He studied law with Governor Aaron Ogden and was admitted to the bar of New Jersey in 1802 and practiced there briefly.
In 1809, Joseph Halsey Crane married Julia Ann Elliott, the daughter of one of Dayton's first doctors, Dr. John Elliott, who was a surgeon in the United States Army during the Revolution and had been at Vincennes, Indiana with General "Mad Anthony" Wayne and General Arthur St. Clair.
His son Joseph, brevetted a major in the Army of the Potomac for his participation in the Second Battle of Bull Run, later became mayor of Jackson, Mississippi during the Reconstruction era in the south.
Joseph Halsey Crane was elected President Judge of the Ohio First Circuit Court of Common Pleas in 1817 serving two terms until he resigned in 1829 to take his seat in Congress.
Judge Crane mentored and encouraged the aspiring young attorney and a warm personal friendship developed between them that was never broken.