Cody Cavanaugh, seated right with hat, is the driver and owner of Percheron horses, Dottie and DeeDee, pulling an antique carriage carrying Jane Cryan’s casket past her families former homestead site along Algoma Boulevard. Seated left, is Cryan’s son, Edward Dawes of Washington, as they made their way to Riverside Cemetery. UWO photo by Kaleb Herrick.
A family gathered at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh this week to bid farewell to one of its beloved members and to honor its storied family legacy in the history of Oshkosh.
Jane Cryan
Jane Cryan, daughter of Marian Tilton and Matthew Cryan, died June 25 in Oshkosh, at the age of 84.
Cryan descends from four Oshkosh pioneers: Edward Wilkins Tilton Sr., who arrived in Oshkosh in 1856; Nancy (Ellsworth) Tilton; Mark Ellsworth; and Eliza (Cheney) Ellsworth. She also descends from William Cheney, an American revolutionary.
Before her death, Cryan requested that her final journey begin near the site of the historic Tilton Manor property of her prominent ancestors. The home was located along Algoma Boulevard, a site now part of UW-Oshkosh.
A horse-drawn carriage procession to Riverside Cemetery began Friday afternoon, July 10, at the UWO Oviatt House parking lot adjacent to the site of the historic Tilton Manor —a grand home that formerly graced Algoma Boulevard and current site of the University’s Clow academic building. See photos here.
The procession departed from UWO and headed along Algoma Boulevard to Riverside Cemetery for Cryan’s graveside service.
Tilton Manor once stood along Algoma Boulevard and is now the site of the Clow Academic Complex on the UW-Oshkosh campus. A horse-drawn carriage carried the casket of Jane Cryan, descendent of the prominent Tilton and Ellsworth families, proceeded past the site of her family’s former home to her final resting place at Riverside Cemetery. (Photo courtesy of Tim Kneeland)
Cryan’s cousin, Tim Kneeland of Neenah, helped arrange the funeral. He said Cryan’s idea was that she wanted to travel to the cemetery the same way her ancestors did and be buried in the family plot. Besides the carriage that was pulled by two black Percheron horses, she requested hymns be sung by an African-American gospel choir at the cemetery and Kneeland arranged for a soloist to perform Black hymns.
Jane Cryan, was a descendant of the Tilton and Ellsworth pioneer families of Oshkosh. Before she died, she requested that her horse-drawn funeral procession would pass by the site of the former Tilton Manor—now part of the UWO campus. (Photo courtesy of Tim Kneeland)
He said among the items Cryan will be buried with, are her favorite walking stick and a small bird nest with several unhatched eggs.
“Jane was a very unique woman and she was a firecracker,” Kneeland said, adding she was a extremely eloquent writer and at one time employed as an executive secretary.
He said his cousin was very much into historic preservation in San Francisco, owning and helping preserve earthquake shacks from the early 1900s.
Cryan’s obituary describes her as a poet, memoirist, historic preservation activist and piano player. She was born in Milwaukee in 1942 and lived for 44 years in San Francisco, California, where she was “highly regarded for her work in saving that city’s 1906 refugee shacks,” according to her obituary. She returned to Wisconsin in 2007, living in a home on Western Avenue in Oshkosh.
Kneeland, whose great-grandfather was Cryan’s uncle, said she previously served on the board of the Oshkosh Public Museum. He said as a youth living in Milwaukee, Cryan was sent to Oshkosh to spend summers and had fond memories from those days. In her later years, she wanted to reside in Oshkosh.
Jane Cryan is held by her grandfather, Edward Wilkins Tilton Jr. in 1942 in Oshkosh. Tilton Jr. grew up in the Tilton manor, a stately property along Algoma Boulevard. (Photo courtesy Tim Kneeland)
Oshkosh known as Sawdust City
During the 19th century, workers poured into Wisconsin to take advantage of the booming paper and lumber industries along the Fox River. The Tiltons came to Oshkosh supplying, filing and repairing saws that were critical to the effort.
Pioneer Edward W. Tilton, born in Maine in 1828, died in Oshkosh at the age of 80 “after a brief illness following a severe cold,” a newspaper story said.
Kneeland, who has embraced genealogy, said the Tilton surname goes back 1,000 years in Leicester, England. The first Tilton to arrive in Puritan colonies was William Tilton, in Lynn, Massachusetts, in the 1630s.
“Our branch then settled in New Hampshire and then followed by Maine,” he said. “Calais, Maine, seems to be where our Tilton and Ellsworth ancestors came to Oshkosh, Wisconsin from.”
This was in the 1850s.
Kneeland shared an intriguing newspaper article from the Daily Courier in Oshkosh, that said on Oct. 31, 1856, the steamer Queen City coming from Fond du Lac on Lake Winnebago, was struck by squalls and the barge it was towing carrying the household goods of Edward W. Tilton capsized and sent the entire load into the lake.
Cryan also descends from the prominent Ellsworth family that once lived in homes along High Avenue. According to maps, the homes were located at the site of the current Kolf Sports Center at UW-Oshkosh. Kneeland said two members of the Ellsworth family who were teachers, lived in houses along High Avenue.
The homes on High Avenue and Algoma Boulevard eventually were sold to UW-Oshkosh.
Cryan is survived by her son, Edward (Patricia) Dawes of Washington State; cousin, Tim Kneeland (Christy) and his daughters Madeline and Makayla, of Wisconsin.
Konrad-Behlman Funeral Homes of Oshkosh, served the family.
In his 32 years, funeral director Jay Schultz said it was the first time he helped a family with a horse-drawn carriage.
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