In 1823, Oliver Crane packed up his young family and left Goshen, New York, for northwest Ohio, traveling more than 900 rugged miles and arriving by dugout canoe on the Maumee River. Settling in the Great Black Swamp, he helped carve a new life from dense forests and marshlands. Two years later, the first township in Paulding County was organized and named Crane Township in his honor. In 1831, he moved west again and helped found Goshen, Indiana, naming it after Goshen, New York. In 1849, at age 58, he joined an expedition aboard the Sarah McFarland, sailing 17,000 miles from New York around Cape Horn to San Francisco during the Gold Rush. Calling themselves the Hoosier Boys, the group settled in San Jose with plans to build a sawmill, but he apparently did not remain in California for long. The 1850 census places him back in Goshen, Indiana, where he stayed until his death in 1854 at age 63. Though no known grave marks his resting place, his name endures in Crane Township and in the communities he helped build.