by Anne Motto, F.M. Kirby Curator of Collections
February 4, 2025
Upon his move to Morristown, Augustus Crane of Acorn Hall made himself into the archetypical country gentleman. He became an active member of his church, collected art, consistently expanded his library of books (and collection of carriages), provided for his children’s education, supplied his wife with ample funds for regular shopping trips to NYC’s Arnold Constable, proudly farmed his nine-acre property for nearly 50 years, and, when the time came, donated to the Civil War effort. But Mr. Crane had a secret, one he took to his grave – how exactly he had made his money.
A born-and-raised city boy, Mr. Crane lived in NYC until his retirement to Morristown at age 40. That he had been a merchant of some kind there was easily discernible from his obituaries. One in the Jerseyman described him as “engaged in mercantile business with a store on Front street, being known as one of the substantial merchants of his day.” But what kind exactly? None of his obituaries from NYC to Washington DC said. City directories were equally opaque, also simply referring to him as a “merchant.” But with excessive stubbornness and the powers of the internet, his secret was revealed in 2021: Augustus Crane had been a rectifier*, particularly of whiskey.
An 1851 Canadian guide that enumerated New York distilleries was the first to spill the beans, and things quickly snowballed from the information it provided. Crane had begun as the junior partner in a rectifying business he started with three others in 1841 when he was 24 years old. Called L. Waterbury, Rogers & Crane, it was based at 128 Front Street and formed for a three-year term. Afterwards, Rogers & Crane struck out on their own, continuing the business at the same address until 1850. Here the guide picks up the story, describing them as “large manufacturers of Alcohol (various proofs) and all kinds of domestic liquors, and… also extensively engaged in rectifying domestic whiskey. Their establishment… in Front street, between Gouverneur and Walnut Streets… together cost upwards of $50,000… [and] gives constant employment to a large number of men and transact a vast amount of business annually.” After Rogers left the firm, Crane continued alone for a few more years, and his distillery can be located on an 1852 map of the city exactly where the guide directs. However, about three years later, he too left the industry – and all business entirely. Soon after, he purchased Acorn Hall, beginning his new, quiet life as a country gentleman.
While not the scandal that the mystery built up around it implied, his former occupation was at the same time clearly not how he wanted to be remembered (and for that, I say sorry, Augustus). To perhaps understand why only requires reading the cache of letters preserved in our archives. A bit of an anxious Eeyore and formed by early losses, the man revealed in his letters was well-intentioned but stiflingly concerned with what one “ought” to do and “ought” to be as a gentleman. And in the dignified, bucolic world of wealthy 19th-century Morristonians, that was not, at least in his view it would seem, a rectifier. However, by fleshing out the story of the Crane family patriarch, it adds a new layer of understanding to the 50 years of his life that we have long known so much about and which is preserved within his “country” home.
*The Internal Revenue Record and Customs Journal of July 1866 defined a rectifier as “Every person, firm or corporation who rectifies purifies, or refines distilled spirits or wines by any process, or who, by mixing distilled spirits or wines with any materials, manufactures any spurious, imitation, or compound liquors for sale under the name of whiskey, brandy, gin, rum, wine, or ‘spirits,’ or any other name shall be regarded as a rectifier. Every liquor dealer who changes the proof or mixes spirits or wines in any way or purifies or refines them is a rectifier.”
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