Catherine's parents and their daughter, Robena, who was born January 5, 1850; near the
end of summer on the 4th of September 1850 they left Scotland from the Port San Juan.
They set out for the United States. They crossed the ocean in a sailboat the North
Atlantic (The Apalachicola) and landed in New Orleans that fall (According to passenger
list I found on the Internet they arrived 27th January 1851 under Captain Foote). They
went up the Mississippi River and joined the Saints at St, Louis, and Missouri. George
found good work and good pay, so they decided to stay there till they could go to Utah.
While they were in St. Louis, there son, John William was born in 1851. They moved to
Alton, Illinois, in the early part of 1852, soon after they moved their, their son John
William died. In 1853, their son James was born and he died in 1854 or 1855. From the
materials we have, the date is indefinite, their daughter, Catherine Crowther was born
March 11, 1856, at Alton, Godfrey Co., Illinois, to George Crowther, who was born
November 18, 1826 at Dorley or Iron bridge near London, in Dorley, Shropshire, England.
While in his teens he met some Mormon missionaries and was converted and joined the
church. Later he went to Scotland to work in the mines. He died April 16, 1895 at
Fountain Green, Sanpete, Utah. Her Mother Janet Wiley, was born 29 October 1825 at
Kilberney 'Ayrshire, Scotland. She died December 22, 1904 at Fountain Green, Utah. She
was so small when she was a baby that she could fit in a quart cup. (This was a quart
container similar and used as a measuring cup with a handle and spout. it was made of
metal or aluminum.) One evening, on her way home from the factory where she worked, she
was attracted by a street meeting that was being held by two Mormon missionaries. She
was interested and after three or four meetings she told her father, William Wiley, about
the doctrine she had been listening to the he was interested in what Janet had told him,
so he went to the street meetings and he and Janet joined the church. Later the rest of
the family joined. It was at these and other meetings where she met the young
Englishman, George Crowther. They began going together and formed a friendship which
resulted in them getting married in 1845.

At the time of Catherine Crowther birth, the Mormon's were being persecuted. They left
in June 1857 for Utah, with a company of Saints under the direction of Israel Evans, who
had organized a handcart company. After a great deal of thinking and counseling they
decided to join this company. They hesitated to make the trip on account of Janet's
health. Janet had been sick for a long time, finally one morning she said. "George
we will go to Utah with Israel Evans and his Handcart Company", George told her she
was too weak to start on the trip, and her reply to this was, "I will die if we stay
here and if we go I will get well." This settled all arguing or hesitancy and they
began planning in earnest for the trip. Janet and George Crowther brought their
handcart, paying sixty dollars for it. Because they had not been able to save enough to
buy a team and wagon.

They left the gathering place of Israel Evan's Handcart Company near Alton, Illinois on
June 1857, and started the long trip across the plains to Salt Lake City, Utah. The road
was long, rough, and sandy, up and down hills, through the hot sun. The wind and
rainstorms, the Company left some of its members in graves along the road. But Janet
Crowther's health began to improve when they started. She made the trip to Salt Lake
City in good Physical condition.

Catherine was fifteen months old when they started the long hard march across the plains.
Catherine and her sister Robena, who was seven years and five months old at the time of
starting rode on the handcarts, the loads were heavy and had to be pulled through sand
and mud, over hill and over a thousand miles to Salt Lake City.

After a three-month trip across the plains, they arrived in Salt Lake City on September
12, 1857, just ahead of the Johnson Army, which, because of falsehood and
misrepresentations, had been sent by the Government to suppress the supposed—to—be,
unlawful activities of the Mormons. They were the last of Israel Evan's Handcart
Companies, consisting of 154 people and 31 handcarts. One week after they arrived
President Brigham Young called Catherine's father George Crowther to go to Echo Canyon to
guard against the army of Colonel Johnson. This guard selected several mountain points
in front of Johnson's Army and marched around and around before them with coats on, then
with them off, then with them inside out to make it appear that there were more men that
there really were.

While he was away the church ordered the Big Move, as it was called. Janet Crowther and
her two little girls were moved to Payson when the guard was mustered out it took the
husband and their father two weeks to find them.



As a little girl Catherine went with her parents from one place to another where her
parents were called to go by President Brigham Young, and help colonize. They moved to
Wales, Sanpete Co., in 1860, when Catherine was four years old, then to Moroni in 1863.
They were no more than settled when President Young called them to go to Monroe in May
1864 they lived in dugouts that had been there family home in which they lived when she
was 8 years old. They dug holes in the side of the foothills. They were damp and
unhealthy, and nearly the whole colony became ill with Typhoid Fever. Because of this
and the Indian troubles, the church leaders asked them to return to the Sanpete
settlement about 1864 to about 1867 they went to Manti, where they stayed for two months
and then to Fountain Green where they made a permanent home.

