Marjorie Allred Williams (1921-1994): Now We Know Why She Loved Soap Operas and the Opera

Marjorie at age 15. She was probably referring to this picture when she wrote,"I got my picture taken. Fair" (10 April 1937) Apparently she did not particularly like this photograph of herself.

When I, Matt Crawford, was twelve years old my family, which included my parents (Scott & Ann) and my brothers (Steve, Joe, & Pete), sold our home in West Valley City, Utah. At the same time my maternal grandparents (Marjorie Allred & John Williams) also sold their home in the avenues of Salt Lake City. All of us moved into a home in Sandy, Utah in February 1987. Since grandpa had Alzheimer’s, grandma was no longer able to care for him on her own—hence the moves into a combined home. Among the many memories I have of my grandparents, this one is pertinent to this post: grandma loved watching soap operas. Often while watching these, or any other program for that matter, she would have her radio blaring the tremulous tones of operatic singers. (Two ironies: [1] she listened to operatic works while watching her soaps, and [2] a bunch of teenage boys would later ask their grandma, in the basement apartment, to turn down her radio.) When asked why she watched her soap operas she would intone, “For the story.” However, after reading from grandma’s teenage diary, I think she really watched them and loved operatic music because they reminded her of a carefree, yet drama-filled youth.

Cover of the diary

Marjorie’s first-known diary runs from January 1936 to December 1940. The first three years contain an entry for almost every day of the calendar, while the last couple of years are much more hit and miss. She penned her first entry when she was fourteen years old, turning fifteen on 27 May. This post will concentrate on the year 1936. (The spelling and punctuation from the journal entries have been standardized.)

Inside of the diary

In 1936 Marjorie and her family (parents and five siblings) resided in Idaho, moving homes once that year (23–25 April), and entries for that year centered around five topics: movies, opera, boys, dancing, school, family, and church. 

Movies

Marjorie went to the movie theater more than sixty times with friends, family, or on a date. Sometimes she attended the theater more than once in a single day (2 January; 8 February), or simply caught a double feature (25 April; 2, 16 May; 6, 11 July; 26 September). With a female friend she saw “A Tale of Two Cities,” and commented “[We] both cried!” (2 January). Of the Marx Brother’s comedy “A Night at the Opera,” she noted, “It was sure funny” (16 June). Of other shows she simply put something like, “The show was just grand” (13 July; see also 2 January; 31 August; 20 September; 7, 9 October; 8 November). Understandably, with school out, she saw more movies in the summer.

Opera

Through the magic of radio Marjorie loved to listen to operatic voices. She would listen to full length operas by tuning in to “The Metropolitan Opera House in New York” (4 January; 8 February), or just listen to programs which displayed favorite voices of the day such as Grace Moore (6 January; 17, 24 February; 2, 22 March; 12 April), Nelson Eddy (6 January; 16 March; 20 December), Lawrence Tibbett (18, 25 February; 3, 17 March), Lily Pons (26 February), Helen Jepson (5 April), Margaret Speaks (4 May; 30 November), and Richard Crooks (4 May; 30 November). Though she favored operatic voices, she condescended and still enjoyed the tones of Fred Astaire (29 September).

Boys

To say that Marjorie was infatuated with boys is an understatement. After a boy named Ray took her to a double-feature at the theater she gushed: “Ray is adorable. I sure like him. He’s tops with me. I hope I am with him” (2 January). Not many days later she observed that a “there is the cutest boy in English” class (20 January), and a number 33 on an opposing basketball team garnered: he “sure is cute” (25 January; see also 22 February). A Norris beat out a Bob for an invitation to a Dance Club Party (3, 19 February). Norris also won the month: “Nothing in this month interests me, [except] for Norris” (Memorandum section following February).

In March “he” arrives on the scene. “Dell…made a swell blind date. Oh he is just grand and a perfect dancer” (7 March). This infatuation would last well throughout the year, and this despite Dell living in Utah. She would think about him, talk with him on the phone, or write, or receive letter from, him regularly, and receive this exuberant approbation: “Gee he is swell.” (8–13, 18, 23–24, 28 March; 3, 10 April). Despite Dell’s obvious debonair, she branched out regularly.

In May she wrote of Dick: “I do love him so” (19 May). But perhaps the most entertaining judgment of boys is “thrill, thrill”—a phrase she used after being driven home by Bob after the movies (23 May). Even so, she later lamented, “The night I was with Bob was very romantic, but why is he such a darn fool?” (Memorandum section following May).

June brought new romances. When an extended family relation arrived for a visit from Canada, the driver was a “young boy whose name is Max.” Marjorie continued, “He’s wonderful, and terribly nice; like music and doesn’t smoke! or drink. He held my hand. We went to the carnival!” (10 June). Two days later Wayne, an eighteen-year-old boy from Arkansas, also took her to the carnival. “He held my hand and said, ‘Marjorie you’re sweet.’” To which she later wrote: “Gee it’s a thrill” (12 June). The next day Wayne gushed “loads of … nice things” to Marjorie as he held her hand. She confessed, “I know he was going to kiss me, but was interrupted” (13 June). The next few days are all about Wayne, until he left, it seems, for good. Those days eventually included the “sweetest and most sincere kiss,” as well as confessions of “I love you” (14–18 June). Wayne consumed her thoughts so much that month that she spurned Bill for trying to kiss her (28 June; Memorandum section following June).

Spurning anyone who was not Wayne did not last long. Dick “kissed me,” she put, but found it wanting: “I guess it’s all right” (3 July). A couple weeks later Dell—who keeps popping up through letters, phone calls, and either by him visiting Idaho, or her visiting Utah (25 June; 16, 18–20, July)—kissed her. Her verdict? “It was nice” (21 July). The kissing continued to the end of the month.

As summer drifted away we know she approved of her continued relationship with Dell because he got a “Thrill, Thrill” (17 August), which flirtatious words did not even come after he gave her “6 red rose buds” (27 November; see also 1, 4, 9, 21 August; 22 September; 21 October; 12, 21, 25–26, 28 November). Even so, after school started she “discovered” and went out on a date with Bob Marley (10, 19 September)—don’t get too excited, this was not the famous Jamaican singer-songwriter, because he would not be born for 9 more years. Marjorie’s Bob Marley got a mixed review: “I sure like him, damn him” (13 November; see also 4, 11 December). Meanwhile she also liked another boy, exuding: “Seeing Ray sure gave me a thrill” Memorandum section following November; see also 28 November).

