An eminent practitioner of medicine who for thirty-five years has safeguarded the health, and alleviated the pain and, therefore, the sorrows of many, witnessing the great human drama in the development of Pomona from its unpretentious beginnings, is F. De Witt Crank, M.D. Born at Geneseo, N.Y., on October 19, 1859; when four years of age he accompanied his folks to Ohio, then to Knoxville, Tenn., and back again to Ohio and the city of Cincinnati. Finally, in the memorable Centennial year, when California was making her best bow at Philadelphia to the Nation and thousands were thinking for the first time of the Pacific Coast, the father and two sons, Hon. J.F. and F. De Witt, came to Pasadena. The father, James D., and Anna Elizabeth (Dake) Crank, were both born in New York. On arriving in California, J.F. Crank bought the Fair Oaks Rancho, and there engaged in orange and grape growing; but when F. De Witt was convinced that he was not interested in fruit culture, he determined to enter an altogether different field.
He returned East in 1879 and took up the study of medicine at the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia and later he continued at the Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati. Having finished his courses with honors, he returned to California in the spring of 1884, and the same year located at Los Angeles for one year, then came to Pomona, where he has since followed his profession, increasing in popularity as his power of diagnosis and surgical skill became known.
In 1887, the year of the California boom, Doctor Crank bought a corner lot on Garey Avenue north of the Southern Pacific Railway, and there erected his home. There were only two houses north of the track at that time. When Pomona was incorporated, Doctor Crank served for two years as its first health officer, and for years he has been a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations, in which societies his scholarship, experience and personality count for the most progressive trends.
While at Pasadena, Doctor Crank was married to Miss Jessie Banbury, a native of Iowa, and the daughter of Jabez Banbury, who brought his family to what was known as the Indiana Colony, now Pasadena, in 1872, and built the first dwelling house there. Two daughters have been born to bless this union: One is Yvonne, an assistant librarian in the Los Angeles Public Library, and Elma, a physical director of the Pomona schools. The former is a graduate of Pomona College, and the latter of the Cumnock and Los Angeles Normal Schools and the University of California at Berkeley. Doctor Crank's fraternal associations are limited to the Knights of Pythias, but with a fortunate temperament in which more than one "touch of nature" is easily detected, he finds "the whole world kin."
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 8/22/08, Pages 248-249
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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