f ..th.e Pitisers.d of Tamr p

 TEE CR~ FAMILY

HIRY A. CRANE, the progenitor of the family in South Florw
ida, was a native of New Jersey. At an early ag he entered
the United States arny, and came to Florida, and to Tampa,
with the- regiment to which he was attached upon the breaking
out of the first Seminole Indian war in 1835. Before enter.
ing the ary he was clerk in one of the departments at Wash-
ington.
 At the conclusion of the war Mr. Crane, on account of
his health, removed to Florida, and settled at Fort Mollon,
afterwards called Mellonville, now within the corporate lin*
its of Sanford, on Lake Monroe. That place was then in Or-
ange County, as it was up to about two years ago. Mr. Crane
became clerk of the circuit court for the county of Orange,
and ras a delegate to the constitutional convention that
framed the fundamental law for the new state upon its ad-
mission into the Union in 1845.
 In 1852 he came to Tampa and engaged in the newspaper
work. Us started the publication of the Tampa Herald, and
continued it for some time. He was a lieutenant in the Unit-
ed States service in the Indian war of 1855-1858. When the
Civil War came on he entered the Union service and became
an enai i in the navy. Later he transferred to the army and
was appointed captain in the Second Florida regiment (U.S.A.)
He was later promoted to the rank of major. After the war
he settled in Key West and engaged in the publication of a
newspaper called "The Key of the Gulf," which he continued
until the time of his death, in 1888, at the age of seventy-
six years.
 Henry A. Crane married Sophia Allen, who was a native
of St. Augustine, Florida. She died in 1896, at the age of
about seventy years. They had six children-Henry L.,M~s;-ar-
rie B. Jenks (deceased), 1am, Mrs. Flora inning, Hrs. Lam.
cretia Diam; Fan ;e, who died young.
 (1) The eldest and only sa was Henry L., born at St.
Augustine, Florida, September 25, 1838. He received his
schooling in Tampa and entered his father's employ in the
printing office, where he remained for about seven years in
various capacities, both in Tampa and Key West.
 At the age of twnty-mtwo years Henry L. Crane entered
the Confederate any, enliting in the Fourth Florida regi-
ment of infantry.' He was quartermasters clerk and later a
private. He was captured at the battle of Nashville, and
was cofined as a prisoner in Camp Chase, Ohio, for five
months, being released at the close of the war. At the end
of the war he returned to Key West, but in 1867 oce to ufa,
and accepted a position as clerk in the store of C. L. Frie-