Two Really Special People and a Host of Others

I received the notice on Elise's passing late last week. It has been over 10 years ago since she wrote me about her husband's death. I don't think she was ever quite the same without him, but at the age of 93, she has now joined him and passed into history. I met Don and Elise one Saturday afternoon at West Point back in 1973, as I was returning to the barracks from a football game. At the time, I thought they were just some more of the usual tourists, but I soon learned differently. Don and Elise were historians, or as Elise used to say, a couple of "past participles". They wanted to know where the library was located and I walked with them so they wouldn't get lost. Unbelievably, this was the beginning of our wonderful fellowship. Occasionally we would have dinner together whenever they were in the area. I never turned down the opportunity to visit with them because they were, by far, the most interesting couple I have ever met. They spent their lifetimes doing research, sometimes for themselves, but mostly for others. I could sit and listen to their stories for hours, but it wasn't stories about themselves, it was the stories of history, as they found it. Doing research for authors and movie directors/producers consumed the majority of their lives, but they loved it. They never bored me by dropping names of the people they met, but they thrilled me with the stories of the past that they uncovered. They were business partners and best of friends. I never heard either person say one bad thing to or about the other. Don told me once that he hated to be around people who spoke hateful to others because it made him feel so uncomfortable. These two people made you feel really comfortable while you were around them, all of the time. I'm not sure what made them single me out to request directions on that cold football Saturday, way back so long ago, but I'm sure glad it happened.

Don phoned me in the spring of my last year at the Academy and said they were doing some research in Kinderhook, New York. I made the nearly two-hour drive on Saturday morning and they provided me with a guided and richly narrated tour of a really neat little town. I didn't know until we sat down for dinner on that Saturday evening that Sunday would be their 40th anniversary. We stayed up until dawn, just drinking wine on the porch and talking about their travels through the world of history. Elise explained to me how she and Don would find so many of these threads of history interwoven with each other, which so often created wonderful stories. I was always interested in history from as far back as I remember, but it was Don and Elise who gave me such a passion for it. I often think of that cool night on the veranda in Kinderhook and of the stories that they told so well.

It was called Kinderhoeck, a Dutch name for Children's Corner, by Henry Hudson, as he guided the Half Moon up the river, which would later be named after him. The Mohican children had come out to the river at this point to see his fancy ship. This was the beginning of the long and interesting history of Kinderhook, New York. The stories of the American Revolution, in and around Kinderhook, are way too many to share in this short article, so I'll just share some interesting stories from after the war.

Kinderhook's first judge was Peter VanNess and it was he who constructed the beautiful house which he called Kleinrood. His children were tutored at Kleinrood by a young writer by the name of Washington Irving. Oddly, one of these children, William Van Ness, was a close friend of Aaron Burr, and it was William (at a much later date) who carried Burr's challenge of a duel to Alexander Hamilton and acted as Burr's second during the fatal duel. I don't suppose we can properly blame Washington Irving's tutoring for this character flaw.

It was during his time in Kinderhook that Irving got the material for some of his more famous short stories, including "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". If you remember from your grade school days, the protagonist in Sleepy Hollow was a schoolmaster by the name of Ichabod Crane. According to Irving, this character was patterned after the Kinderhook schoolmaster, Jesse Merwin, who Irving had befriended during his stay in this area.

After the Van Ness family lost this house, it was purchased by President Martin Van Buren. He moved into the restored estate, after he left the White House, and renamed it "Lindenwald". (As an aside, Martin Van Buren had four sons and strangely, the first three were named Abraham, Martin and John. They named the fourth son Smith and I'm not sure why, but I think I'm glad it wasn't Bobby.)

Shortly after the President's death, John Van Buren lost Lindenwald as a result of serious gambling problems. The estate was then purchased by Leonard Jerome, known in the mid 1800's as "The King of Wall Street". He is also known as the father of Jennie Jerome, who lived for a short while at Jerome Place, as it was then known. She is more famously known as Lady Randolph Churchill and the mother of British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

As Don was fond of saying, "let's back track for a minute" and talk about Ichabod Crane. I'm not sure that I've ever heard of a more interesting name than Ichabod Crane. We laughed a great deal about the name of Ichabod Crane that night on the veranda and joked about how Washington Irving may have come up with that name. But Don and Elise already knew that there actually was an Ichabod Crane and he and Irving had met during the War of 1812. Colonel Ichabod Crane even approached Washington Irving after the publishing of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and reprimanded him for using his name. This appeal was to no avail however, and Irving told him if he didn't like it he could write a story and use Washington Irving for a name.

The real Ichabod Crane had two brothers, Joseph and William. Joseph studied law at Princeton College and migrated west to Ohio where he married, raised a family and enjoyed a successful career as a judge in Dayton before he was elected as a four term Congressmen from that district.

And this other brother, William Crane, he joined the Navy and rose through the ranks to the rank of Commodore. Commodore Crane was the first Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography. In May of 1943, the Navy decided to rename the "Big Fenced in Place", the Naval Ammunition Depot, Crane in his honor. The following is an excerpt from his obituary:

The National Intelligencer, March 28, 1846

Commodore William Montgomery Crane

"The sudden death of this distinguished officer reminds us that he was one of a class of men now almost passed away--men whose influence upon the destinies of this country will be better known when the stirring events of the times in which they lived shall be viewed as history, and will be better understood if ever the gloom and despair of defeat shall overtake us in the vicissitudes of future wars. Our people will then look back with gratitude to those men who shed so much lustre on our arms at sea, and whose deeds inspired us with a confidence of success, and made us ready to defy the world in the maintenance of a righteous cause."

"In person the Commodore was a man to be remembered. In youth he is said to have been of striking manly beauty, and in matured years he was the beau ideal of the brave "old commodore." He was tall and of large and massive frame, of commanding and imposing presence, and no one could approach him with indifference. Afloat, in his appropriate element, he was stern, uncompromising, and exact in the execution of the duties of his office, and endowed with a firmness of purpose which seemed to know no change. In private life he was social, gentle, and affectionate, and guileless as a child.

The example of his discipline, which he leaves as a legacy to the Navy, will not be forgotten; his country will not forget his faithful services for nearly half a century; and his mourning friends will never cease to cherish his memory in their hearts."

Don and Elise had no remaining family, both were the only children of broken homes and they never had children. Elise left her earthly belongings to charity, but mentioned me in her will. It was her request that I receive a couple of scrapbooks full of notes and ideas that she and Don had worked on for years. They had talked often of writing a couple of history books together, but as Elise had stated, "Neither of us enjoyed the writing, we just loved the research." She had written into her will that "Mr. Keith Sims (from the West Point Class of 1975) should be given the opportunity to finish the job of writing these books, but Don and I would both greatly desire that he not die trying. Please inform Keith that he was not just our friend, but our un-adopted son, who we could never have." The unfinished books are in the hands of the executor and I plan on driving out to pick them up this fall. Her words were the greatest gift and it makes me proud to have been included in their small family.

Now, as I make the drive in to NSWC Crane every morning, I often think of Ichabod Crane, Don and Elise and of our wonderful evening in Kinderhook. Rest in Peace Elise, and thank you for the memories.