from information obtained from a program presented by the Nevada Masonic Lodge 13 F&AM (dates verified from Placer County History, Thompson and West 1882.)
Born April 27, 1809 in Leyden, Franklin County, Mass. Married in Batavia, New York in July of 1835 until he was lured by the prospect of riches in California. In early 1849, he organized a westward-bound wagon train under the name of J. Moore and Co. (a mercantile company) which was part of a larger group of approx. 160 men collectively known as the Peoria Pioneers. His stated purpose was to set up mining operations on the Trinity and Feather Rivers. Part of the group took the South Pass and Crandall’s took a more southerly route, arriving in San Diego in early Dec. 1849. He arrived in San Francisco in mid-January 1850 and immediately departed for Marysville and environs.
He left Marysville in May of 1850 for the Trinity River Diggings, but is known to have arrived in Nevada City in the fall of 1850, having been appointed Recording Steward of the newly formed Methodist Episcopal Church. . .
His movements suggested he was looking for a permanent place to settle. He moved to Auburn in late 1851 where his wife, Harriet joined him in late 1851 or early 1852. He became a prominent horticulturist and is remembered as a director of the short-lived Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Railroad and as the secretary of the Cummings Copper Mining Company, Auburn District. His engineering feats included building Bear River ditch from the Greenhorn junction to an area north of Auburn in 1852 and building a road from Colfax to Grass Valley, referred to as Crandall Grade.
He was elected Placer County treasurer as a Whig in 1854 and served until 1857, was elected director of the Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Railroad in 1861 and elected Placer County clerk in 1875.
John and Harriet Crandall were devout Methodists. John was assistant superintendent of the Sunday school at the Methodist Episcopal church in Auburn. In 1856, he purchased the land for the site of the present church, renamed Pioneer Methodist in 1898. The church was remodeled in 1904 with funds from the Crandall estate; a stained glass window in the front of the church honors the couple.
Crandall’s arrival in Auburn coincided with the organization the Eureka Masonic Lodge #16 of which Crandall became a charter member. The first meeting in Auburn under the charter was held in November of 1851. He was master of the lodge in 1852 and elected Senior Grand Warden that same year. He served as master of the lodge in 1857, 1859, 1862 and 1868.
He died from unknown causes on September 15, 1885. He obituary read: "He died childless, and leaves Mrs. Crandall, the partner of his life, to mourn the loss of a kind and ever affectionate husband. He is buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery with Rev. N. R. Peck officiating.