Alexander Crane Family Bible

Denison Herald
July 16, 1984

The Lure of Gold Led to Man’s Discovery of an old Bible

By Donna Hunt
Herald City Editor

The lure of gold led to a Denison man’s discovery of an antique Bible in a box in bed of a dried-up lake east of the city.
Leslie Franklin Clark, who walks each day for lung expansion, was walking through a field near his home last month when something caught his eye.  Curious, he made a closer inspection and found a silver spoon inlaid with gold lying in the dry pond.

As he kneeled to retrieve the spoon, his knee went down on a box that didn’t give from his weight.  Inside the box he found two books, the family Bible – date 1843 – of the Alexander Crane family and a combination yearbook from women’s colleges of the 1920s.

Clark, who spends much of his time researching the Bible anyway, spent the next eight days using ultraviolet lights to dry out the book.

He carefully guards the fragile pages of the Bible, which is much more than an ordinary Bible because it is written in both English and Hebrew and contains an introductory history of the Bible and with sketches of the participants in “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci.
Clark has been doing research on the 15 saints included and said expressions on their faces have intrigued him.

Clark retired as a professional welder because of his health and now calls research his favorite pastime.  Aside from biblical research, he had been very involved in genealogy, tracing his family tree back several generations.

According to information found in the box, the Bible was to be sent to Washington, D. C. in 1875. How it got sidetracked and into a dried up pond east of Denison is unknown.

The personal section of the Bible shows Alexander Crane, born June 2, 1841, married Minerva Bragton, born October 7, 1843, on Christmas Eve 1868. Recorded are the births of their five children from 1871 to 1885.

The book presently is being kept in an air-tight case and Clark plans to preserve it further in plastic.

Clark has a knack for finding old, interesting books and memorabilia, but says this find is the most interesting ever.

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