Richard Teller Crane Sr. (1832-1912)
Founding President of Crane & Co., Plumbing & Hardware Manufacturers, Chicago
He founded one of America's leading plumbing and manufacturing companies. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, he was a nephew of lumber baron Martin Ryerson and a first cousin of Chicago's great benefactor, Martin A. Ryerson. He moved to Chicago in 1855 where with his brother, Charles, he established R.T. Crane & Bro., manufacturing brass products and plumbing supplies, becoming the world's leading manufacturer of valves and fittings. The Crane Company supplied plumbing fixtures for major projects including Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and Chicago's Drake Hotel. The business continued to thrive under his descendants and the Crane family became one of Chicago's most prominent industrial dynasties. Beyond business success, he was an advocate of new ways of educating children and in 1886 he was the vice president of the Chicago Manual Training School, providing one of the city's first vocational education programs. In 1857, he married Mary Josephine Prentice and they had 9-children.
Parents (2)
Children (9)
Charles Richard Crane
U.S. Ambassador to China & Founder of the Institute of Current World Affairs
1858-1939
Herbert Prentice Crane
"Bert" Crane; Cattle Farmer, of Geneva Lake, Walworth Co., Wisconsin
1861-1943