The year ended with a bang, not only with some of the boys mentioned above, but with Howe, Ivan, Garth, and Paul (4, 11, 13, 16, 18 December). Howe won out, taking her to a ball, giving her a box of chocolates on Christmas Eve, and putting his arm around her at the movies (23–24, 31 December).

Dancing

Marjorie enjoyed and excelled at tap dancing. At the beginning of the year she was asked by a teacher to assist in the dancing club after school (7–10 January). She continued her own growth not only through teaching dance, but also taking lessons, and performing programs (13–14, 29 January; 4, 10–14 February). It appears that dance club was held on school property and in private homes, including at Marjorie’s own residence (31 January; 11, 20 February; 8, 15, 22 May; 19 June). She observed that the dance club was “orderly,” which she liked (10 January); even so, she wanted it fun. Once she complained: “I had club tonite and are those girls boring—good gosh! a bunch of little babies” (20 March). Also, dance club extended into learning ballet at least once, which she found enjoyable (6 October).

Marjorie not only danced through the club organization, but she attended school dances and went out dancing as part of a date (4 July; 4 August; 2, 23, 30 October; 6, 13 November; 4 December).

School

Like most teens, even now, Marjorie endured school. She was upset at needing to change her schedule (16 January). She mentioned having hard tests in English and History (1 October). One day she wrote that she “wore [her] rose dress” to school, but other than that, “nothing much happened” (5 October). Her A in Typing, D in History, and C in English yielded this obvious observation: “not so bad and not so good” (21 October). On another occasion she noted with a hint of amused accomplishment: “Got our report cards today. I got A, B, C, D right in a row” (2 December).

Her friends at school, especially the boys, as mentioned above, were the highlights of school. She also attended boys’ basketball games (25 January, 21–22 February), and spent time with her many female friends. She babysat with a friend named Jean and raked in a whopping thirty-five cents (13 August; see also 18 November; 7, 14 December). When she did not like some of her friends, she blasted them: “Damn quarrelsome kids” (20 February), and, “Gee Ruth give me a pain” (26 April). When things were going well she would note something like, “Monkeyed” around with friends (14, 16, 19–20 August; 19 September).

Family and Church

Marjorie’s family and church activity are background players to the other themes in her journal of this year. Male and female friends seemed much more important than family, and church was attended with friends by her side, not family.

Though Marjorie and her family were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there was not a lot of gospel instruction going on in the home. Her father was gone quite a bit for work and her mother was involved in other things. Even so, she mentions family members and church meetings with some regularity.

She recalled teaching her six-year-old brother, Alan, a couple of tap steps at home, and then penned, “He sure looks cute when trying to do it” (6 January). Once she went “downtown with Mom and … got something to embroider” (8 August; see also 5December). On occasion she mentions her parents heading to Salt Lake, assumedly for her father’s work, or that her father just got back from some type of business trip (22, 31 August; 11 September). They bottled “peaches and tomatoes” together (3 September).

She attended church meetings fairly regularly with friends; summer attendance was the most spotty, yet she finished the year with a bang, going eight weeks in a row (e.g. 16, 23 February; 15, 29 March; 5, 12, 19 April; 16 May; 21 June; 9, 16, 30 August; 20, 27 September; 4, 11, 18, 25 October; 8, 15, 22, 29 November; 6, 13, 20, 27 December). Perhaps the most noteworthy event for church was when the ward met in the local Presbyterian building because the LDS chapel was way too hot (2 February).

Conclusion

Marjorie’s year of 1936 was a typical teenage mini-soap opera, or drama. Major players included many boys, friends, and school, with time for dancing, opera stars, church, and family. Marjorie was a typical teenage girl, which is great! It is great because it gives hope to us all. In her patriarchal blessing, which she received when she was 32, it reaches back in time and observes: “You have led a virtuous life. Your inner-most thoughts have been virtuous all the days of your life.” We can all change and become better through time and Jesus Christ’s Atonement.

Young Lives of Sofie Frederikke Christoffersen (1869-1956) & Gardner John Crawford (1862-1928)

Sofie (Sophie, Sophia) Frederikke (Frederikka) Christoffersen and Gardner John Crawford came from completely distinct backgrounds. Sophia’s family originally lived in Denmark, while Gardner was born in Utah through a polygamist father’s third wife.

Sophia’s parents, Henrik Thorup Christophersen and Mette Marie Nielsen, were both previously married and divorced—he for unknown reasons and she because her husband was a drunkard. Mette moved to Aalborg where her parents lived to look for work. There she met and married Henrik, and they were both baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 5 May 1867—though Henrik claimed adherence to Mormon principles for the previous 7 years. He brought 2 living children to the marriage and she 5, although the location of these children at the time of matrimony is hard to pinpoint. Together Henrik and Mette had 6 children, with 4 surviving to adulthood. Sophia was the oldest living child, born in 1869 (AKLC, 3–4).

Gardner was born in 1869 to a Scottish Mormon emigrant by the name of John Crawford and to Elizabeth Coolidge Snow, who was raised by first generation Mormons in Illinois and Utah. Both of Gardner’s parents were deeply committed to the Mormon cause and planted their roots in what came to be known as Manti, Utah. Sophia’s relocation to Utah was far more circuitous.

Physical and verbal persecution was high in Aalborg during the 1870s. The combined memories of Sophia and her sister, Anna, recalled baptisms performed at night to avoid scuffles and church meetings that included heated words, a mob, door watchmen, as well as thrown eggs and rocks. The rented second story room of a home served as a Mormon branch location, and on one occasion Henrik evicted 3 egg launchers via the stairs from the premises—a disgruntled horde attempted to snag him later that night, but he made his escape through another exit (AKLC, 6; HSFC, 1).

In 1874, when Sophia was 5, Henrik visited the local mission office, and to his delight found a Mormon family willing and financially able to take one Christoffersen family member to be with the Saints in America. When Henrik returned home he made his announcement with a question: “Which one of you would like to go to America?” Hattie, over a year older than Sophia, let her answer be known with tears of fear. Contrastingly, Sophia was “jumping up and down and clapping [her] hands” with joyful pleadings to be sent. It was settled, Sophia was bound for Zion (AKLC, 6–7; HSFC, 1).

