Martin McNulty Crane papers

Collection

Identifier: camh-arc-004226

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Martin McNulty Crane Papers, 1834-1973, are comprised of correspondence, legal documents, sermons, essays, school papers, and photographs, which detail Crane's personal and family life as well as his work as a lawyer and political leader.

The collection consists of politically-oriented correspondence of Crane, a leading progressive Democrat, dealing with his anti-trust suit against the Waters-Pierce Oil Company as Texas attorney general, his campaign to remove Joseph Weldon Bailey from the U.S. Senate, his support of Woodrow Wilson at the Democratic convention of 1912, his role as counsel for the Texas legislature in the impeachment trial of Texas governor James E. Ferguson, and his leadership of the anti-Ku Klux Klan movement in the 1920s. Also included is correspondence connected with the business of Crane's law firm and personal correspondence of his large family, especially his son Edward, also a lawyer and a law professor and regent of the University of Texas. In addition, the collection contains correspondence, sermons, essays, and school papers connected with the family of Crane's wife, Eula Olatia Taylor, daughter of Baptist minister W.H. Taylor.

Dates

Creation: 1834 - 1973

Creator

Crane, Martin McNulty, 1855-1943 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

There are no use restrictions on this collection. Publisher is responsible for complying with copyright law.

Biographical Note

Martin McNulty Crane was born on November 17, 1855 in West Virginia. After the death of his mother, Crane moved often and grew up in Kentucky and Tennessee before settling in Texas when he was 17 years old.

After serving in several odd jobs, Crane was admitted to the bar in 1877, and was elected proscuting attorney in 1978. The following year he married Eulla Olatia Taylor and the couple would go on to have eight children (five daughters and three sons).

While concentrating his professional life on his private practice, Crane returned to politics in 1884, and was elected to represent the Thirty-sixth District to the Nineteenth State Legislature.

For the next several years, Crane would work in politics and return to his private practice in tandem, ultimately withdrawing from running for governor in the late 1890s.

Afterwards, Crane ran a successful law firm in Dallas for over four decades. One of the highlights of his career involves working as chief counsel in the impeachment proceedings against Governor James Ferguson. Crane died 1943 at the age of 88.