Catherine was now eleven years old and was really a pioneer girl. Catherine had to work
in gathering bull thistles, sage roots, mustard greens, sego roots or bulbs and mushrooms
to be used for food for the family. Catherine would fight locust and grasshoppers and do
work around the house. Catherine fingers were nimble so she was assigned the task of
selecting the long fibers of wool and twisting them into threads to sew the clothing they
made from cloth woven by her mother. She helped her mother clean and card the wool by
hand and spin it in threads for mother to put in the loom and make cloth for sewed rags
and carpets. Grandmother Janet had a log room just east of the house they lived in. This
room had a loom for weaving cloth and another for weaving rugs and carpets. These looms
were made by Grandfather George Crowther. One winter they made forty yards of jeans.
They made a piece of cloth for a suit for George by weaving red, black and white threads
together, then they made the suit of clothes which he liked very much. She, like most of
the other young folks, went barefooted most of the time.

The church, with its study of the gospel, was perhaps the greatest source of education in
those days. She was a great reader of the scriptures and other books she could get or
borrow. Catherine's education was such as could be obtained from the schools at that
time. The school terms were short and curriculum consisted principally of the three R's
(readin, riting and rithmetic) which were about the only subjects taught at that time.
In these she did well and with the practical experience gained through the
"University of Hard Knocks", she became fairly well educated. I heard Dr.
Winship, an international educator, say that a person was not educated if he had not
studied the bible and that many people were educated who had studied very little other
than the bible.

As a young woman she would help spin and weave, exceptionally good cook and very
proficient at sewing, work in the gardens and fields with her father, help neighbors in
sickness and need of assistance. Catherine was very active in church and civic affairs
at that time. Catherine always had the ability to make and hold friends; and was very
popular in social circles. She taught in the primary and Sunday school, worked with the
Relief Society, As a young woman she would help anyone in the community, she believed and
practiced fair play — a quality she never lost during her entire life.



She met and kept company with Hans Peter Larsen of Manti, and on December 15, 1881,
Catherine married Hans Peter Larsen in the Salt Lake Endowment House, in Salt Lake City,
Utah. The endowment house was used at that time for eternal marriages until the temples
could be built. They were very prominent in social circles, and well respected by
everyone, and were known as Hans and Kate, as their friends called them.

Hans Peter Larsen was the son of Niels Larsen and Annie Hansen Larsen. He with his
parents joined the Church in 1863 while in their home at Gunnerod, Denmark. After they
joined the church his father's people disowned them, and the treatment they received
caused them to sell out and move to America. Han's father had been a captain in the
Danish army, and was well fixed financially there. But when he decided in 1864, to come
to America he loaned thousands of dollars to the immigrants coming over at that time.
Many of them never repaid the loans because some died on the way or soon after and others
never had the money ahead to pay with.



At the time of her marriage she was 5' 2" tall, with medium brown hair, gray-green
eyes, a slender build, the grandchildren thought she was kind of heavy, but when she
would take off her petticoats, 7 or 8 of them, she was not so. She always wore a long
sleeve to the waist, dresses, to her ankles.

Grandma was so exact in all that she did; she didn't believe that anyone should be idle.
We were always given something to do. She always seemed to know when the job was
finished, so she could give another job to be done.

Grandma washed on Mondays, (start at 4 A.M.) always had one wash out on the line when we
would go passed on the way to school, Iron on Tuesday. She would make the children take
off their stockings and would mend them, when they were on their way to school. After
school, she would have a job or errand for the kids to do, she would give them a slice of
bread and butter to eat, tell them, to go home and help their mother. She also had them
churn butter for her. She would always have me wash and mop her kitchen floor, which she
disliked to do because the floor was inlaid linoleum it was a dark green and dark beige,
it always had to be done on your knees, when it was dry, she would have you put linoleum
oil on it. She had a real system to house cleaning. It was always started in April and
completed by Memorial Day, inside and out. On the last of October, she would start all
over again, and everything was done again and finished by Thanksgiving every nook and
corner.

Grandma was always cooking, because of the boarders they had in the home, because of
this, everyone helped to push the washing machine.

She was very compassionate, always taking food to those who needed help or those who had
a funeral.

Grandma was an exceptionally good cook, she canned everything, if she got a quart of
raspberries out of the garden, and some were left, she would put them up in jam, always
something in her windows, current jelly, raspberries, fruit.

