Jonathan Townley Crane
Jonathan Townley Crane [1]
a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born near Elizabeth, N.J., June 19, 1819, of Presbyterian parentage. He received an early, careful religious training; was left an orphan at the age of thirteen; experienced religion at eighteen; graduated at Princeton College in 1843; was licensed to preach the next spring, and employed by the presiding elder on Parsippany Circuit; and in 1845 entered the New Jersey Conference. His fields of labor were: in 1845, six months on Asbury Circuit, and six at Quarantine and Port Richmond; 1846, Hope; 1847, Belvidere; 1848 to May 1849, Orange; from June 1849, to 1857, principal of Pennington Seminary; 1858 and 1859, Trinity Church, Jersey City; 1860 and 1861, Haverstraw; 1862 and 1863, Central Church, Newark; 1864 to 1866, Morristown; 1867, Hackettstown; 1868 to 1871, Newark District; 1872 to 1875, Elizabeth District; 1876 and 1877, Cross Street Church, Paterson; and in 1878, Port Jervis, N.Y., where he closed his life and labors, February 16, 1880. Dr. Crane was a clear, thorough, and able writer;, a gentle and painstaking instructor, a powerful temperance advocate, an exemplary Christian gentleman, and a successful minister. His authorship embraces, Essay on Dancing (1848): — The Right Way; Or, Practical Lectures On The Decalogue (1853): — Popular Amusements (1869): — Arts of Intoxication (1870): — Holiness the Birthright of all God's Children (1874): — Methodism and its Methods (1875); besides being a frequent contributor to the Methodist Quarterly Review, The Christian Advocate, and periodicals. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1880, page 37; Simpson, Cyclopedia of Methodism, s.v.