The August 1874 boat voyage from Denmark to England did not end well. Upon arriving in Britain Sophia was admitted to the hospital for three weeks as she suffered with measles. On 2 September Sophia and her accompanying family were on their way again aboard the ship christened Wyoming. The passage was not particularly pleasant: no one spoke Danish, Sophia was struck with seasickness, and bread and hard tack were the daily fare (HSFC, 1–2). Sophia remembers that she and her sponsor left England aboard the Wyoming on 2 September and arrived on the 23 of the same month in Salt Lake (HSFC, 1). (An aggressive search for Sophia’s name aboard the Wyoming’s manifest for the 2–12 September voyage proved fruitless; though the manifest is available and intact, no record of her name was found. See https://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/)

Upon arrival Sophia and her Danish sponsors headed for the tithing office. (“The Tithing Yard was used to temporarily house the incoming converts throughout the 1880s” [ANCME].) Since the office and its surrounding landscape traditionally housed recent arrivals, including those from Denmark, Sophia’s half-sister, Lena (or Lene age 15), who had arrived in 1872 often went greet anyone she knew. (Lena, or Lene, was Nicoline Thomsen, child of their mother’s first marriage [AKLC, 4].) When Lena, who was quite homesick, Sophia remembered: “She wrapped her arms around my knees and lay on the ground and cried and cried” (HSFC, 2).

A significant economic institution among Latter-day Saints during the nineteenth century was the tithing office. Since tithing was paid for the most part either in kind or labor, tithing offices served as something of a general store where local produce and manufactured items could be obtained. This is the Deseret Store and Tithing Office of Salt Lake City in the 1860s. It occupied the site of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building east of Temple Square. (see Church History In The Fulness Of Times Student Manual [2003], 393–405).

Lena attempted to hide and care for Sophia at her place of employment—she lived and worked as a maid/servant in a family residence. Sophia’s crying alerted the family to her presence, but instead of ire, the family insisted that she too stay with them. This cozy scenario shifted when a woman from Manti arrived with a letter in hand. The author of the letter was Lena’s and Sophia’s mother, and the contents revealed that this Danish woman, a friend of Maria Christofferson, was to be the caretaker of Sophia, in Manti. The next two years were not pleasant: “They made me work real hard and were cruel me,” Sophia remembered (HSFC, 2)—Elva, one of Sophia’s children, claimed that her mother “lost the sight of her one eye during this time” (LSSFC, 2).  Fortunately, another fellow Dane, Peter Larson, who knew the Christofferson’s well in Denmark, witnessed the cruelty first-hand and finally, via petition, wrenched Sophia away from the awful situation and placed her with the family with whom she crossed the ocean.

After Sophia’s eighth birthday, her mother and three of her sisters, arrived in Utah—their names appear on the manifest of the ship Wisconsin, which arrived in New York on 7 July 1877.

Maria gathered her girls, including Sophia, and lived and worked in and around Salt Lake City until Henrik arrived the next year aboard the Nevada, as he appears on the manifest. 

By 1880 the entire family was living in Levan, Utah with Henry, Maria, Henrietta, Sophia, Louisa, and Josephine all listed on the census—Lena, who by then was married, also appears on the record with her two children.

Sources:

AKLC=Donna L. Hemingmay, “Anna Katrina Louise Christoffersen Petersen Bradford, 1872–1940” (1997), available at https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1021663&from=fhd.

ANCME=Fred E. Woods, “The Arrival of Nineteenth-Century Mormon Emigrants in Salt Lake city,” in  Salt Lake City: The Place Which God Prepared, ed. Scott C. Esplin and Kenneth L. Alford (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 2011), 203–230. Available at https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/salt-lake-city/11-arrival-nineteenth-century-mormon-emigrants-salt-lake-city.

HSFC=Estella A. Crawford, “History of Sophia Fredricka Christofferson” (1952), available at www.FamilySearch.org>Sofie Frederikke Christoffersen [KWJX-H75]>Memories>Documents.

LSSFC=Estella A. Crawford, “A Life Sketch of Sophia Fredericka Christofferson” (1952), available at www.FamilySearch.org>Sofie Frederikke Christoffersen [KWJX-H75]>Memories>Documents.

Hyrum (1798-1846) & Orson (1802-1855 ) Spencer

Hyrum Spencer

Orson Spencer

The 1847 New Year edition of the Millennial Star (an England-based LDS Church newspaper) included distressing news: “Elder Orson Spencer is numbered with the dead!!”(MS1, 13).  Church leaders and English Saints alike were stunned. In October of the previous year President Brigham Young appointed Orson to lead the Church in England (LOS, 50–51).  Leaving his motherless children at Winter Quarters and in the watch-care of the oldest child, Ellen, Orson headed east and crossed the cold Atlantic in December. Orson was to replace another with the same first name, Orson Hyde, as presiding officer, but obviously eager anticipation was quashed by sorrow.

Though impaired throughout his life by a lame right leg—a condition he acquired at age 14 through typhus fever—Orson Spencer pushed himself to success within his sphere of limitation (LSOS, 9–10, 13). Orson was educated at an academy and two colleges—one of which had a theological focus, which led him to the ministry in the Baptist church for twelve years (LOS, 2–3); he wed Catherine Curtis in 1830, and together they had eight children; and he was a lifelong learner—he devoured books, studied independently, and wrote extensively.

While serving as a Baptist minister from 1837 to 1841 in Middlefield, Massachusetts the United States suffered through an economic Panic. He “voluntarily reduced his own salary [by] $100” as the financial crisis washed over his little flock (HMM, 288). Any affection his Baptist congregation bore him for his generous action dissolved when he converted to Mormonism.

Orson’s brother, Daniel, already a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, visited Middlefield in 1840 or 1841 with a copy of a Book of Mormon. After days and nights of discussion and thought, Catherine turned to her husband and pointedly observed, “Orson, you know this is true!” (LSOS=16). Orson announced his conversion in a farewell sermon to his parishioners. Baptist officials excommunicated the minster, noting that his conversion was “her[e]sy” (HMM, 288). One local Baptist adherent expressed his feelings about his minister’s exit with a poem that might contain an underlying jab about Orson’s gimpy leg: “Just why Elder Spencer a Mormon became/ I never could tell, though his story I heard./ But his arguments seemed to me very lame,/ And they neither my reason nor sympathy stirred” (HMM, 288).

