He was the son of John William Crane and Margaret Sadler. As a fair skinned, blue-eyed, light-haired clerk, he enlisted with the 2nd Virginia Infantry at Harper's Ferry on 28 May 1861. Joe was eighteen years old. After spending some of that first year sick in the hospital, Special Order 251/6, by General Lee, transferred him to Company B of the Twelfth Regiment of Virginia Cavalry. On 25 March 1864, he went home sick. When he was paroled at Winchester on 19 April 1865, he was allowed to keep his horse.
When Jefferson County's effort to be restored to Virginia after the Civil War failed, Joe was heartbroken and left, saying; “I’ll be damned if I’m going to live in West Virginia”. He moved to Luray and married Lavinia Lionberger. In time they moved east across the Blue Ridge, to Rappahannock County, where he had built an extravagant mansion, named Glen Lavinia, near Sperryville. In post-war Reconstruction, the farmer was unable to keep Glen Lavinia, and they moved to Roanoke, where he wrote for the local newspaper, while Lavinia ran a boarding house. In the full circle of life, he and his family did finally return to Charles Town.
When Jefferson County's effort to be restored to Virginia after the Civil War failed, Joe was heartbroken and left, saying; “I’ll be damned if I’m going to live in West Virginia”. He moved to Luray and married Lavinia Lionberger. In time they moved east across the Blue Ridge, to Rappahannock County, where he had built an extravagant mansion, named Glen Lavinia, near Sperryville. In post-war Reconstruction, the farmer was unable to keep Glen Lavinia, and they moved to Roanoke, where he wrote for the local newspaper, while Lavinia ran a boarding house. In the full circle of life, he and his family did finally return to Charles Town.
He was the son of John William Crane and Margaret Sadler. As a fair skinned, blue-eyed, light-haired clerk, he enlisted with the 2nd Virginia Infantry at Harper's Ferry on 28 May 1861. Joe was eighteen years old. After spending some of that first year sick in the hospital, Special Order 251/6, by General Lee, transferred him to Company B of the Twelfth Regiment of Virginia Cavalry. On 25 March 1864, he went home sick. When he was paroled at Winchester on 19 April 1865, he was allowed to keep his horse.
When Jefferson County's effort to be restored to Virginia after the Civil War failed, Joe was heartbroken and left, saying; “I’ll be damned if I’m going to live in West Virginia”. He moved to Luray and married Lavinia Lionberger. In time they moved east across the Blue Ridge, to Rappahannock County, where he had built an extravagant mansion, named Glen Lavinia, near Sperryville. In post-war Reconstruction, the farmer was unable to keep Glen Lavinia, and they moved to Roanoke, where he wrote for the local newspaper, while Lavinia ran a boarding house. In the full circle of life, he and his family did finally return to Charles Town.
When Jefferson County's effort to be restored to Virginia after the Civil War failed, Joe was heartbroken and left, saying; “I’ll be damned if I’m going to live in West Virginia”. He moved to Luray and married Lavinia Lionberger. In time they moved east across the Blue Ridge, to Rappahannock County, where he had built an extravagant mansion, named Glen Lavinia, near Sperryville. In post-war Reconstruction, the farmer was unable to keep Glen Lavinia, and they moved to Roanoke, where he wrote for the local newspaper, while Lavinia ran a boarding house. In the full circle of life, he and his family did finally return to Charles Town.
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