The following are some experiences of my Grandfather, John Crowther, who came from England with his family for the gospel’s sake. After landing by steamship and while on their way to Utah in 1864 sickness came into the family resulting in the death of four out of his six children leaving my father, Edward, and Uncle Joe, Father being the younger. Before reaching Utah their mother, Mary Jackson Crowther died in 1867 leaving the three of them to go as they may. 

Grandfather John placed the boys with two different families with the understanding that they do chores to pay for their keep and that they would put them in school and take care of them. So Grandfather left the boys to find work and after teaching school in Montana he left for Utah where he wanted to be finding work on the railroad track. The mother of these boys appeared to Grandfather and told him her boys were being neglected and for him to get them with him as soon as possible. He sent for them enclosing $2.00 to pay their fare. The conductor questioned them and asked them if they were good boys and they told them they were. He told them to keep their money and he would take them to the place they were to go. In due time they reached their destination. 

There was no station at Ogden at that time, but the boys inquired as to where their father was and was told he was working out along the railroad track. They went to find him and met him walking toward them. He did not recognize them and passed them up. They called on him and asked, “Don’t you know us?” One of them was wearing a gray shawl of their mother’s which he remembered. He embraced them and thanked the Lord to have them with him again. 

He took them with him and they found work at the coal mines at Almy just out of Evanston. They were given work with the steam engines hoisting the coal out of the mines. Here they worked for some length of time. From here they went down into Laketown, Utah where they engaged in sawmilling and from there to Logan. But it was while in Laketown that my Father, Edward met my mother, a beautiful girl, Mary Weston. 

While in Logan Father and Uncle Joe continued in sawmilling, also in the canyon where we children of Edward and Mary grew, went to school and engaged in other activities until we moved to Laketown and engaged in flour milling.  

In the fall of 1895, the third dam was built by Edward and Joseph Crowther to provide power for their sawmill west of the dam. Cribs made with logs and filled with rocks formed part of the structure for the dam. In the spring when the snow melted and the water was high it began to wash away the dirt and rocks from around the cribs and it was feared that the dam would go out. As the men worked desperately to rebuild the washed out part, Mother and her little family started from the house to go down to where the men were working. As they walked through the trees she stopped and told her children to kneel down with her while she offered a prayer for the preservation of the dam. The dam was saved and the event will always remain in the memories of those children. 

In 1898 the family moved to Logan so that the children could attend school. And the lumber mill was sold to Anderson Lumber Company in Logan. 

In 1904 they moved to Laketown and bought a flour mill there. In the spring of 1912 Edward Crowther and his family moved to Malad City, Idaho where they purchased a flour mill form Bill Jones. 

Edward Nehemiah Crowther (son of Edward, grandson of John)