Catherine not only faced excommunication from the Baptists but also from her family. Thus, Orson and Catherine, along with their children, gave up much to cast their lots with the Mormons and head to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Following Catherine’s death, and seeing that the children were poised to succeed in Winter Quarters, Orson headed to England. He did not in fact die en route, though indeed another Spencer had perished. Hyrum Spencer, Orson’s brother, was camped with the Mormon pioneers in Garden Grove, Iowa in the summer of 1846. He and a nephew named Claudius returned to Nauvoo to sell Spencer land and acquire cattle for the continued migration west. It rained continuously as uncle and nephew rode back to Nauvoo, and though they acquired cattle and wagons, the two riders drove the herd west while being tracked by a group of men bent on stealing the livestock. The exposure, lack of sleep, and unrelenting pace was too much for Hyrum’s constitution. During his final moments he asked Claudius to tell his ten children and wife (his first wife died), “Live and die with this work.” With the assistance of nearby strangers Claudius saw to his uncle’s burial at Mt. Pisgah, after which he drove the herd to Garden Grove and relayed the sad news. The lamentable news was at one point misapplied to Hyrum’s brother, Orson, which in turn was relayed to England (LSOS, 42–46, 82).

As the Saints mourned the loss of Orson, he was in fact enduring a storm-filled, forty day sea passage. Upon his safe arrival, the Mormon newspaper in England printed a retraction: “Elder Spencer is alive and in our midst” (MS2, 42, emphasis in original). The article then quipped, “Few men in the 19^th century possess that degree of longevity which enables them to read … their own obituary notice” (MS2, 42).

After serving for a year and a half Orson was released from his service in England (LOS, 59).

HMM=Edward Church Smith, A History of the Town of Middlefield, Massachusetts (Menasha, Wisconsin: The Collegiate Press, 1924).

LOS=Richard Wallace Sadler, “The Life of Orson Spencer” master’s thesis, University of Utah, 1965.

LSOS=Aurelia Spencer Rogers, Life Sketches of Orson Spencer and Others, and History of Primary Work (N.P.: George Q. Cannon and Sons Company, 1898).

MS1= “Important from America,” Millennial Star 9, no. 1 (1 January 1847)

MS2= “Address,” Millennial Star 9, no. 3 (1 February 1847).

Margaret Livingstone Haldane (1836-1891)

Margaret was married to James Brown Syme. (Click here for his sketch and more information regarding this family.)

After Margaret and James were baptized members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in May 1863, they heeded the call to leave their home country of Scotland and make their way to Zion in the western United States. The family ties Margaret left behind in Scotland were severed: her parents "rejected her" and her mother warned that in America James would enter polygamy. Margaret simply replied, "Well, at least I will be the first."

Margaret and James settled in Wyoming and raised many children. Margaret was a midwife and found herself very busy at times, but never too busy to attend church meetings. On a particular Sunday, one of James' prize greyhounds desired to follow Margaret to the services. Margaret "tied a 50 pound weight" to the dog to keep him put. Despite the load, the dog, weight and all, followed Margaret, eventually jumping in through an open window of the meeting house to sit by his mistress. When Jim Ward, a neighbor, attempted to put the dog out, Jim received nothing but snarls and so the dog enjoyed the meeting right next to Margaret.

Her son Robert recalled that "[Mother] told [me] that whatever you do, it is always better to do it the right way."

Source:Viola James Reese, "Margaret Livington Haldane" www.FamilySearch.org>Margaret Livington Haldane (KWJC-6C4)>Memories>Documents
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Martin Wilford Allred (1863–1904) & Elizabeth Anderson Allred (1867–1945)

Martin (Mart) loved his identical twin brother Isaac (Ike). Curiously, when the brothers arrived at the age of matrimony they married sisters from the Anderson family. Mart wed Elizabeth and Ike chose Helena, who was two years older than her sister. All of their stories begin in Fairview, Utah.

When Elizabeth was eleven, and Helena twelve, their mother died “leaving a month old baby, Archibald Henry” (EAA). With ten children in all there was quite a brood, but they managed to pull through until their father married again about a year later (TRA, 1). Their step-mother had three of her own children, but somehow they all made it work (TRA, 1).

After their own marriages, perhaps Elizabeth and Helena remembered their step-mother’s willingness to take on more children when a returned missionary came to their doors. Fred Christensen, whom the Anderson and Allred families knew well, introduced two little girls he brought back from Denmark. Fred explained that the two youngsters, who spoke no English, were immigrating to Utah, and that their parents would come the following year. Could the sisters to care for one child each until that time? Fred asked. Elizabeth remembered drawing straws to determine which child went to which home. Helena ended up with Ollie, age 4, and Elizabeth, Victoria, age 6. The parents did come to claim their children, after twelve years.

When Mart and Ike were young they were often found together. “One drove the oxen and the other held the plow” on the farm, and they scythed hay side-by-side (IWAT). Ike remembered a troublesome stag named Old Larry. He “would work well until he got warmed up, and then he would lie down in the furrow until he cooled off; then he would get up and work until warmed up again. This would go on day after day” (IWAT). The two boys also chopped wood for their grandmother, as well as the two households of their father, he being a polygamist. On one occasion the boys had the company of two of their sisters while collecting wood. In the distance they noticed “a cloud of dust” and the sound of horse hooves. Mart, concerned that it might be Indians, dove into the nearby willows. Mart’s fears were validated when the group of Indians harassed the family wagon and team, but soon left without any harm. Mart exited his hiding place, glad to see his siblings were alive, and then all the spooked children headed home without so much as a scrap of wood (IWAT).

Once the brothers married, they built homes near one another in Fairview. Here they shared joys and sorrows—Martin and Elizabeth lost two young children, and Ike and Helena one. But new prospects were on the horizon toward the turn of the twentieth-century. Ike was lured to Alberta, Canada with descriptions of new possibilities and frontier (IWAT). By 1900 Martin too was there with his family and the brothers partnered on a farm (EAA). Tragically, in 1904, Mart died of appendicitis, “leaving Mother with a family of five” (EAA). Two years later, while still in Canada, George Randall, the oldest boy (age 16), “was accidentally killed in the Raymond sugar factor” (EAA). Having had enough of Canada, Mart’s brother, Lawrence, escorted Elizabeth and her four remaining children back to Fairview, Utah.

Elizabeth maintained her faith despite sorrow and tragedy. She clung to the Word of Wisdom and regularly sewed clothing for others, despite her battle with diabetes for the last thirty-five years of her life. She also saw to it that the family pay their tithing, despite their penury. One daughter remembered, “One Christmas, after Father was gone, Mother told the boys they had just five dollars for Christmas gifts, and they owed that for tithing. After some discussion, they decided to pay the tithing. Sherm took the money to the Bishop. On his way back, Bill came running to meet him, saying they already had the money back. The ward had given the widows five dollars for Christmas” (EAA).

