Ichabod Crane (colonel) Ichabod Crane (colonel) Ichabod Bennet Crane (July 18, 1787 – October 5, 1857) was a career military officer for 48 years and the probable namesake of the protagonist in Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Crane was born in Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), New Jersey. He was the son of Gen. William Crane. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1809 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, assigned to the USS "United States", a 44-gun frigate commanded by Stephen Decatur. He served aboard the "United States" for two years. Crane resigned from the Marines in April 1812,
Ichabod Crane (colonel) admit that the character is named after Colonel Crane, the two men had met in 1814 at Fort Pike located on Lake Ontario in Sackets Harbor, New York. Irving was an aide-de-camp to New York Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins, who was inspecting defenses in the Sackets Harbor area. Crane's somewhat unusual and memorable first name Ichabod comes from the biblical name of the grandson of Eli the High Priest and son of Phinehas. As we were: the story of old Elizabethtown Volume 13 of Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society New Jersey Historical Society Collections Author Theodore Thayer Publisher