Cranston Family Papers, 1846-1923. 4 boxes (3 legal manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box), 1.75 cubic feet.
ArMs 1994.013
The Cranston Family collection comprises 1.75 cubic feet of letters, clippings, books, certificates, and ephemera from three generations of the Cranston and Morehouse families of Brooklyn, N.Y. The majority of the collection relates to the lives of Alfred Cranston and his wife Elizabeth H. Petford Cranston. The collection also contains letters, books, and ephemera relating to the Cranstons’ daughter Ella Cranston, to the Morehouse family (from which a daughter, Emma Louise, married the Cranston’s son, Alfred Petford Cranston), and to their relatives, the Oliver and Bellows families.
Alfred Cranston was a volunteer firefighter and fought in the Civil War with the 14th Regiment on the New York State Militia, known popularly as “the Fighting Fourteenth”, and later superintendent of the Postal Telegraph Building in Manhattan, home of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company. Elizabeth H. Petford Cranston was active in the Society of the Wives and Daughters of the 14th Regiment War Veterans, serving as the Society’s president from 1893 to 1915. She also took part in numerous church and charity activities.
Access Points:
- Fire fighters - Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)-History-Civil War, 1861-1865-Regimental histories
- St. Cloud (Fla.)-History
- United States-History-Civil War, 1861-1865-Veterans
- Grand Army of the Republic
- Postal Telegraph-Cable Company
- United States. Army. New York Infantry Regiment, 84th (1861-1864)