{"id":47385,"date":"2025-04-07T10:10:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T14:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=47385"},"modified":"2025-04-07T10:10:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T14:10:48","slug":"crane-township-rediscovers-its-founders-surprising-story-ahead-of-bicentennial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/crane-township-rediscovers-its-founders-surprising-story-ahead-of-bicentennial\/","title":{"rendered":"Crane Township Rediscovers Its Founder’s Surprising Story Ahead of Bicentennial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Pcitured left to right: Art Razo; Carol Razo; Molly O’Donnell, Mayor of Goshen NY; Kelly Eskew, Orange County Clerk<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Crane Township Fiscal Officer Carol Razo and her husband, Art Razo, recently embarked on research trips to Goshen, New York, and Goshen, Indiana, uncovering surprising new chapters in the life of Oliver Crane \u2014 the namesake of Crane Township \u2014 just ahead of the township’s 2025 bicentennial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late February, the couple visited Goshen, New York, where they met with Mayor Molly O’Donnell, Orange County Clerk Kelly Eskew, Village Historian Ed Connor, and attended a Goshen Town meeting. With the help of local historians, they pinpointed where Oliver Crane likely lived before migrating west and learned that Crane operated a distillery prior to leaving New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 1, the Razos continued their search in Goshen, Indiana, meeting with Mayor Gina Leichty, Director of Administrative Affairs Michael Wanbaugh, and local historian Valerie Collins. What they thought would be a quiet ending to Crane\u2019s story turned into a remarkable twist. Collins discovered that in 1849 \u2014 the height of the California Gold Rush \u2014 Oliver Crane boarded the ship Sarah McFarland in New York and sailed around Cape Horn on a grueling 17,000-mile journey to San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pictured left to right: Art Razo; Carol Razo; Gina Leichty, Mayor of Goshen IN; Valerie Collins, Goshen IN Historian<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Crane was part of a group that called themselves the \u201cHoosier Boys,\u201d and it appears they weren\u2019t chasing gold, but timber \u2014 likely intending to build a sawmill, a trade they already knew well. However, records show that Crane returned to Goshen, Indiana, rather quickly, making it back home in time for the 1850 census.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t appear Oliver struck it rich or spent much time building a sawmill, but that brief adventure is an amazing glimpse into his character,\u201d said Carol Razo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s humbling to think that one man\u2019s journey nearly 200 years ago still links our small communities today,\u201d Razo added. \u201cOliver Crane lived in Goshen, New York, helped settle what became Crane Township in Ohio, and eventually made his way to Goshen, Indiana. Learning about his life reminds us that even in a time without highways or email, people and places were deeply connected \u2014 and those connections still matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crane Township will celebrate its bicentennial in August 2025, honoring Oliver Crane\u2019s legacy and the settlers who followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about the bicentennial or Crane Township history, contact Carol Razo at cranetwp@yahoo.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crane Township Fiscal Officer Carol Razo and her husband, Art Razo, recently embarked on research trips to Goshen, New York,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/goshen-in.jpg?fit=666%2C441&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-ckh","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 05:11:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47389,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47385\/revisions\/47389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}