The history of Crane & Breed can be traced back to a New York inventor named Almond Dunbar Fisk (1818-1850) who in 1848 designed and patented "An air-tight coffin of cast or raised metal". Form-fit to the body, it resembled an Egyptian sarcophagus with sculpted arms and a glass window for viewing the face of the deceased. 

In 1849 the Fisk Metallic Burial Case was exhibited at both the New York State Agricultural Society Fair in Syracuse, New York and the American Institute Exhibition in New York City. Many orders were taken and production commenced in September of 1849 at a small foundry Almond built at Winfield Junction, near Newton, Queens County, Long Island (New York). 

Later that fall Fisk’s foundry was destroyed by fire, as were all his machinery, tools, and inventory. Fisk borrowed $15,000 from two investors, John G. Forbes and Horace White of Syracuse, New York, and rebuilt the factory.

In April, 1850 former U.S. Vice-President and Secretary of State John C. Calhoun was buried in a Fisk patent coffin at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington. Jefferson Davis, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster were persuaded to write a published endorsement of the Fisk Metallic Burial Case declaring it to be "the best article known to us for transporting the dead to their final resting place."

Although the cast iron Fisk coffin cost between $50 and $100, while a simple wooden coffin could be had for $2, the resulting publicity created a great demand for the coffin and Almond licensed its manufacture to two much larger firms; W.C. Davis & Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio and A.C. Barstow & Co. of Providence, Rhode Island.

In the course of fighting the 1849 fire Fisk had developed a severe cold and during the following year his health slowly deteriorated. By the fall of 1850 he was no longer able to work and surrendered both his patents and his business to Forbes and White. In October of 1850 Almond D. Fisk passed away leaving his widow, Phebe Ann, and their four infant children with nothing.

Subsequently Forbes’s son, William H. Forbes, succeeded him and in 1875 William M. Raymond, Phebe Ann’s brother, came in as a partner and the firm was reorganized as W.M. Raymond & Company. Subsequently the Hon. Daniel P. Wood, of Syracuse, who owned a controlling interest in this company, made his brother, William S. Wood, superintendent and the name was changed in October 1877 to the Metallic Burial Case Company. On December 7, 1888, the New York Times reported that The Metallic Burial Case Company was folding.

The other two manufacturers of the Fisk patent burial case fared much better, specifically, the W.C. Davis & Co. which was controlled at the time by William C. Davis and William C. Barnard.

An 1852 ad in Cincinnati's Daily Non-Pareil announced that W.C. Davis had:

“…recently made arrangements with the Patentee of this new and valuable invention for the manufacture and sale of the article in the west, they having been manufactured heretofore exclusively in the east, (where they are superseding the use of wood coffins)... This invention now coming into general use is pronounced one of the greatest of the age.”

Their display ad in the 1853 Cincinnati City Directory:

“W.C. Davis & Co., Proprietors of the Anchor Iron Works, and Manufacturers of Fisk's Patent Metallic Burial Cases, and every description of Cooking and Heating Stoves, Hollow Ware, Dog Irons, Sad Irons, Tea Kettles, Caldron, Potash, and Sugar Kettles, and Castings in general, and Dealers in English and American Steel; Juniata Iron, and Nails of all sizes and of a warranted quality. Sales Rooms corner of Ninth and Main; Foundry on Hunt St.”

During 1853 Davis and Barnard sold the Anchor Iron Works to Chamberlain & Co. and subsequently established a new firm, the Great Western Stove Works, at 154 East Front St., Cincinnati. W.C. Davis also got out of the casket business which was purchased by Martin Hale Crane (b.1821-d.1886) and J. R. Barnes on August 15, 1853. Along with the business, Crane, Barnes & Co. received the all-important license to manufacture the Fisk patent burial case, the first metallic coffin to achieve widespread acceptance and use in the United States.

Martin Hale Crane was born on September 21, 1821, in Springfield, Massachusetts and after a public education he entered the engineering field and moved to Cincinnati where he became associated with J.R. Barnes.

Abel Denison Breed was born in 1811 at Lynn, Massachusetts where his family was prominent and a secondary education he entered into business in Wareham, Massachusetts. In 1852 Abel, his wife Bethia, and son William relocated to Cincinnati where he became associated with Crane, Barnes & Co.