Another tragic blow came in 1920 when her son, Charles William, then in his twenties, “was killed in a mine accident” (EAA). Determined to continue on, Elizabeth dedicated her life to her remaining family members. On 4 May 1945, seventy-eight year old Elizabeth passed away in Provo, Utah.

Sources:

TRA=“Life History of Thomas Reese Anderson,” available at www.FamilySearch.org>Sara Jane Rees [KWJ4-GK5]>Memories>Documents.

EAA=“Elizabeth Anderson Allred,” These We Honor: Archibald Anderson Family (Salt Lake City, Utah: Magazine Printing, 1968), C-68.

IWAT=“Isaac Willard Allred Twin,” available at http://www.allredfamily.com/isaac_willard_allred_twin.htm

John Smith (revisited)

In 1865 John's Sister Hannah moved from Salt Lake City to Provo and subsequently married Josiah Thomas Arrowsmith. The couple did not enjoy economic prosperity. Hearing of their destitute situation John gathered together $10 (about $150 in 2016) and bought a sack of flour. For reasons unknown, he had to walk, bearing the sack of flour, from Salt Lake to Provo and personally delivered the life sustaining staple.

Sources:

"Biography of my Great Grandfather, John Smith & his wife, Eliza Foreman," 2-3, as available at www.FamilySearch.org>John Smith [KWNH-DDN]>Memories>Documents.

Money equivalency figured at the reputable Inflation Calculator available at www.westegg.com/inflation.

Peter, Dorthea, & Anne: Denmark Faithfuls

Dorthea

Anne

Peter

Peter Monson (Peder Mogensen) was born 8 April 1830 in Svendstrup, Langeland, Denmark. It was a little village about two miles from Kerser, a harbor town on the west coast of Denmark. His home was a long, one-story adobe house with a thatched straw roof. Peter and his people belonged to the Lutheran Church and were devoutly religious. On 9 March 1853 Peter was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shortly after his own baptism, Peter baptized his father, mother, a sister, and a girl who was 17, named Dorthea Marie Christensen. Dorthea's parents were not pleased with her decision to join the Mormons and offered her a considerable amount of the family wealth to dissuade her. She resisted. Though Peter's family sailed to the United States in that same year as their baptisms, he remained behind to marry Dorthea on 8 January 1854. (PMH, 1-2).

The couple and Christian, the first child, embarked for North America near the end of 1855. The small family were three of the Scandinavian and European Saints aboard The John J. Boyd which left Liverpool, England on 12 December 1855. Mormon missionary Charles R. Savage, who was also on this voyage recorded that the "Saints were at the sound of the trumpet called to prayer morning and evening"; church meetings were offered in various languages to accommodate all who wished to attend; and cordial relations were maintained despite heritage and cultural differences (MS, 206).

On the whole the passage required 66 days, about double the amount of time it normally took. Delay came in part due to "gales," a fire in the captain's cabin, and the rescue of sailors aboard a sinking ship called Louis Napoleon. Truth be told, the influx of able-bodied men and provisions improved the passage. Measles ripped through the crew and passengers and was likely the cause of the child Christian's death and burial at sea (MS, 206; PMH, 2). The captain of the Boyd gave way to his superstitions as the length of time in crossing the ocean increased. "Preachers on board," he believed, often brought about tempests--a whim seemingly founded upon the Bible's retelling of Jonah's and Paul's experiences with stormy seas, as well as the thought that "the devil, the great storm-raiser, was the [clergy's] especial enemy, and [sent] tempests to destroy them." The captain restricted religious singing and forbade vocal prayers, but silent ones still rose to heaven. By mid-February 1856 they landed in New York harbor (MS, 206; LS, 108-109).

Peter and Dorthea made their way to Florence (now Omaha), Nebraska and joined a pioneer wagon train under the direction of Canute Peterson. The company left 27 June 1856 and arrived 16 September of the same year in Salt Lake City (CPC). When they arrived in the valley Peter was only greeted by his mother, sister Caroline, and a brother, Jens; his father, grandmother, and two other sisters died on the plains (PMH, 1).

Peter's second wife, and through whom our family descends, was named Anna Christena Christensen. Born 8 October 1848, she too was born in Denmark and immigrated, with her family, to Salt Lake, in late 1853 following their conversion. Anna's father died on the trail, and her step-father was not kind. In order to escape his severe nature she worked in the Monson home where she met and married Peter (PMH, 4).



Sources:
PMH="Peter Mogensen" History, available at  www.FamilySearch.org>Peder Mogensen [KWN2-H6H]>Memories>Documents>Memories>Documents; 

MS=C.R. Savage, "Arrival of the 'J.J. Boyd,'" Millennial Star 13, no. 18 (29 March 1856).

LS=Fletcher S. Bassett, Legends and Superstitions of the Sea and of Sailors in All Lands and at All Times (Chicago and New York: Belford, Clark, 1885).

CPC=https://history.lds.org/overlandtravel/companies/234/canute-peterson-company-1856. 

Sarah Ann James (1886-1935)

In Logan, Utah, on 8 October 1886, Sarah Ann James entered the world. She was one of eleven children—six boys and five girls. Sarah was beautiful, and at the age of twenty-three married the dashing six-foot-tall Luke Smith on 7 May 1909 in Pocatello, Idaho. (They were sealed together in the Logan Temple on 29 June 1921.)

Their marriage produced three daughters and one son. When Luke's power and light company transferred him to Preston, Idaho the whole family packed up. It was there that Sarah, who had been ill previously with some heart disease, took to her bed. Despite the inherent busyness of family life, Luke's employment, and her own sickly state, Sarah "never raised her voice and was always patient." Still, Sarah expected her children to work. The youngest girl, Afton, remembers her mother in her sick bed giving orders to clean the sugar bowl and shelving.

Luke enjoyed the modern conveniences that the twentieth-century produced. He always saw to it that they owned a Dodge car and a radio. The first radio purchase was memorable. Preston store owners would often let potential buyers "test" products overnight before purchases were finalized. Luke took a radio home, but in the early morning hours of the next day the store owner came by the Smith home to collect the product. Luke "was so angry that the man didn't trust him to bring it back that he went out that morning and bought a radio from a different store."

The happy home met with sadness when Sarah, at the relatively young age of 49, died in 1935. He legacy of patience, despite debilitating illness provides for us an example to follow.