Grandma always expected to be obeyed, she had high ideals and when she spoke she often
expresses herself in short sentences, she always said, "It is better to suffer wrong
than to do wrong." "He who serves is happier than he who receives
services." "it's better to wear out than to rust out," She was always busy
doing something, never idle, everything she did was systematically. She always had
boarder's in her home, men working at the courthouse, schoolteachers, etc. One time she
had a lady school teacher boarder, for one winter, she always said women were a nuisance,
always wanting to wash their hair, take a bath, men boarders were a lot easier to have in
the home. She always said, " If anything is worth-doing at all, it was worth doing
well" She told everyone that helped her this saying. She gave us wise council at
all times and as I was engaged in construction work out in camps where there was a lot of
gambling going on she said; "If you ever gamble, I hope you lose every time."

She was always a very fine cook and an exceptionally good manager; she could prepare a
meal so quickly. She was always taking bread to others in the neighborhood, or those who
were ill. I was sent to the bakery one time for a dozen cinnamon rolls, when I got back,
she counted them, and there were only eleven, she accused me of eating the one, which I
wouldn't dared to eat. She sent me back to the bakery, I told Mrs. Ruesch, she said I
had eaten it; I was getting mad at this time and held my ground. Finally she gave me the
roll. When I got back to grandma's she said, let this be a lesson to you, don't trust
anyone, and keep your eyes open to what is going on, I was twelve at this time.

She was a happy woman and good hearted, but had a mind of her own. As she grew older,
she still wore the older style clothing and always wore an apron, but always was neat and
tidy. She wore her hair bobbed on the top of her head. She loved kids and everyday
she'd go out to the gate and wait for the kids to come home from school, talking and
laughing with her own and other children. She'd wear a black shawl around her shoulders.
She always had a treat for the kids when they came to visit. She would let the children
pick up the walnuts in front of her house.

Catherine's daughter Myrtle remembers the summer of 1945 when they went to Monroe and
showed her husband the dugouts that had been her and her family home in which they lived
when she was 8 years old. They dug holes in the side of the foothills. They were damp
and unhealthy, and nearly the whole colony became ill with Typhoid Fever. Because of
this and the Indian troubles, the church leaders asked them to return to the Sanpete
settlement about 1864.

When I was married in the Manti Temple, Grandma went to the temple with us; this is the
first time she had been back to the temple since she was married in the Endowment house
in 1881. As she went through the temple, her cousin, Mary Anderson, wife of President
Lewis R. Anderson, Kate, told her you are more trouble than anyone; you would think it
was you getting married.

Grandma traveled very little, once a couple of times to Wales, Utah to see her daughter
Jennie, She really didn't like to sew, but used up all scraps of material she could, into
aprons or something.

Their first child and son was born 21 Sept. 1882 in Manti, Utah, they named him Hans
Milton, died Oct. 28, 1885 of pneumonia at the age of three; The second son was born 13
October 1884 in Manti, Utah, they named him George Niels, he married Martha May Block,
October 14, 1909, George died 3 Oct. 1972. Their third son, William Wallace was born 11
June 1886, also in Manti, Utah, He married Stephine Wells McAllister the 1st of Sept.
1909. Their first daughter and fourth child was born 15 Nov. 1888 in Manti, Utah, they
named her Myrtle, she married Lawrence Niels Nelson, 10 June 1908 in the Manti Temple.
She died 18 January 1945 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their second daughter, Annie Janet was
born 17 August 1890 in Manti, Utah, She married Alma Midgley Thomas, 9 May 1928. She
died 23 March 1967. Their sixth child and fourth son, Robert Morland, was born 3 June
1893 in Manti, Utah. He died 23 March 1909 at Manti, Utah of quick pneumonia; Their
seventh and last son was born November 10, 1899 at Manti, Utah, they named him Lorrin
Ward, he died March 15, 1923 in Manti, of either pneumonia following an operation for
appendicitis. Lorin Ward was in the service of his country in the world war and at his
death his mother's name was added to the list of "Gold Star" mothers.

Shortly before she died, my mother and Aunt Annie Janet Larsen's were caring for her
because she was so sick and could not care for herself. She was so bad that jenny sent
my mother to get the Elders. After they gave her a blessing, within 15 minutes, she
settled down and slept about 3 hours. Her faith in the Priesthood and Church was so
strong and was an important part of her throughout her life.

She always had that spirit of wanting to help others. Her ideals were the same
throughout her life. "It is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong's " and
"He who serves is happier than he who receives services" Hans spent a lot of
time at the Manti Temple doing Temple Work. They enjoyed dancing and Hans was known all
around for his calling of square dances.

She died at the age of 90, July 22, 1946 in Manti, Sanpete, Utah. She was buried in the
Manti City cemetery 25 July 1946.

Ruth C. Nelson Stubbs