Abel Denison Breed joined Crane, Barnes & Co two months later and on January 21, 1854, a Marietta, Ohio businessman named John Mills bought out the interests of J.R. Barnes and the firm was reorganized as Crane, Breed & Company. Rather than build a new plant, Crane, Breed & Co. continued to use the former W.C. Davis casket works which was located at 26-28 Sycamore St., just behind the Ninth and Main factory of the Anchor Iron Works.

On August 11, 1859 a huge fire destroyed the Liquor wholesaler Stephen Boyle & Co at 53 Second St. Also damaged were the firms of Crane, Breed & Co. and G. Henshaw at 26 & 28 Sycamore Streets. Crane, Breed & Co. suffered at $20,000 loss. Also damaged was the office of Barstow, Breed & Co., a limited partnership formed by Abel D. Breed and A.C. Barstow of Providence, Rhode Island, to distribute the two firm’s stoves and funerary products.

The fire forced Crane, Breed & Co. to relocate to larger quarters at 683-721 West Eighth St., below Harriet. The 1860-61 Cincinnati City Directory list the firm as: Crane, Breed & Co., manufacturers of stoves and hollow ware, also patent metallic burial cases and caskets, West Eighth, below Harriet.

In 1855 Martin H. Crane designed a new casket which modified Fisk’s original design, eliminating the mummy shape and simplifying the decorations which allowed the case to be mass-produced. Production of the Crane patent burial case followed and for the next few years the firm offered both Crane and Fisk patent metallic burial cases in their advertisements.

The new low cost Crane patent case opened up new markets for the firm, especially in the southern United States where M.H. Crane manned a satellite sales office and ware room at 101 Magazine, cor. Lafayette, in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1860 John Mills retired from the business, and William James Breed, Abel’s son, purchased his interest in the firm.

The fact that President Abraham Lincoln was interred in a Crane patent metal coffin was evidence that it had supplanted the Fisk as the finest coffin in the land. Their 24pp 1865 catalog, “Wholesale Prices of Plain Cases, Crane’s Metallic Burial Casket, etc.,” was further evidence.

Two years later, their 56pp 1867 catalog, “Wholesale Price List of Patent Metallic Burial Cases and Caskets, Hearses, Name Plates and Handles, Plumes and Sockets, etc.” offered a comprehensive line of caskets, undertakers supplies, accessories and burial coaches. Initially the firm distributed private label hearses supplied by other manufacturers, but by 1867, they began manufacturing their own in a portion of their casket factory.  

On July, 23 1867, a fire destroyed a portion of the firm’s W. Eighth Street factory causing a $75,000 loss, which was fortunately covered by insurance. A lightning strike in October of 1867 caused a $10,000 loss to the firms’ carpentry shops. Flames from that blaze spread to the white lead factory of Eckstein, Hill & Co, rendering the total loss about $40,000.

Since the mid 1860s Martin H. Crane had been experimenting with rolled sheet iron as a less-expensive alternative to cast iron, and by the end of the decade he had perfected the industry’s first sheet metal casket. Its development also resulted in the firm’s new steam heat and ventilation system division, which was headed by Crane.

A publication entitled: “Scientific Ventilation; or Ventilation Based Upon the Motive Power of Heat” was put out by the firm in 1871. A series of bids and contracts followed, some were large, and some were priced too high. In 1873 Crane, Breed & Co. won their $14,000 bid to supply a steam heating and ventilation system for the State of Indiana’s Normal School. In 1876 a $68,493 bid was submitted by the firm to the State of Michigan for a steam heating and ventilation system for their new capital building. Apparently the bid was too high as the contract was awarded to a Massachusetts firm.

A Crane, Breed & Co. catalog was included in the display of David Williams’ Iron Age Library at Paris’ 1878 Exposition Universelle. On May 28, 1879 the firm’s Eight Street plating works were destroyed by an explosion caused by a workman hitting a vein of natural gas while boring a 250’ deep water well.

Martin Hale Crane was involved in a scandal in September of 1880. John C. Snell, a Covington liquor distributor suspected that Lou his attractive 30 year-old wife Lou was having an affair with Crane (who was almost 60 years old at the time), and followed her to a rendezvous with Crane where shots were fired. Snell hit his wife in the shoulder, but she recovered. The episode did little to squash Crane’s reputation as a ladies man who specialized in romancing married women.

On August 8, 1882, Crane, Breed & Co. was reorganized as the Crane & Breed Manufacturing Company. By that time, the firm had gotten out of the heating and ventilation business which was now handled by the M.H. Crane Company, an entirely new firm headed by Martin H. Crane.

