CRANE, Mrs. Mary Helen Peck

Mary Helen Peck Crane, the daughter of Methodist Episcopal minister George Peck and Mary Myers Peck, was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on April 10, 1827.  

Her husband, Reverend Jonathan Towley Crane, was a Methodist Episcopal pastor and the president of Pennington Seminary.  Mary Helen was a church worker for the Methodist Episcopal Church, a temperance reformer, a journalist, and the mother of fourteen children. One of those children was the author Stephen Crane.  Jonathan passed away in 1880, and three years later Mary Helen purchased a home for her family in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Mary Helen wrote for several newspapers, including The New York Tribune and The New York World, and she was an active member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.  On January 20, 1888, The New York Tribune's article about a W.C.T.U. convention in New Jersey the previous day noted:

"Mrs. M. Helen Crane, State superintendent of press work, read a paper replete with valuable suggestions on newspaper work."

Mary Helen passed away in Paterson, New Jersey, on December 7, 1891, and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Hillside, New Jersey.

Stephen Crane Papers [manuscript] 1847-1945 and N.D., University of Virginia

• Stephen Crane Papers [manuscript] 1847-1945 and N.D., University of Virginia

• The Indianapolis journal. (Indianapolis [Ind.]), 17 Nov. 1887. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015679/1887-11-17/ed-1/seq-3/>

• The sun. (New York [N.Y.]), 07 Aug. 1887. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1887-08-07/ed-1/seq-1/>

• New-York tribune. (New York [N.Y.]), 20 Jan. 1888. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1888-01-20/ed-1/seq-5/>

• The daily dispatch. (Richmond [Va.]), 02 April 1884. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024738/1884-04-02/ed-1/seq-1/>

• Mary Helen Peck Crane Find A Grave

• The Crane House in Asbury Park, N.J.