Springfield-Greene
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of Many of the Representative Citizens
DR. THOMAS V. B. CRANE. It must be true that an honest, faithful, capable life, considered even in its temporal relations, is not lived in vain; that its influence is not as transient and evanescent as mere physical vitality, but that the progress of mankind, in all that is virtuous, and ennobling, is accelerated by it; that although the life of one man may be a small factor in the aggregate lives of the race, yet if well spent, its after influence is perceptible and continues to endure for the good of mankind. One such life in Greene county is that of Dr. Thomas V. B. Crane, one of the best known general physicians of the city of Springfield, a man who has always guarded well his conduct in all the relations which he has sustained to the world, and while advancing his individual interests has not neglected his general duties as a neighbor and citizen and "while living in a house by the side of the road, has been a friend to man."
Doctor Crane was born on June 1, 1869, in Phelps county, Missouri, in the midst of the beautiful verdure of the Gasconade river. He is a son of A. W. and Roda A. (McDaniel) Crane. The former devoted his active life to farming and he died in July, 1914. The mother, who is now seventy-eight years old, is living with the subject of this sketch, he taking a delight in ministering to her every want in her declining years. Josiah Crane, the paternal grandfather of our subject, was born on the Hudson river in the state of New York, in the year 1800. During young manhood he moved to Pennsylvania, where he met and married Prudence Bates, and finally moved to Cannon county, Tennessee. To Josiah Crane and wife six sons and one daughter were born, Allison Woodville Crane, the youngest, being the father of the subject of this sketch. He was born in the year 1841. His family consisted of six children, named as follow: Mattie, deceased; Thomas V. B., our subject; George A. is a Presbyterian minister in Texas; Melissa is deceased; Mrs. Maggie E. Belcher is living in Florida; Henry D. lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The Crane family is of Scotch-Irish ancestry.
Soon after Doctor Crane's birth his father moved with him to Salem, Dent county, Missouri, where he lived two years, the family then moving to Kentucky. In the fall of 1874 his father moved back to the old Josiah Crane home in Tennessee. Meeting with reverses, the most notable being the destruction of his home by fire in the winter of 1874-75, A. W. Crane moved with his family to Kentucky again, thence to Illinois, and in the fall of 1880, moved to near Mountain Home, Arkansas, where, although then eleven years of age, our subject entered school for the first time. The terms averaged from three weeks to three months that he spent in school each winter during the four years that he lived in Arkansas. In the fall of 1884 his father moved to Missouri, locating in Ripley county, where about three months of schooling out of each of the next two years were all he could embrace on account of assisting with the farm work. In the fall of 1886 his father moved to Bushton, Cole county, Illinois, where young Crane worked on the farm in summer and attended public school in winter during the succeeding five years. In June, 1891, our subject came back to Ripley county, Missouri, where he began teaching and farming. He took the literary course in Abbott College, at Maynard, Randolph county, Arkansas; then, in the year 1899, he entered the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he spent two years, then transferred to Barnes' Medical College, St. Louis, from which institution he was graduated with the class of 1903. Soon thereafter he began the practice of his profession in Washington, where he remained one year; then came to Springfield, where he opened an office on July19, 1904, and here he has remained to, the present time, enjoying all the while a growing and satisfactory patronage. He is deserving of a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished in view of the fact that he is purely a self-made man, having educated himself.
Doctor Crane was married on September 18, 1892, to Amanda Marlin, of Osceola, Mississippi county, Arkansas, where she was born on February 26, 1871. She is a daughter of David M. and Elmira (Casey) Marlin. Mr. Marlin, who devoted his life to farming died in May, 1909, his wife having preceded him to the grave several decades, dying when Mrs. Crane was a small child.
Three children have been born to Doctor Crane and wife, namely: Marvin Elsie, born in Ripley county, Missouri, in 1893, was educated in the public schools of that county and the ward schools of Springfield; she was graduated from the high school here, after which she spent two years in Drury College. Bryan D., the second child, was born on October 30, 1896, was graduated from the ward schools in Springfield, after which he spent two years in high school here, then entered Scarritt-Morrisville College at Morrisville, Missouri, where he was making an excellent record when he met an untimely death. Adolphus H., the youngest child, was born in Ripley county, this state, October 24, 1898; he was graduated from the ward schools in Springfield and at this writing is in his third year in the local high school.
It must not be forgotten that, although our subject was deprived of the privilege of attending the common schools in early life, his education was not neglected altogether, for both his father and mother, especially the latter, were painstaking in the tutoring of their children; and many were the nights, although tired and weary from the cares and toils of the day, by the light of the tallow candle, grease lamp or pine knot fires, and other means for artificial light, the parents and the children might have been seen as tutors and pupils, searching for those things which go to build character and fit boys and girls for future usefulness. This is a tribute which will not be paid to the average father and mother of today.
Doctor Crane is a stanch Democrat. He is a member of the Blue Lodge, Council and Chapter, of the Masonic Order; also the Modern Woodmen of America and the Royal Neighbors. He is also a member of he Greene County Medical Society, the State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the Southwest Medical Society. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
[1873-1875]
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