Crane passed away on November 30, 1886, and his son Harrie D. Crane, (b.1854 d.1922) a prominent heating and ventilation engineer, took over the firm, which was subsequently known as the M.H. Crane Estate. Soon afterwards Harrie moved the firm’s headquarters to Miami St. in Urbana, Ohio which was followed by relocation to Chicago, Illinois where it became identified with some of that city’s largest heating and ventilating contracts. When Cincinnati’s new City Hall commenced construction in 1888, they supplied its heating and ventilation system.

On December 24, 1889, Abel D. Breed joined the silent majority and his son, William James Breed, took over as president and chairman. Oliver D. Bryant, a long-time Crane & Breed associate was elected vice-president; A.H. Walton, secretary; George S. Urwiler, treasurer; and William Denison Breed, a grandson of the firm’s founder and son of its current president, superintendent.

The New York Times published Breed’s obituary on Christmas Day, 1889:

“Abel D. Breed, who was prominently engaged in building railroads in Louisiana and other southern States soon after the war, died suddenly of apoplexy at his residence, 23 East Fifty-Seventh Street, yesterday afternoon. Nor responding to the call for dinner search was made for him and he was found dead in the bathroom.

Mr. Breed was born 77 years ago at Lynn, Mass., where his family is prominent and after some business experience at Wareham, Mass., removed to Cincinnati about 35 years ago, and founded the firm of Crane, Breed & Son, general undertakers’ warehouse. Meeting with success he went into the mining business in Colorado, where he opened several flourishing mines. The great Caribou mine, which he bought alone, was afterward sold by him for $3,000,000. The Spar at Aspen was another of his ventures. Mr. Breed leaves a widow and one son, who is still a member of the firm of Crane, Breed & Co., Cincinnati. The deceased will be buried at Wareham, Mass.”

William James Breed, was born at Fairhaven, Massachusetts in 1835. Following his education at Hughes High School and the Phillips Academy, he accompanied his family to Cincinnati in 1852 and joined his father in the management of Crane, Breed & Co. in 1860. Breed married Miss Laura Adams of Boston, Massachusetts in 1868, and following the incorporation of Crane & Breed in 1882, he was elected president of the firm.

The 1889 Cincinnati City directory included the following entries:

“Crane & Breed Mfg. Co. Burial Cases, Hearses, etc., ... 683 West Eighth St.
Crane, M.H., Estate.........Steam Heating.......................92 Central Avenue”

In 1895, Cincinnati Times Star columnist George Mortimer Roe wrote:

“The factories and offices were located at 683 to 721, inclusive, West Eighth Street. Everything that pertains to an undertaker's supplies, from the latest appointments in the way of a hearse to the most modest burial casket, and everything in the way of burial-casket hardware, was made at this establishment. There was no more extensive concern of the kind in the world. The business requires the services of about three hundred and fifty hands, besides the numerous clerks and agents scattered all over America.”

Along with the Rochester, New York coachbuilder, Jas. Cunningham Son & Co., Crane & Breed exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exhibition and were awarded a gold medal for an Eight-Column Glass-Sided Hearse.

In 1897, William J. Breed relocated the Crane & Breed works to a spacious new 4-story brick factory that was erected at 1227-59 West Eighth St. Soon afterwards, J.T. Davies, one of the nation’s most experienced designers, was placed in charge of the vehicle department. Born in 1860, Davies had started his career as an apprentice in the Cooling Bros. carriage works in Wilmington, Delaware. After a brief period of working for some small regional firms, he associated himself with the Charles S. Caffrey Co. in Camden, New Jersey.

After three years, he relocated to New Haven, Connecticut where he spent the next seven years working for William Johnson, Henry Killam & Co., and M. Armstrong & Co. Davies secured his position as one of the nation’s top designers during the next decade while working for the United States Carriage Co., Columbus, Ohio; James Goold Co., Albany, New York; A. J. Joyce & Co., Washington; D.C., and James Cunningham, Son & Co. Rochester, New York.

The July 26, 1901 issue of the Atlanta Constitution reported on the sale of one of the nation’s first private ambulances:

“Private Ambulance Here

“First in the South – Will Not Compete with Grady Hospital Ambulance.

