A new gold plate on an existing portrait hanging outside the auditor’s office in the Ward County Administration Building identifies the distinguished gentleman as Crane, the first president of Minot Normal School, now MSU, for whom Crane Hall is named.

For several years – since the county has possessed the portrait – the gold plate has read “Henry Davis Minot,” the man for whom the city of Minot is named.

The mistake happened innocently enough. Several years ago, John Roll, then a Ward County building department employee, found a picture at a downtown antique shop of a man identified as Henry Minot. He purchased and donated the picture to the Courthouse, where it hung in the commission chambers until the move to the new building that opened in 2016.

At the time the portrait was donated to the county, a Minot Daily News editor recognized that it did not match the large portrait of Henry Minot that the News had in its possession for many years. However, the true identity of the man pictured in the county’s frame was uncertain until recently. Another News editor, in the process of doing research, came across online photos and information on past MSU presidents. There, the photo of Crane was found to match the the portrait in the county’s possession. The county building supervisor was notified about two weeks ago.

Building Supervisor Leona Lochthowe spoke of the public interest in the county’s historic pictures display in reporting the plate change to the Ward County Commission Tuesday. She also spoke of the impressive addition Crane’s portrait brings to the display.

“History says he has the ability to inspire so I got a new label so he can continue to inspire us,” she said.

Crane, born Sept. 1, 1877, in New York City, attended Carleton College and received his doctorate from Columbia University. While president of Minot Normal School, founded in 1913, he served in the U.S. Army Sanitary Corps at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., during World War I. In 1921, he left Minot to become president of the University of Wyoming, later becoming Wyoming secretary of state. From 1949 to 1951, he served as governor. He died in Wyoming in 1955.

During his tenure in Minot, Crane had disagreed with Minot Normal School’s board president on the location for the future Old Main in 1912. He wanted it back from the street to accommodate future growth, according to a university historical account. The evening before the groundbreaking, he went out in the middle of the night and moved the survey stakes for the building 50 yards back, creating the sweeping lawn that still exists in front of the building.

Henry Davis Minot, born Aug. 18, 1859, was a Massachusetts ornithologist and railroad executive. He attended Harvard, where he was friends with classmate Theodore Roosevelt. He traveled extensively and had a number of railroad investments and other commercial enterprises. He died in a train crash in Pennsylvania on Nov. 14, 1890.