Cram was born in 1852 in New York to Henry A. Cram and Catherine Sergeant. He attended the St. Paul School in Concord, New Hampshire and then Harvard University. He was appointed as the head of the New York Public Service Commission by Charles Seymour Whitman from 1911 to 1916. In 1916 he was replaced by Travis H. Whitney. He married Edith Claire Bryce. He died in 1936. His widow died in 1960.