“On the recommendation of several of the city’s leading physicians, Barclay & Brandon, the well-known undertakers, have put in an ambulance which they say will be for the use of the public and will be ready for service at all times. For a long time physicians and others have felt the need of a private ambulance for removing sick people from their homes to the hospitals and sanitariums, and is for this purpose that the new ambulance will be chiefly used.

“The ambulance is a handsome vehicle built by Crane & Breed, the well-known carriage people of Cincinnati, who pronounce it one of the finest products of their shops. The body is painted bronze green and the running gear carmine. The interior is finished in solid mahogany with an elevated cot on rollers. The vehicle is fitted with the best rubber tires and in winter will be heated with carbon stoves.”

A display of Crane & Breed’s vehicles were included at the 1904 St Louis Universal Exposition as was their patented “Floral Mantel”, a novel casket lowering device which lowers the casket into the grave in a dignified manner without having to show the empty grave.

All three of Breed sons would eventually join him in the management of the firm; William Denison Breed, who had a PhD from Yale University; Howard Breed, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Austin Adams Breed a graduate of John Hopkins University. Death came to William James Breed on September 1, 1908, from a sudden onset of pneumonia while on a visit to Los Angeles, California.

The next generation of the Breed family took over the firm and starting in 1909 the officers included; Austin A. Breed, president; Oliver D. Bryant, (with the firm since 1863) vice-president and treasurer; and Howard Breed secretary and plant manager. Although he remained a shareholder, William Dennison Breed, pursued a career as an investment banker.

A massive product expansion and rebuilding program was instituted and during the year a 5-story 50’ x 198’ brick and concrete addition was added to their existing 4-story factory at 1227-59 W. 8th St. giving the firm well over 100,000 sq.ft of manufacturing space. The new structure had been designed from the ground up to build the firm’s new Crane & Breed auto hearse, which was introduced on June 15, 1909.

The Crane & Breed was the first commercially-built gasoline-powered motor hearse and featured a 30 hp four-cylinder engine coupled to a three-speed transmission that relayed power to the rear wheels via chain drive. According to a period advertisement, its top speed of 30 miles-per-hour was "fifteen miles-per-hour faster than any hearse should have to go."

Standard equipment included two oil lamps in front and one in the rear, two electric headlamps, a complete set of tools and a set of wire flower baskets. One month later the firm introduced a more ornate version of the original coach. Both models came on a 130" wheelbase with 36" artillery wheels that could be had with either solid rubber or pneumatic 4" tires.

A period Crane & Breed advertisement states:

"People who continually ride in automobiles object to the long and uncomfortably close and slow carriage ride. They want speed - a smooth glide to the cemetery, same as downtown or anywhere else - and especially in large cities". To further reassure the funeral director that he, too, could have automobile funerals if he were to purchase this new machine they continued, "Taxicabs and touring cars are in garages awaiting your hire, though most attendants at your funerals will use their own vehicles. You will furnish the hearse only."

Later in the year (1909) Crane & Breed introduced 3 additional professional cars. The first was their own version of the auto ambulance, the second, a combination ambulance and casket delivery wagon and the last was a combination hearse and casket delivery wagon. The new vehicles featured an extended roof over the cab and a windshield to protect the drivers in inclement weather.

The October 16, 1909 issue of the Atlanta Constitution reported on Barclay Brandon Co.’s purchase of a Crane & Breed motor ambulance:

“The Barclay Brandon Co., undertakers and funeral directors, has given an order for an automobile ambulance of the 1910 make which will be ready for use within three weeks. The purchase was made from the Crane & Breed Manufacturing Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio upon a recent visit of Mr. Brandon, at a cost of $4,500. The machine will be a 30-horse power gasoline car, equipped with double chains and will be lighted with electricity on the inside and out. This will be a decided innovation for Atlanta, and is one of the first automobile ambulances in the south.”

In 1912 Crane & Breed made a big switch from their own assembled chassis to the massive Winton Special Six chassis. The Winton featured a self-starting 48hp six-cylinder engine and an incredibly long 152" wheelbase with 37"x5" tires.

