THOMASON, Sarah b. 4 May 1822 Bobbington, Staffordshire, England d. 6 Mar 1855 Gravois, St. Louis, Missouri, United States

1822 - 1855 (32 years)

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Name	THOMASON, Sarah
Birth	4 May 1822	Bobbington, Staffordshire, England
Christening	26 May 1822	Bobbington, Stafford, England
Gender	Female
Burial	Mar 1855	St. Louis City, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Death	6 Mar 1855	Gravois, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
WAC	29 Aug 1888	MANTI
_TAG	Reviewed on FS
Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
Person ID	I64194	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

Family ID F30621 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Family	CROWTHER, Thomas IV , b. 14 Apr 1823, Madeley, Shropshire, England Madeley, Shropshire, Englandd. 2 Oct 1898, Sanford, Conejos, Colorado, United States (Age 75 years)
Marriage	7 May 1849	Dudley, Worcestershire, England
Family ID	F11523	Group Sheet \| Family Chart
Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

Notes

. . . “In 1853, three years after joining the Church, myself and wife agreed to save out of my wages ten shillings a week, equal to $2.50, as we had a great desire to gather with the Church in America. We carried out our plan for six months, then by selling our furniture we had enough to pay our way to Saint Louis, Missouri, USA. We had one little girl named Mary Ann, three and a half years old. We lost one little boy who lived twelve weeks, named Francis. It was the counsel for all Latter-day Saints who could pay their way to St. Louis, Missouri, to do so, for they could get an outfit there to cross the plains easier than they could in England.
On November 13th, 1854, we embarked on a ship, the Clara Wheeler, a sailing vessel, bound for New Orleans, Louisiana, with 421 Saints on board. We were almost wrecked on the Irish channel for a day and night, was towed back into the River Mersey, Liverpool, and had to wait two weeks for favorable winds. President of the mission, Franklin D. Richards, came to our ship and told us if we would fast and pray, and keep the commandments of God, we should have favorable winds and a prosperous journey across the ocean. This we did and the next day the wind turned in our favor and we started again. In five weeks we landed in New Orleans safe, in fulfillment of Apostle Richards’s promise. That was January 1st, 1855.
I was taken very sick when about two weeks out at sea and continued so ’til we got to fresh water. Many doubted my recovery, but I told them I should live to get to the land of Zion. I recovered fast when we got to fresh water. Our fare was paid only to New Orleans. I was weak from my illness, our money reduced to ten shillings. While contemplating our condition, I could see no other way only for us to stop at New Orleans and try and get work and earn money sufficient to take us to St. Louis, Missouri, a distance of 1200 miles. While leaning over the side of the vessel, a man came behind me and put his hand on my shoulder and asked me about my circumstances. When I told him, he reached out and gave me 40 shillings, just the amount required to take us to St. Louis, Missouri. This man was almost an entire stranger, I had seen him on the vessel but do not remember ever speaking to him before. He gave me the money without my asking him. He told me I could pay him back when I got able. Which I did with the first money I got.
A steamboat was chartered to take us up the Mississippi River immediately and we landed at St. Louis, January 10th, 1855. The next day I met a former acquaintance, one Richard Jewkes, who had preceded me from the Tipton Branch. He came and took me, my wife and child to his abode, five miles distant, a place called the Grovois. We stayed with him as long as we remained in that part. I dug coal and made some money. The 4th of March 1855, my wife gave birth to a boy baby that was dead when he has born. Two days after, she died, and was buried at a place called the County Farm. This was sad indeed, leaving me and the little girl to make our way to Zion.
Early in April we started on our way to cross the plains, a distance of twelve hundred miles. I trusted in the Lord to open the way. I met a young man, a carpenter, who was in about the same condition as myself. We decided to build us a handcart and try and make our way with one of the ox team companies. Just at this time a messenger from a Texas company who had started across the plains, had gone 75 miles, when the cholera broke out and several of the men died from its effect. He was looking for teamsters, volunteers to go and drive the teams. Myself and six others accepted the proposition to drive four yoke of steers to each wagon loaded with merchandise on consideration we got our board and what little baggage we had and the little girl taken along. We started out for the company with a team of horses, and in two days reached them. Edward Stevensen was sent to take charge of the train. He was a native of Gibralter, a very fine man. Out of the seven of us that volunteered, not one of us had ever put a yoke on an ox before and they were all wild Texas cattle. You can imagine we had a picnic. But we soon got so we could manage them like old teamsters.
We left Mormon Grove June 13th, 1855 and arrived in Salt Lake City, Sept. 13th, 1855. Me and the little girl would sleep under the wagon at night. In the day I could keep her in sight. We traveled late one night in order to reach water. As soon as we stopped for camp, at a place called Laramie, Wyoming, I unyoked my cattle and got them to feed. I returned and assisted in getting supper, then went as usual for my little girl, but she was missing. I roused the camp. No one had seen her since we stopped for camp. A diligent search was made but of no avail. I imagined all kinds of scenes of death. Indians getting her, wandering away to perish, and be eaten by wolves, etc. I shall never forget the feeling that came to me, though now it is thirty years or more. I cannot refrain from tears as that experience comes to my mind. Most of the camp gave up the search in vain. I could not settle or content myself, but still wandered about, when finally I found her fast asleep in some tall grass a short distance away. You may imagine my joy in finding her.
