Caroline Bartlett Crane Biography
Caroline Bartlett was born on August 17, 1858 to Lorenzo and Julia (Brown) Bartlett in Lake St. Croix, Wisconsin. Because of her younger brother’s poor health, Caroline and her father spent a lot of time together and were especially close. With her father’s encouragement she excelled in school. Even before she had graduated from high school, her father went to Carthage College in Illinois in 1876 and convinced the administrators to admit Caroline. They had admitted women to a less rigorous curriculum. Upon Caroline’s admission, she challenged the school’s academic program. She persisted and was allowed to take the classical course. She graduated as the valedictorian. Although her father was very advanced in his ideas about education for women, he was not supportive when Caroline expressed her wish to become a Unitarian minister.
Upon graduation, Caroline took a job as a school principal for a year in Montrose, Iowa. She returned home after a year because it wasn’t what she wanted to do. Her next move was newspaper reporting. She worked at several newspapers for a few years, reporting for the Chicago Telegraph briefly, and later the Minneapolis Tribune. She carried a loaded gun when she worked for the Oshkosh Morning Times because it was a tough logging town.
In 1886, she wrote to her father of her determination to become a liberal minister. Her father finally granted his approval. She was accepted by the Iowa State Unitarian Conference as a candidate for the ministry. Her first church was in Sioux Falls in 1887. She was there for two years when she traveled to Kalamazoo in 1889 to visit a congregation (First Unitarian Church) that had been without a minister for five years. The three church members meeting her at the station were hospitable but they were not impressed. In the end, they offered the position to her and she accepted.
For the first two years, Caroline has a co-pastor, Marian Murdock. Murdock took over duties full time when Caroline left in 1891 to travel to Europe. The church invited Caroline to return when Murdock resigned in 1892. The church organization was also changing when a new Bond of Union was proposed that same year. People’s Church was dedicated December 16, 1894 and soon after introduced a number of outreach projects in the community which included manual training, household science, and kindergarten.
On December 31, 1896, Caroline’s life took a dramatic turn when she married Warren Augustus Crane at the age of 38. Warren Augustus Crane, originally from Albion, was 28 and a graduate of the University of Michigan. He came to Kalamazoo in 1894 to set up a small medical practice and would go onto to found what is now the oldest clinical radiology practice in the United States. After their marriage, Caroline Bartlett Crane continued as minister for People’s Church until 1898. After she stepped down from the ministry, she continued as a member of the church and served on many committees.
The next three decades following her departure from People’s Church were very productive, and it was also a very happy period in her private life. Professionally, Crane focused on municipal reforms, meat, prison & almshouses, sanitary surveys, and clean streets. She also became involved in the suffrage movement and was appointed president of the Michigan Woman's Committee of National Defense during World War I. The Cranes built a cottage on Gull Lake and retreated as often as possible. In 1914, the Cranes adopted two infants born in 1913, a son and daughter they named Warren Bartlett and Juliana.
By the 1920s, Crane became more interested in housing reform. This was a national concern as well with the establishment of the Better Homes Movement in 1922. Crane’s focus was the lack of suitable housing for working class people. Crane headed up a local committee to design a house for a national contest. Everyman's House focused on the needs of a housewife/mother with an infant. Her 1924 house design was the first place winner from more than 1000 entries in the Better Homes in America contest.
Crane died on March 24, 1935 from injuries resulting from a fall in her home. She suffered a stroke prior to the fall. She was 76 years old.