A brief biography of my life. 

I was born in Laketown, Rich County, Utah, my sister, Rose, and I, on February 13, 1889. Our mother was there visiting with her parents at the time of our birth. Our home was in Logan and we were the first of a family of seven children–myself, Edward Nehemiah, Mary Rosanna, Norma Weston, Edna, Joseph Wilford, who was born in Logan Canyon and also died in the canyon at the age of three, Junious Lavern and Thelma. 

My father and his brother, Uncle Joseph, owned and operated saw mills in the canyon making it so we lived both in the canyon and our home in Logan. We lived in a rented home until the year 1898 when with the money Mother had coming from her father’s estate, $600.00, bought a nice concrete block home in the FifthW Ward where we lived making improvements in and around the home until it became a very nice place to live. 

My Father and Mother were both born in England. Father, whose name was Edward Crowther was born March 27, 1857 in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England. My grandfather’s name was John Crowther and my grandmother’s maiden name was Mary Jackson. My Mother, Mary Weston was born in Wooley, Somerset, England on January 27, 1865. Her father’s name was Nehemiah Weston and her mother’s maiden name was Rosanna Gifford. All were good people and respected highly among their associates. My Grandfather Weston was a farmer, and my Grandfather Crowther was a mechanic experienced with steam engines. Both families came here for the gospel’s sake. Father and Mother became acquainted while living in Laketown and were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on October 4, 1883. 

My baptism was performed in the Logan Temple on March 16, 1897 by George Checketts. This record is written and preserved in the Temple records. 

My patriarchal blessing was given to me by Patriarch John Smith on July 9, 1910 in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

My schooling commenced at the age of 9 in Logan. I attended the Brigham Young College in Logan for a year and a half and attended the Fielding Academy at Paris, Idaho for two years from 1908 to 1910. The teachers I remember best were Ariel Cardon and Miss Kerr in Logan and my principal, Earnest Bramwell at the Fielding Academy. Principal Bramwell had a remarkable influence on my life. 

On July 9, 1910 I left for the Australian Mission aboard the steamship Marama. I labored in Tasmania for 18 months and presided over the conference in Melbourne for nine months. I was released from my mission on November 10, 1912 and returned to Malad City, Idaho where my father had bought the Jones Four Mill. A complete remodeling job and some building had been done. I joined with my father, Norman, and Junius. Our prospects were good, it being a wheat country. We were united and gave the best we had to its success. We have done considerable building, including the extending the railroad track to the mill one-half mile, as also my father’s home and my own home on a good lot adjoining my wife’s, Estella’s, father and mother’s lot. We also had the courage to build a large dam in connection with the mill for storing water, giving a better use of the water for power purposes. We have since sold it to the irrigation company. It is proving to be of great value in storing water for power and for irrigation benefits.  

As a boy while living in the Logan Canyon, I learned to fish in the river. I had a nice little bamboo pole and a fly hook. Fishing was good and about every three days I would take a big box to Logan and sell them to the butcher ,and I earned my first $5.00 gold piece, out of which paying 50 cents for tithing, being my first experience. 

I remember an experience my Uncle Joseph Crowther had while living at this same home. It was with a big mountain lion who jumped over the big gate onto the river bridge. When he saw Uncle Joe leaning against the gate post he crouched as though he were going to take him for his evening meal. Uncle Joe stooped, picked up a rock and threw it at him. The lion jumped back over the gate and went on back up the road. 

It was at about this same time when I attempted to unload a load of hay into the barn. I slipped and fell between the rack and barn breaking my shoulder blade. This break resulted in my right shoulder being lower than my left one as you now see it. 

It was also about this time when my father while working in the slide used for sliding logs down from the top of the mountain into the river for sawmilling was lifted bodily out of the slide by an unseen power just as a loose log came down at a high rate of speed which would have taken his life. 

As a boy in Logan I attended religion class and Sunday School, and in later years while attending school at Paris, I was a teacher in Sunday School. Since returning from my mission I have taught mostly the Gospel Doctrine Class which has been of great value to me and have enjoyed it. 

I was president of the High Priest Quorum for five years. I was in the Malad Stake Presidency for 17 years along with President Thomas W. Richards, D.P. Woodland, Hyrum J. Hansen and Samuel A. Hendreicks. And now at the age of 72 have been a Patriarch since August of 1949 and have given 416 blessings. 

I was a high councilman in the Malad stake for two years leading up to the time of my office in the stake presidency. At the present time I am an officiator in the Logan Temple and have been for five and one-half years (June 24, 1961). This is a glorious privilege and is bringing many great blessings into my life. 