We had to keep diligent watch all the way across the plains. At Sweet Water a false alarm of an Indian raid gave us quite a scare. We were wonderfully blessed. At this place my wife that is dead visited me, put her arms round my neck, told me many things I have seen come to pass since that time. She looked so beautiful. When I asked her of how it was in the sphere where she moved, she signified she was not at liberty to tell. I knew she was dead, and where she was buried. At this point I was aroused by the false alarm.
“On arriving at Salt Lake City, I walked immediately to Pleasant Grove, forty miles south, and visited my wife’s parents, who had emigrated three years previous. I stayed there and worked until the October conference, which I attended. After that I went with Elder John Weston, former president of the branch that I came from in England.
I left Mary Ann with her grandparents and went with this John Weston to Cedar City, Iron County, Utah. He had been requested to find two men who understood the manufacturing of iron. Another man by the name of Thomas Gower went with us, where we found a mountain of iron ore, at which place we worked for two or three years. . . . [pp. 60-63]
(BIB: Crowther, Thomas, Autobiographical sketch, 61, in Histories and biographies written by members of Camp Sunflower, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Center Utah Count, Provo, Utah, vol. 1. pp60-63.) But the company trying to develop this industry did not have money enough to carry on the work. For that reason it failed.
On the 25th of November, 1855, I met a young widow by the name of Jane Jewkes, a former acquaintance in the Tipton branch. I offered my hand in marriage to her and was accepted. We were married by the President of the Stake, Isaac C. Haight. My wife had emigrated the same year. We had fairly good clothes, but nothing toward housekeeping - no money - in a country where even the necessities of life were scarce. The grasshoppers had destroyed the crops, and food was not in the country. The Lord's hand was manifest in our behalf. During the famine, mushrooms grew just outside the city. People would go every morning and gather them and with a spoonful of flour to thicken them or make gravy. We relished them and they sustained life until another harvest. Another item of food was the homey dew that grew upon the willow. People would gather the willows, wash them in tubs, then boil the water and make it into a syrup, which was very delicious. They gathered barrels of it. This was at a time when sugar or molasses could not be gotten in the country. I have never seen it since like it came at that time.
I will now mention a manifestation I had in answer to prayer. In the spring of 1857, a man by the name of Whittier told me I could use his oxen to plow my lot if I would bring them from the range telling me where I would find them. I started out early the next morning in search of them, and woke fast until noon without success. I began to get faint and weary, when I turned to one side into a cedar grove. There I knelt down and asked the Lord in sincerity to make known to me where the cattle were. I had not been on my knees more than two minutes when a voice said to me - they are up in Coal canyon. This was not said in a loud voice, but in a pleasant whisper that filled my heart with a certainty that they were there. I arose and went with a light heart about one and a half miles distant. There I found the cattle lying down, chewing their cuds.
I mention this circumstance to show that the Lord does hear and answer prayers when we are humble and sincere. Since then I have witnessed a similar manifestation a number of times. In the winter of 1858 I decided I would move away from Cedar City and go to Beaver, where I could take up land. That was a new place and plenty of land and water, a distance 52 miles north. In the fall of 1858, I went to Beaver, took up a lot and went to work building me a house, preparatory to moving my family. I got my house under way when I was impressed to go home- but for what reason I did not know. It was sadly against my will, for I wanted to complete my house. I had a presentment that I was needed at home. We had no means of communication - mail only once a month, so there was no way of sending or receiving a message. Next morning about nine o'clock I started for home, with a yoke of cattle and a wagon. I traveled 30 miles that day and camped at a place called Paragonah or Red Creek. I turned my cattle out and got my supper and went to bed but could not sleep. Something seemed to urge me to get up and go on, but I reasoned with myself like this: the cattle are tired and I cannot possible go on tonight. But the impression grew stronger, so I got up, got my cattle hitched to the wagon and started, traveling all night, arriving home at eight o'clock a.m. I had traveled 52 miles in 23 hours.
I found my wife very sick. The neighbors did not think she could live. At the time when the impression came to me to get up and go on the evening before, they thought she was dead. When I found her in this condition, I understood why I was so impressed to go home. I mention this to show that we have guardian Angels, and that they do oft times manifest things that we should do, and also warning us against many dangers, if we would give heed to the whisperings of the still, small voice."
By 1887 seven of their children had moved to Colorado, so they came to the valley to visit and spend the Christmas holidays with them. In 1890 Thomas and his wife, Jane, moved to Sanford, Colorado, where he built a brick home and they were very comfortable and contented.
In 1896 Thomas was ordained Stake Patriarch by Heber J. Grant and John Henry Smith. Three months later his wife died; that fall he moved into the home of his son, W. O. Crowther, where he lived until his death in 1898.