1858) was a businessman and political figure in

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on the ...

Biography

Samuel Crane was born in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

in 1794 and had settled in

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

by 1820. He became a partner in a forwarding business at Lachine, west of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

. The firm owned a share in the ''Ontario'', an American steamship operating on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

. Crane moved to Prescott in

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

some time later and partnered with John Macpherson of Kingston in the transporting of goods and passengers. The Crane-MacPherson partnership dominated the forwarding business in the area, in part because of their alliance with the Ottawa and Rideau Forwarding Company which controlled the forwarding trade on the lower Rideau Canal. In 1837 at the age of 43, Crane became a director of the Commercial Bank of the Midland District. In 1838, Crane stood for election to the

Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada The Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada was the elected part of the legislature for the province of Upper Canada, functioning as the lower house in the Parliament of Upper Canada. Its legislative power was subject to veto by the appointed Lie ...

in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

, but withdrew before the poll. In 1841, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for Grenville in 1841. He supported the union of the Canadas and was generally a moderate supporter of the Reformer, but was frequently absent from the sessions.Paul G. Cornell, ''Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93–97. In 1849, he was named to the Legislative Council. In the early 1850s, the partners began to sell off their assets due to declining business and the nearing completion of the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rail ...

in the area. When the company that purchased much of their business failed in 1857, the partnership was dissolved and declared bankruptcy. By 1858, Crane largely had stopped attending the Legislative Council and his seat was declared vacant due to lack of attendance. Crane died at Prescott in 1858.

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crane, Samuel 1794 births 1858 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Canada West Members of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada Pre-Confederation Canadian businesspeople