The long and exhaustive discovery of my 3rd great grandmother, Mary Crane Wheeler, granted membership to the Boston Tea Party Descendants Program through her grandfather, Brigadier General John Crane, a member of the Sons of Liberty. I hit many roadblocks in my research, as it appears that Mary’s family tried to erase her, but I found her and opened a line that had never been explored.
A Google search of “John Crane Boston Tea Party” reveals many links to our famous patriot. John was the only injured participant, as he was knocked unconscious by a crate of tea while in the hold of the ship. After his recovery, he went on to fight in numerous military campaigns: as a Captain of Rhode Island Artillery, a Major in Henry Knox’s Artillery during the Siege of Boston at Cambridge and Dorchester Heights, plus Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, and more. At the end of the Revolutionary War, he was promoted to Brigadier General. Upon retirement, John moved to Whiting, Maine, and was appointed as a judge by John Hancock.1
John Crane (1744-1805) was born in Milton, Massachusetts, and married Mehitable Wheeler (1746-1807). They had six children: John Crane Jr., Alice (Crane) Allen, Abijah Crane, Isaac Crane, Mehitable (Crane) Allan and Charlotte (Crane) Allan. According to Maine Families in 1790, their children all died in and around Whiting, Maine.2 His daughters married brothers, sons of Colonel John Allan, the superintendent of the Eastern Indians.3 The precedent for pedigree marriages had been set, so the family reputation remained intact.
I originally stumbled upon the Crane family while researching information for my 90-year-old mother. She asked if I could find anything pertaining to her paternal Wheeler line. Her grandmother, Bertha Wheeler (1868-1919), was born in Corinna, Penobscot County, Maine. I traced Bertha’s ancestry to her father Moses Wheeler (1834-1880), grandfather Willard Wheeler (1805-1883), and his wife Mary, living in Maine. This is where the roadblocks began as Mary had no maiden name. None of the various genealogy databases had information on a Mary Wheeler. Mary’s grave makes no mention of her children, parents, or birth; there are no loving hands or angels, only a shabby stone with the perfunctory message “Mary, wife of Willard Wheeler, died Oct 2, 1860, 57 ys 8 ms.”4 Simple math yields an estimated birth date of February 2, 1803.
On Ancestry.com, a death record for Stephen F. Wheeler states his birthplace as Whiting, Maine, with his father named as Willard Wheeler and his mother as Mary Crane, with her birthplace given as Whiting.5 A Google search linked me to the book History of Whiting, ME with the opening page of Whiting Village, populated by many Crane families. The author states that a “prolific Crane family played an important part in the early days of the village.”6 Further reading details the life of John Crane Jr., his wife Mary Wheeler of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and his 1835 death in Whiting. The following paragraph mentions his three children and their spouses, but there is no mention of Mary. As a member of American Ancestors, I requested pages from Maine Families in 1790, which gave a great description of John Crane, born in Milton, Massachusetts, December 7, 1744, married to Mehitable Wheeler, and his meritorious Revolutionary War service. A second generation has John Jr., his wife Mary Wheeler, and his siblings all living in Whiting, yet there is no mention of Mary. What are the chances that my Mary Crane is related to John Crane Jr. from Whiting, as well as Revolutionary War hero John Crane? The unraveling of secrets began.
Widower John Jr. died intestate, but his probate from Washington County, Maine, dated December 28, 1835, and January 2, 1838, provided some concluding results.7 It lists his children Abraham, Samuel, Moses Lincoln Jr. in right of his wife Sarah, Ann Crane, Cushing Wilder in right of his wife Alice, Joseph Wilder in right of his wife Mehitable, Willard Wheeler in right of his wife Mary, and John, each receiving $416.00 (side note: Cushing and Joseph Wilder were the sons of Captain Theophilus Wilder, who commanded a company at the surrender of General John Burgoyne during the Revolutionary War).8 Mary’s sisters married into historical pedigree just like their aunts.