Source: Joyce Syme Mills, "Sarah Ann James Smith," and "Luke Smith," both available at FamilySearch.org>Sarah Ann James (KWZQ-SJM)>Memories>Documents.

Thomas Corless (1831-1903) and Eliza Crowther (1836-1928) Family

Thomas Corless

Children of Thomas and Eliza Corless (L-R): Alice, Mother Eliza, Rhea, Kate, John, Thomas A., Os, Mamie

In May 1858 Thomas and Eliza welcomed the first of ten children into their circle: Thomas Alonzo. Seven of the children grew to adulthood, and in the early years Thomas provided for the family by farming. The sixth child, Alice, once fiddled around in the back of the family wagon with her siblings and found “some kernels of corn.” As Alice played with the kernels, she remembered, “I got one up my nose and I couldn’t get it out.” Thomas and Eliza took her to a doctor who pushed the kernel up the nose and subsequently down her throat (KS, 86).

Alice also recalled: “As for dolls, we had to make them. My first doll was a large pumpkin that my older brother cut a face in for me. I make some dresses for it. I thought it was the best doll around. But the day came when I had a sad time. I fell down with my doll in my arms and that was the end of it” (KS, 88).

            In the 1880s Alice and Sarah attended a mid-week church meeting at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. On the way to the meeting they ran an errand for their mother by picking up a repaired alarm clock used at home. The repairman “set the clock [to] the right time” and the girls dashed to the hall. While the meeting progressed the alarm clock sounded. Embarrassed, and unsure of what to do—despite the whispered insistence of at least one fellow congregant to take it out—Alice, at least, “sat there looking straight ahead” (KS, 88–89; modern portable phone noises and human behavior demonstrate that little has changed).

In 1877 Thomas, the father, was first called and then continued to serve as a bishopric member for twenty years. In the early part of his service it was expected—though he never did—to enter into plural marriage. The bishop queried: “When are you going to take another wife?” Thomas simply stated: “Not until I can make enough to take care of … one” (KS, 91).

Father Thomas, while in his sixties, attempted to free one of his horses from some swampy land. Though muscular and no stranger to hard labor, his efforts in this instance produced a lamentable result—paralysis. “He felt something snap in his back and instantly he lost the use of his body from the waist down” (KS, 91). An extremely heavy “cane chair” provided his only mobility unless carried by another individual. His condition led to his 1897 release from the bishopric, and in that same year he received his patriarchal blessing which counseled: “Although thy body may be afflicted, thou shalt be strong. … Thy mission is thus far complete” (KS, 92). He died in 1903.

Tragedy struck the family again in 1907 when Kate, then grown and married with children of her own, lost a sixteen-year-old boy. Her son, LeRoy, was “injured playing rugby.” Distraught, she suffered anguish for some time wondering why such a thing was allowed to happen. “Had she not served the Lord faithfully all her life?” Despite the discontent and grief, Kate continued to attend her meetings. Sometime later, at a Relief Society testimony meeting, a sister by the name of Minnie Preece spoke in tongues. Sister Preece “placed her hands on Kate’s head and said that the Holy Spirit had told Kate the feelings were all wrong and that the Lord was displeased.” To her credit, “Kate immediately repented and finally accepted the death of her son” (KS, 94).

Alice married a man, John, who called her, “Little Half Pint.” The couple loved to attend dances and continued even after they had children of their own. “During one dance, when Alice stopped to nurse her baby, someone made fun of her. Instantly John knocked him down—John was the strong, silent type who liked action and work better than talk” (KS, 96).

As an adult Mamie served as Primary president for twenty-five years. On of her bishop’s observed, “Her patience was inexhaustible … the children worshipped her. Mamie’s daughter, Grace, recalled, “Mother loved children and they loved her” (KS, 98–99).

Os lived with and cared for mother Eliza after father Thomas died. Os not only cared for his mother, but he continued to watch over his father’s beloved white horse. For a handful of years, Mamie and her family stayed at the old homestead as well. During those years Os would come home from work at night and set the horse to water at a trough while he collected Corless, his nephew, Mamie’s son. Together they—horse, Os, and Corless as a rider—would head to the barn and corral the animal. This pattern was interrupted when Os one day returned home late from work; Corless was already asleep. After the horse had drunk its fill the animal would not move. Os recognized the problem: no nephew. The uncle retrieved the sleeping boy, placed him on the horse, and together they went to the barn (KS, 99).

Rhea’s “playmates called her ‘Sar-ree’ instead of Sarah, so Rhea was the name most people called her all her life.” She was a professional actress (KS, 94, 101).

As an adult Thomas Alonzo generally made a living hauling sand or pea gravel to various customers. As a father he jokingly asserted to his children that he was part-owner of the Catholic Cathedral of the Madeline, located in Salt Lake City. He claimed that he was never paid for hauling building material to the work-site in the first decade of the twentieth-century; and since he never saw any of the approximate $450,000 doled out for construction of the sanctuary, he owned a piece of it (KS, 179–180, 185).

John eventually served as a county sheriff for three terms (KS, 104–113).

           

Sources:

KS = William G. Hartley, Kindred Saints: The Mormon Immigrant Heritage of Alvin and Kathryne Christenson (Salt Lake City: Eden Hill, 1982).

DO = William G. Hartley, “Dangerous Outpost: Thomas Corless and the Fort Limhi/Salmon River Mission,” Mormon Historical Studies 2, no. 2 (2001): 135–162.

Abigail Mead (1770-1854)

On 25 June 1833 in Villanova, New York, at least three Mormon missionaries—William Cahoon, John F. Boynton, and Evan Melbourne Greene—oversaw the beginnings of a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ. Greene recorded: “We had a meeting to organize the church and the Lord blessed us and two went forward in the ordinance of baptism whose names were as follows: Abbigail & Roxannah McBride” (EMGJ, 23).

When Abigail was seventeen years old she married Reverend Daniel McBride. Since he was an itinerant Campbellite minister, the family, which would eventually include nine children, moved from place to place in order for Daniel to aid the individual churches over which he had stewardship. On more than one occasion he mentioned to his immediate family, “There is something lacking. I feel that I have not the authority as the Prophets of old. If only I could say to the people, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord’” (VK). Lamentably, Daniel died in 1823, ten years before Abigail was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ.

The day Abigail first listened to Mormon elders is hard to pin down. Missionary Evan Greene noted that it was a “glorious time” as they met with eager listeners in the “McBride schoolhouse” in Villanova, New York, on Sunday, 26 May. Greene “spoke to the [congregation] and testified to them in the gift of tongues and the spirit of God rested down upon us” (EMGJ, 18).