In 1904 my father and Uncle Joseph Crowther sold their power right and mill setting at Exes (Thomas “X” location) for the sum of $4,500 to the Logan City for power purposes and with the desire they had for a flour mill my father made an investigation and found that the little mill at Laketown owned by the N.M. Hodges, a cousin of ours, was for sale. After giving it a lot of consideration and prayer, Father decided to take the money and with his family moved to Laetown which they did and in August, 1904 undertook the change of life and a new business. Joseph Hodges, a cousin of ours, was the miller for two years giving us time to learn the business. I remember how happy we were in our home and with the new kind of business. 

I took the job of freighting with team and wagon in delivering flour to stores and ranches extending as far as Evanston, Wyoming. I had learned to love horses and my work. The following year my sister, Rose, and I went to Logan and attended the Brigham Young College. We boarded with Uncle Joe and Aunt Sarah. I took blacksmithing and carpentry work in training along with other subjects. We completed the year’s work with a lot of interest. In returning home at Christmas time Norman had come with a team of horses and buggy, one of the horses was a large dapple gray and the other a chunky brown mare. We left at 8:00 in the morning with a temperature of 10 degrees below zero. The brown mare became sick and slowed up our traveling. At noon we stopped for lunch and thought she would get better. The sun was shining beautifully and there was about eight inches of brush snow. In trying to make the grade crossing the mountains called the right hand road of the canyon, the horse kept on getting slower until I decided to walk to Round Valley where Uncle Joseph Gibbons owned and lived on the farm. My purpose was to get another horse to take the place of the sick one. The walking was heavy because of the loose snow. I arrived and with a beautiful horse and saddle started back to meet Norman and Rose. When I met them it was after dark and they had unhitched the team, built a fire, and were waiting for me. The evening was cold and I had been sweating from running through the loose snow, a distance of about 8 miles. While riding along on the horse I felt a tingle in my ears. I wondered if they were freezing, and then thought no more of it. We hitched the fresh horse along with our good horse and drove on until we reached our home in Laketown, It was then 12:00 midnight, and you can imagine how happy we all were to be home safely where it was warm and lovely. It was then that I felt my ears and they were both frozen and badly swollen. It was a new experience for all of us. The horse that was sick followed home behind the buggy and was alright the next day. We returned to school after the holidays, it proving to be a very valuable year in the field of education. 

The following year I returned to the B.Y.C. to continue my schooling, but I did not enter until after Thanksgiving. I registered for bookkeeping and business, the beginning of my training in the field of business which I have made good use of through the years of my life. In the field of athletics, under the school coach Snider, I learned to high jump. I remember reaching the point of 5 ft. 2 inches. One evening about this time in March, I attended one of our school’s league games in basketball. The mumps were around and by the next Monday I was down with them. They were plenty bad and I was in for two weeks. I was boarding with four of the Hodges–Orson, Nonie, Parley, and Lizsie. About this time word came from home that Norman had about lost his arm, getting in a steel conveyor which broke both bones and tore the flesh until the arm was almost to drop off. Dr. Ray at Randolph took care of it and saved his arm. Due to this experience, it was necessary for me to return home. I met Norman at Randolph where he was getting treatments for his arm. We drove home together. There was still a lot of snow on the divide and the forces found it difficult to travel. 

I joined with my folks–my father’s family–and went on with my work at the mill and on the road freighting to Randolph, Woodruff, Evanston and a number of large ranches. It was about this time that I set up a warehouse and office and worked the entire territory from there, others hauling from the mill to the warehouse. By this means we were able to keep the mill running most of the time. This continued through the summer, the following winter and into the summer. 

I had finished a few days’ visit home as I did at intervals and was just ready to climb on to the loaded wagon returning to Randolph where I was living when my father spoke to me asking if I would like to go to school to the Fielding Academy. Principal Bramwell of the school had visited our ward in Laketown explaining what the school was, what they were going to do to make it a real school and added, “If you do come, we will make you work.” For some reason this registered in my mind and remained with me and when Father asked me if I would like to go to school at the Fielding Academy, the mental picture of Principal Bramwell and the words stood out vividly in my mind. I left then and was on my way thinking over and over what I would do because I was enjoying my work and felt a great need that I should stay. 