The following F.F. Woodall poem was included in Crane & Breed: Quality Talks, an advertising brochure produced by Austin A. Crane in 1914:

“Behold Me – The Hearse

I am the Hearse.
In the lexicons I stand alone.
No other vehicle that rolls on wheels; that moves upon the water, or skims the air, divides me with the honor of my solemn duties.
In the world I stand aloof from other transportation.
None hire me for pleasure; none choose me for a ride; yet ne’er a one objects to take his outing.
No passenger of mine hath ever damned the road or praised its smoothness.
Alone each one, and silent, in his turn – some in broadcloth and some in homespun, I hear them to the confines of that “Undiscovered Country” where all may ride again in a grander state:
Perhaps in golden chariots from sun to sun; or,
Each upon his own white wings along the starry ways but never upon old earth again.
I am the Hearse – Death’s taxicab; the carriage of the dead!
None ride with me but once.
Thereafter upon earth – Their riding days are over.”

Starting in 1915, Crane & Breed offered two new chassis options, either the traditional 48hp Winton Six on a 138" chassis, or a new lower-priced 33hp Winton Six on a 128" chassis.  A full line of limousine-style ambulances was offered in addition to the more traditional ambulances and carved-side hearses.

By 1916, Crane & Breeds only competition in the high-priced luxury field was Rochester, NY's Cunningham. Both firms offered comparable models on high-quality purpose-built chassis for twice the cost of a double six Meteor combination coach ($3500-$4500). A visual identifier was Crane & Breed's distinctive vertical oval window, which was placed immediately behind the driver's and right front passenger's windows on carved-panel 8-pillar coaches.

Although the majority of the firm’s advertising was for their motor coaches, Crane & Breed continued to distribute and manufacture caskets and mortuary supplies. The First World War created a new overseas market for the firm’s caskets and an export office was established in New York City at 17 Battery Place.

Throughout the late teens Crane & Breed’s funeral coaches and invalid cars remained virtually unchanged as did their Winton Six chassis. Into the twenties their carved-panel coaches became more subdued, especially the draperies and paneling which took on a more two-dimensional shallow appearance.

In the early twenties Crane & Breed offered a budget priced line of REO-based coaches.

The William Lafferty Memorial Funeral and Carriage Collection in West Union, Ohio includes a light grey 1922 Crane & Breed REO combination service car and ambulance that was purchased new by the Lafferty Funeral Home. As did other makers, Crane & Breed offered to mount their bodies on any customer-supplied chassis, and at least one was built on a Cadillac Eight chassis.

On November 22, 1924 Austin A. Breed was found dead in his Cincinnati bachelor apartment by his maid, the victim of an apparent suicide by poison. He had been scheduled to appear in court that day to give testimony in a minor lawsuit brought against him in regards to an unpaid $14,000 debt incurred by a bookstore that he had an interest in. Breed was a very wealthy man and the nature of the suit was not thought to have been sufficient to drive him to suicide, although a suicide note was left, addressed to his attorney.

Austin was a past president of the Casket & Funeral Supply Association of America and had authored a number of brochures and booklets which included: Crane & Breed: Quality Talks (pub 1914); How a Salesman May Build Success Within Himself (Pub. 1915); The Tyler Davidson Fountain of Cincinnati (pub 1915); and The Crucial Test (pub 1916). A series of color photographs taken by Breed during a trip to North Africa appeared in the March 1917, issue of National Geographic Magazine.

Austin A. Breed’s suicide coincided with the end of the Crane & Breed funeral coach which ended production at the same time as the Winton Six. In 1928 Howard Breed, its new president, reorganized the firm as the Crane & Breed Casket Company. From that point on, they concentrated on the manufacture and distribution of caskets and other non-motive mortuary equipment and supplies.

William Denison Breed passed away on March 25, 1931 in Indianapolis, Indiana after a long battle with lung cancer. During the 1930s, the firm was forced to scale back their operations in order to survive. Now under the direction of Bernard J. Slaughter, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati School of Commerce, the firm successfully emerged from the Depression, and started working on a new casket manufacturing processes which culminated in the Eternalite composite plastic casket which was introduced in 1943.

Bernie Slaughter, who had been with the firm since 1915, remained at the helm during the 1940s and 50s, but new management eventually took over the firm and they withdrew from business sometime after 1973.

In 1976 the Cincinnati Postal Employees Credit Union purchased the vacant West 8th Street factory of the Crane & Breed Casket Company for the site of their new headquarters and demolished it.

Ironically, the physical remnants of the Crane & Breed Company have little to do with their innovative caskets and coachwork. They’re mainly remembered for their bronze novelty paperweights which were produced as a side-line during the late 19th and early 20th century.

© 2004 Mark Theobald - Coachbuilt.com with special thanks to Bernie DeWinter IV and Thomas A. McPherson

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