On Tuesday, 9 June Amasa Lyman stayed in the David Crandall home, David being married to Abigail’s oldest daughter, while Greene resided with Reuben McBride’s family, with whom Abigail presumably lived. It was as this point that the families “began to see the need of obeying the commandments” (EMGJ, 21).

The Crandall and McBride households began to be baptized on Thursday, 13 June. The following day at 5 P.M. the missionaries once again held a meeting in the McBride schoolhouse, and part of the McBride family members attended. Several of the listeners “testified to the gospel and rejoiced in the blessing of the Lord in sending his servants into that place.” Still, “others desired us to pray for them that they might be enlightened and come to the knowledge of these things” (EMGJ, 21). Whichever meetings Abigail attended, she was, as mentioned above, baptized on 25 June.

Two years later (1835) many of the McBrides, Crandalls, and Knights—Abigail’s youngest daughter, Martha, married Vinson Knight—traveled to Kirtland, Ohio to gather with the Saints (VK). The following year, on 8 June 1836, at the age of 66, Abigail received her patriarchal blessing under the hands of Joseph Smith Sr. Promised blessings included seeing “angels, and receiv[ing] the communications of the Holy Ghost . . . [and that if she would] “give up thyself to God … thou shalt see thy Redeemer whom thou desireth to know.” While these prophecies were sacred in nature, a more temporal blessing, easily discerned as fulfilled by any individual, was that she would “go to Zion, and be in good health. Thy mind shall be strong and rejoice in thy God” (PB).

Abigail was in good health in body and mind and she traveled to the Great Basin Zion. After Abigail and her family left Kirtland, they homesteaded in Nauvoo, Illinois, and then went to the Great Salt Lake in the Edward Hunter-Jacob Foutz Company from June to October 1847. Abigail, at 77 and the oldest member of her company, traveled with two of her sons, John and Samuel McBride, Samuel's wife Lemira, and her grandchildren, Samuel and Lemira's children, Lydia and Samuel (JH, 21 June 1847, p. 25). During the trip (8 September 1847) the Hunter-Foutz Company and others welcomed Brigham Young and his company as they traveled back to Winter Quarters, Nebraska to oversee trail and sure up Church organization. An impromptu feast was prepared which included “broiled beef, pies, cakes, and biscuits.” Women unpacked good dishes, Edward Hunter provide a “nice fat steer,” and “a dance in the evening completed the festivities.” Eliza R. Snow, who was in attendance, remembered: “I know not as I have set at a table better supplied with the luxuries of life in all my travels for many years than was at this table set at the foot of the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains” (WFTP, 274).

Abigail settled down with family in what is now known as Ogden, Utah and died at the age of 84 on 12 March 1854; she was buried in the Ogden City Cemetery. One of her great-grandsons, Gilbert Belnap, remembered her as a “short, rather stout, fine old lady, with a square face and a fair complexion” (SE). Certainly an outward appearance of “stout” would describe her fortitude and righteousness throughout her life.

Sources:

EMGJ, Evan Melbourne Greene, “Evan M. Greene journal, 1833 January–1835 April,” MS 14339, paginated typescript, available through http://churchhistorycatalog.lds.org/.

JH, Journal history of the Church 1896-2001, CR 100 137, available through http://churchhistorycatalog.lds.org/.

PB, “Patriarchal Blessing of Abigail McBride by Jos. Smith Sr.” www.FamilySearch.org>Abigail Mead [KWV9-4Y1​​]>Memories>Documents.

SE, “Stories of Utah Pioneers: Abigail Mead McBride Was Born In New York in 1770 and Died in Ogden in 1854, After Varied Experiences,” Ogden Standard Examiner [newspaper], 12 February 1933, available at http://www.belnapfamily.org/Ogden_Standard_Examiner_1933-02-12_Stories_of_Utah_Pioneers_(top).jpg.

VK, Lola Almira Belknap Coolbear, “Vinson Knight biographical sketch,” available at www.FamilySearch.org>Vinson Knight [LCRS-2QF​​]>Memories>Stories, “Sketch of the Life of Vinson Knight by Lola Belnap Coolbear.”

WFTP, Richard E. Bennett, We’ll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus, 1846–1848 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997).

Melvin "M.G." Crawford (1889-1979)

Melvin was the oldest child in his farming family and “quite large” in height as a boy (2 [refers to page number; see below for source]). Though born in Manti, Utah, he and his family moved away when he was four, only to return as Melvin entered his teens. They returned to Manti from a town called Koosharem—over fifty miles to the south. While Melvin was charged with herding the “cows and horses back to Manti on the … ordinary wagon roads” (1), his father (Gardner), and mother (Sophie), along with two siblings, bustled ahead in a horse-drawn wagon and a team of horses. What took the majority of the family a single day to travel, took Melvin three. Among the mixed herd he led north were “two of the milking cows and whenever it would come night, [he] had to milk the cows on the road, [and] just put on the ground what [he] didn’t want” (1). Both cows and horses grazed on the road side at night when Melvin curled up and went “to sleep with a blanket over [him]” (1). By mid-afternoon on the third day, the tired boy and animals were still some distance from Manti; his “mother got worried about [him],” brought sandwiches, and, Melvin recalled, “she walked along … for quite a little ways” (2). Later, she hurried on ahead to care for the rest of the children and prepare supper. The weary Melvin, who remembered that he “walked the soles off my shoes” on that trip, arrived after dark with the herd (2). Though he does not remember why his dad did not greet him like his mother, this was not the last time his father volunteered the young Melvin for a herding position.

Melvin  (in front of the doorway) and others on a sheep sheering day

Before arriving at the age of sixteen, Melvin remembered, “My dad hired me out to go herd sheep one time” (11). Melvin and his father regularly sheered sheep for a resident in Ephraim—a town less than ten miles from Manti. After the sheering was done, the resident “fellow wanted me to go out on the lambing ground” (11). Melvin protested, “Dad, I can’t go out there, I don’t know anything about herding sheep” (11). Gardner dismissed his son’s inexperience: “All you have to do is drive them [and] go around them just like everybody else. He will be with you” (11).