The time passed by quickly and the time came for us to go to school. My sister, Edna, decided to go with me. We obtained rooms and boarded with a lady and her two girls in Paris. We registered and obtained the necessary books for that school year. It was hard for me to get settle down to work and by Friday of that week I went into my room upstairs and placed the books on the table. As I sat down to sizing the books up I said to myself, “It just isn’t worth it, my time is too valuable to spend over that many books–I am going home.” When Edna came home I told her my thinking, and she said, “Well, if that is the way you feel about it may be that is what you had better do.” That did not seem to satisfy me and I slept on it through the night. The next morning there came in the mail a letter from President Joseph F. Smith, who was then President of the Church, which called me to take a missionary course and prepare to go on a mission in the spring. This made me feel better about it all, and that is what I would do.  

The following Monday morning I reported to Principal Bramwell. He expressed a feeling of delight and said that we would change my theology course to the missionary course and go right on with my work. After becoming adjusted to my work I found it was getting easier for me and I began to like my school work. Christmas vacation came and we went home for the holidays. From then on I grew with a love for my school. When the time came the first of April for the missionary class to receive their calls for their missions, Principal Bramwell called me into his office and said, “I have been watching you, and instead of your going on a mission as the other members of the class are doing, I would like you to stay, finish this year’s work and then come back next year. There are subjects I would like you to take which will be of great value to you. Another year of schooling will not only prepare you for a mission, but will prepare you for life.” There were other things he said, but I told him I would stay. I finished my work of that year and could hardly wait until the beginning of  school in the fall. 

During the summer I continued my work in the interest of our business, spending most of my time at Randolph and freighting to Evanson and ranches. On one occasion when I was going to the B Q Ranch located across Bear River in Utah, I found that the hayland was flooded from the river. When I started across I found that the load was too heavy so carried part of the load back to dry land then proceeded to the ranch. When I got near the other side I was impressed to stop the team and investigate the situation. I unhitched the horses and tied one to the wagon and got on the other one to ride over to where I thought the bridge was. I had only gone a couple of rods when the horse I was riding went down out of sight into deep water up to my waist, but the horse made a circle and came back up and out of the water. I pulled into the stackyard nearby then went back and got the rest of the load and camped in the stockyards overnight. The next day I went back home and called the ranch and told them where their flour was. 

The remaining year of my schooling proved to be of greater value to me. The benefits of the school were unfolded to me and brought out of me the best that I had. One of the highlights was my place on the school basketball team. A league was formed with other schools with whom we played and were not defeated. The experience of traveling, meeting with other schools and people helped me so much in my social life, made my school work lighter and more interesting to me.  

It was while here in Paris that I had my first experience teaching in Sunday School classes and in the religion Class, and from that time until now at the age of 72 I have had a good deal of this work to do of which has been of great value to me. 

I love and appreciate so much my work in the Church. It has been a great source of comfort to me. I know that it is true and by living its principles it will bring to us exaltation in our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom. I love my home, my Dear Wife, Estella, and my family. She has been a grand mother and companion to me and a great support to me in all of oour affairs of life. The Lord has blessed us with a lovely family of children–four boys and five girls–and thirty-one grandchildren. Bradford, passed on in March 1960, and this year in April (1961) our eldest son, Neal, passed away as a result of an operation to remove a very serious brain tumor which had begun to affect his vision. His death was a great loss to us and especially to his family. Neal was valiant and true, faithful in all his activities. 

I have enjoyed our business, flour milling, feed, coal, and also grain. It has been a good business, but has been difficult the past few years to make it succeed. 

I was director of the Samaria Lake Irrigation Company. And for seventeen years I was Finance Commissioner of the Tendoy Council of Boy Scouts of Oneida County. 

As a boy while on the road freighting from Laketown to Randolph and Evanston I read Darrell of the Blessed Isles, a wonderful book which my mother gave me. I have read and studied for class discussion The Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants. I have made a study and have used the New Testament a lot. I have read these books as well as others along with poetry for public speaking of which I have been very active since returning from my mission. One of my favorite poems is “The Touch of the Master’s Hand.” 

I have also enjoyed The Way to Perfection by Joseph Fielding Smith as well as his sermons and writings; Mathew Cowley’s book, his sermons and what he did and was; also President McKay’s books and many of his sermons. I try to keep up with the Era and the Church Section and a lot of other reading. I always aim to have good reading with me wherever I go. Early in my life I read the great book, Pushing to the Front. 

I hope that I can arrange my affairs so that I will have more time to give to reading, for this I do enjoy and feel the need for it. 

Children born to Edward and estella Crowther are Margaret, Neal, Gordon, Berthel, Valene, Lucille, Leonore, and Sharon.