A closer look at the 1850 census for Dexter, Maine, made me suspicious about Willard and Mary’s relationship. She was older - not unusual - but the ages of her children gave me a possible clue. Trying to find birth, marriage, and death records was almost impossible as Maine is notorious for a lack of information, and existing documents are not digitized. My requests to FamilySearch finally came through with some surprising results: Mary had an out-of-wedlock child named Stephen F. with Willard Wheeler on October 27, 1827, in Whiting, Maine.9
The 1830 census for Whiting registers John Crane Jr. with 1 male under 5 years of age and 1 female under 30 living with him.10 This is most likely Mary, age 24, and her son, Stephen. The book Marriage Returns of Washington County, Maine lists Willard Wheeler and Mary Crane of Trescott being married on March 16, 1831, by Joseph Henderson.11 I suspect Mary lied about her hometown and living arrangements because a Justice of the Peace, not a Reverend, performed the ceremony. Stephen was three and a half years old when they exchanged vows. A second child, Mary C., was born eight months later on November 30, 1831, in Edmunds, Maine.12 Either the baby was premature, or Mary was pregnant before her wedding. Her elitist family must have been horrified and embarrassed at a second scandal. In a Rhode Island newspaper, a death notice states on April 29, 1831, “Mary, wife of John Crane Esq., at Trescott, Me., very suddenly, aged 63 years.”13 Her death occurred one month after Mary’s wedding. It makes sense that Willard is recorded in the 1840 census for Dexter, Maine, potentially so he could avoid public scrutiny.14
On Stephen F. Wheeler’s death record, it states that his father Willard’s occupation was a farmer. I propose that Willard took advantage of Mary because he wanted to “marry up.” If he were a woman, he would have been accused of being a gold digger. Willard knew her family and saw money and opportunity that he would not have achieved if he married a farmer’s daughter.i The “me too movement” was almost 200 years too late for Mary. Unfortunately, she is one of the many women that has suffered the consequences of social status and society’s morality code. Now I understand why her vital records were practically non-existent. The Dexter, Maine census dated August 7, 1850, states that Willard is age 45, Mary 47, Stephen F. 19, Mary C. 18, Moses 17, and Sarah 7 years old.15 Ten years later, the Corinna, Maine census dated July 5, 1860, records Willard as 55, Mary 57, Mary C. 29, Stephen F. 23, Moses 27, and Sarah 17 years old. Mary C. is now the oldest child, and Stephen is almost the youngest.16 Maybe the census taker didn’t hear correctly, but I suspect that the scandal was so embedded because Stephen’s death record gives a birth year of 1837, not 1827. Mary Crane Wheeler died three months later. Perhaps her conscience got the better of her, but she was unwilling to give up the charade. Stephen’s gravestone still has the incorrect birth date of 1837.17
At the beginning of my research, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Sons of the American Revolution did not have any descendants listed in the John Crane-Mary Crane Wheeler database. As of January 2026, Mary has been added and my descendants will be able to access this information and find satisfaction and pride about their ancestor, John Crane.
Sources
[1] https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/participants/john-crane.
[2] Gray, Ruth. Maine Families in 1790, Vol 7. Rockport, Maine, Picton Press, 2001, p 97-99.
[3] http://www.dar.org, Record of Allan, John, Ancestor #A001637.
[4] Mary Wheeler, FindAGrave memorial #92332667, Nathan Hale Cemetery, Corinna, Maine.
[5] Stephen F. Wheeler, Maine, U.S., Death Records, 1761-1922, Penobscot 1912, Ancestry.com.
[6] Forslund, Gladys Hall. History of Whiting, Maine. Calais, Maine, Advertiser Publishing Company, 1975, p 70-72.
[7] Probate Washington County, ME, 1835-1842, Vol 9-10, Film #12580, DSG# 7139055, image 55, 211, FamilySearch.org.
[8] Wiley, Kenneth L. Vital Records from the Sentinel of Eastport, Maine, 1818-1900. Camden, Maine, Picton Press, 1996, p 34.
[9] Maine Births and Christening, 1739-1900, database, Film #007597089, image 24, FamilySearch.org.
[10] 1830; Census Place: Whiting, Washington Maine; Series: M19; Roll: 47; FHL #0009701, Ancestry.com.
[11] Long, Alice MacDonald. Marriage Returns of Washington Count, Maine Prior to 1892. Camden, Maine, Picton Press, 1993, p 4.
[12] Edmunds Township, ME, Vital and Civil Records, 1869-1893, FHL #10400, image #100, p 19, FamilySearch.org.
[13] Rhode Island, U.S., Vital Extracts, 1639-1899 for Mary Crane, Vol: 21 Newspapers, Ancestry.com.
[14] 1840; Census Place: Dexter, Penobscot, Maine; Roll: 149; Page 301, FHL#000970, Ancestry.com.
[15] Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date; 1850; Home in 1850: Dexter, Penobscot, Maine; Roll 265, P 92a, Ancestry.com.
[i] At this writing, definitive parentage for Willard Wheeler cannot be located. Genealogical researchers David Allen Lambert of American Ancestors and Tom Simonds of Kings Highway Genealogy assisted in the analysis. Circumstantial evidence points to Eastport, Maine merchant Samuel Wheeler (1780-1852) as the father. He is the descendant of Ebenezer Wheeler and Mary Minot of Concord, Massachusetts. Samuel Wheeler is the only Wheeler listed in the 1810 Washington County, Maine, census. Samuel married Sarah Leighton on March 13, 1803, and had one child, Sally Leighton Wheeler, born on January 14, 1804. There is no death record for his wife Sarah. Samuel was remarried to Mrs. Sarah Field Gray on October 13, 1806. Their first child, Loring Field Wheeler, was born October 22, 1807. During the three- and one-half year gap between Samuel’s children, Willard was born in 1805. Perhaps Willard is an illegitimate child, as the mother is unknown. It would explain his behavior toward Mary Crane.
The Wheeler Families of Old Concord, Massachusetts, George Tolman, 1908, Concord Free Library, #28 Ebenezer: John2/George1
1810; Census Place: Eastport, Washington, Maine; roll 12; Page 652, Image: Mem252_12-0647; FHL Roll 0218683, Ancestry
Maine Record of birth, deaths, and marriage intentions, 1760-1930, Film #007834653, image 268, FamilySearch
Ibid, image 292
Ibid, image 257
[16] Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number 29, Series Number: M653; Residence Date; 1860: Corinna, Penobscot, Maine; Roll M653_447, Ancestry.com.
[17] Stephen Frank Wheeler (1837-1912) - Find a Grave Memorial.