Soon, with Melvin on a horse, and the experienced sheep herder driving a wagon, they drove the flock from Ephraim to the grazing/lambing ground, which was somewhere between a three to four day ride. Each day started and end the same: drive the herd three to five miles a day, camp, eat and sleep. Once they arrived at their destination, which included a cabin, the man from Ephraim surprised Melvin with these instructions: “I have got to go home now. You stay here and just go around these sheep twice a day. You get up in the morning and go around them, about five o’clock, or just as soon as it comes daylight. You set your clock to get up. Go clear down around the sheep and herd them all back in the middle. Then go back to camp and eat your [lunch]. Then start out again and go clear around them” (11). With that, the sheep herder left. Melvin arose the next day and sought to be obedient to the directions. He found that he traveled about six to seven miles in the morning and then another six or seven in the afternoon. This monotonous schedule continued for ten days.

For a week and a half Melvin was all alone with his horse and the flock of sheep. He found himself afraid and unable to sleep with the sound of howling coyotes. Toward the end of the ten days foodstuff began to run short. He ate everything that was in the cabin: a little bread, pieces of mutton, peas, and a few canned goods—he was willing to kill one of the sheep to survive but he had no idea how to gut and quarter a lamb. Finally, when he was down to “one can of tomatoes left and nobody was there … he came in” (11).  The man laughed and blurted, “I didn’t mean to leave you that long. I got on a big drunk, and I forgot to come” (12). Though the man offered Melvin an evening meal, the boy just wanted to go him. The man counseled Melvin to wait until morning, but the boy “was so homesick that [he] was just about crazy” (12).

Astride a horse, Melvin guided the animal in the direction he thought was south, toward Manti. At one point he was so sleepy that he dismounted and “sat down by a tree and went to sleep” (12). In the morning, Melvin was surprised to see that he was not very far from the lambing ground. The sheep herder observed, “If you had have let that horse go, he would have gone right home” (12). “But I wouldn’t,” Melvin lamented. “I guided him and I just went around in a great big circle” (12). After eating breakfast the herder again instructed, “Just let the horse go and he will take you home” (12). Doing as instructed, Melvin soon arrived in Ephraim at the man’s house—the wife “hooked another horse up to a buckboard and took [Melvin] home” (12). Following this experience Melvin quipped, “That was the experience I had herding sheep. That is all I wanted” (12).

(Source: M.G. Crawford Interview, MSS OH 138, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, paginated typescript of oral interview.)

John Crawford (1828-1923)

John Crawford, farmer, of Manti, is one of a family of four and was born in Wickston, Peebleshire, Scotland, September 30, 1828 [or 1829]. His parents were James and Elizabeth (Brown) Crawford.

His father was a flax weaver, making fancy linen cloth. John spent the early years of his life on a farm till he was 16 years of age, and when 14 joined the Mormon Church.

He worked at track-laying on the railroad till the fall of 1849, when he immigrated to the United States, coming across from Liverpool in the sailing vessel Zetlin. The voyage took six weeks and two days and he landed in New Orleans on Christmas day, 1849. He journeyed up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, where he remained the balance of that winter.

In the spring he continued up the river to Kanesville, where himself and [his] brother James rented a farm and put in ten acres of wheat and twenty-five acres of corn. In July Kinkade and Livingston fitted up a train of thirty-five wagons drawn by ox teams to haul merchandise to Salt Lake and John hired out to them to drive one of the teams of four yoke of oxen. They left old Fort Kearney on the Missouri August 3rd., A. O. Smoot, late of Prove, being their captain, and arrived in Salt Lake City September 28th. That winter he worked in Mill Creek canyon at the lower sawmill for Barney Adams.

In the spring of 1851 himself and Alex Cowan took a contract of Bishop Hunter and made the adobes for the old Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, which was the first church built in Utah. It was constructed on the ground where the Assembly Hall now stands. In the spring of 1852 himself and brother James rented the farm of Apostle C. C Rich at Centerville, which they worked for two seasons.

When the Walker Indian war broke out in the summer of 1853 he was one of a com- pany of about thirty-five called by Governor [Brigham] Young to go to Manti to strengthen and support the settlement. They were instructed to sell all their possessions so they would have nothing to return to. This company was gathered from the towns near Salt Lake and our subject made captain. They arrived in Manti the latter part of December, 1853, and found the snow eighteen inches deep. They spent the balance of that winter in standing guard and building a fort.

In May of 1855 he was called with about fifty others upon a mission to the Elk mountains to live among the Indians to try and civilize them. September 23rd the settlement was broken up and they were driven out by the Indians, who killed James W. Hunt, William Behunnin and Edward Edwards and wounded A. N. Billings, the president of the mission. The Indians burned all their hay and stole their cattle.

In 1857 he with Harmon T. Christensen, N. Beach and B. Hall received a charter from the city to construct and maintain a toll road up City Creek canyon. This road they constructed about eight miles and the following year they built a. sawmill in the canyon with a gig saw. They cut from 2000 to 3000 feet of lumber per day, Mr. Crawford being the sawyer. They owned and operated this mill nearly ten years.

When the Temple was being built he ran a lime kiln five miles west of town, burning all the lime used for the Temple for nearly five years. During all these years his family looked after the farm and carried it on successfully. He has been engaged in the cattle and sheep industry and has now a band of about 1500 head of sheep. He is a stockholder in the new Union Roller Mills, was a member of the City Council three terms, Justice of the Peace two terms. . Mr. Crawford has been prominent in the church, being president of the Forty-eighth quorum of Seventies about thirty years and a ward teacher many years. He was married April 6, 1853, to Cecelia, daughter of Nathaniel and Cecelia. Sharp. Their children are Elizabeth J., John, Jr., deceased, Cecelia, James B., Nathaniel, William W., Margaret C, Mary E., Quincy G., Delphia, deceased, and Catherine.

In February, 1856, he married a second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Gardner and Sarah (Hastings) Snow. Their children are: Sarah M., Mary, deceased, Martha M., Gardner J., George, deceased, Charles C., Ida, deceased, Adelbert D., Nora A., Frank, Grace and Rayfield, deceased.

It may truly be said of Mr. Crawford he has made a success of life, having no capital to start with, he had nothing but his individual effort to depend on. By steady hard work and honorable means he has accumulated a fair stock of this world's goods and has always retained the respect and good will of his neighbors.

(Source: W. H. Lever, History of Sanpete and Emery Counties, Utah: with Sketches of Cities, Towns and Villages, Chronology of Important Events, Records of Indian Wars, Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens [Salt Lake City: Tribune Job Printing Company, 1898], 118–120, spelling and paragraphing modernized).