ducation was
scanty. In 1759, when only fifteen years of age, his father, Abijah was
drafted as a soldier in the French war. John offered to go in his
father's stead, and was laughed at on account of his youth.
Nevertheless, the boy went and proved himself a brave lad, saving the
life of a lame fellow-soldier, who had fallen when pursued by a party of
Indians, at St. John's. He came to Boston in early life, married, and
established himself in business as a house carpenter,--his house and
shop being in Tremont Street, opposite Hollis. He assisted Major Paddock
in setting out the elm trees on the Tremont Street mall, about the year
1765. These trees were old acquaintances of Crane's, having, like him,
been transplanted from Milton. Naturally enough, in one of his ardent
temperament, he at once identified himself with the active Sons of
Liberty. One of the famous tea party, his career came near being
permanently ended by the fall of a derrick, used in hoisting out the
tea, which, falling upon him, knocked him senseless. His comrades,
supposing him killed, bore him to a neighboring carpenter's shop, and
secreted the body under a pile of shavings. They afterwards took him to
his home, where good nursing and a strong constitution, soon brought him
round. The late Colonel Joseph Lovering, who lived opposite to Crane,
used to relate that he held the light on that memorable evening, while
Crane, and other young men, his neighbors, disguised themselves for the
occasion. House building and other branches of industry having been
paralyzed by the "Boston Port Bill," Crane, with his partner, Ebenezer
Stevens, (also one of the tea party,) went to Providence, R.I., where
they followed their business with success, until the war broke out. Both
had been members of Paddock's artillery company, a corps famous for
having furnished a large number of valuable officers to that arm of the
service in the Revolutionary army, among whom may be named John Crane,
Ebenezer Stevens, William Perkins, Henry Burbeck, John Lillie, and David
Bryant. Crane had been commissioned by Governor Wanton,
captain-lieutenant of the train of artillery of the colony of Rhode
Island, December 12, 1774, (barely one year after the destruction of the
tea,) and immediately after receiving the news of the battle of
Lexington, he was made captain of the train attached to the Rhode Island
"Army of Observation," commanded by General Nathaniel Greene. Crane's
command, "all well