They took obvious pride in advertising their political leanings, naming their business The Liberty Paper Mill. Stephen and his family helped shape the momentum of the Revolution by exercising their fiery patriotism at the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Papers made by Stephen Crane were used to print patriotic newspapers leading up to and during the war for Independence, and were even engraved for Colonial Currency by Paul Revere.

Following Stephen’s death during his service with the Continental Army, his eldest son Stephen, and later the younger Zenas, helped operate the family paper business. In the 1790s, young Zenas headed west to Worcester, Massachusetts to work in a paper mill owned by his father’s long-time friend, customer and fellow patriot – Isaiah Thomas – the publisher of the Massachusetts Spy newspaper.

In 1799, when Thomas sold the mill to the Burbank family, Zenas struck out to look for a suitable location for his own mill. He found the perfect spot on the banks of the Housatonic River in Dalton, Massachusetts. Two years later, after obtaining sufficient capital, he established the first mill west of the Connecticut River. It was a modest mill, but was recognized early on as producing papers of the finest quality. As early as 1806, local and regional banks began printing currency on Zenas Crane’s fine cotton papers. This was quickly followed by official government proclamations, permanent public records and stocks and bonds.