William Howe Crane

Born to Reverend Jonathan Townley Crane and Mary Helen Peck Crane, he was the fourth-oldest of nine surviving children—Mary Helen, George Peck, Jonathan Townley, William Howe, Agnes Elizabeth, Edmund Byran, Wilbur Fiske, Luther and Stephen.

Crane was a prominent member of the community; he served as district clerk of the board of education and treasurer of the town's waterworks.

Stephen based some of his Sullivan County Tales and Sketches on his older brother's nearby hunting and fishing preserve, the Hartwood Club, which he visited often.

[1] In 1892, William was witness to the lynching of African American Robert Lewis in Port Jervis; he was one of the few men who attempted to intervene.

[2] Stephen Crane's 1898 novella The Monster, takes place in a fictional counterpart to Port Jervis, and has similarities to Lewis' lynching.