• • • EBENEZER CROUCH I am the son of Ebnezer and Sarah Russell Crouch. I was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent England on the twenty-third day of September 1850. My father was the son of a Baptist Minister and was raised under the strictest discipline of that faith. My mother was the daughter of a well to do farmer. About the year 1854, my parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which, as might be expected, brought down upon their heads the ridicule and scorn of their very religious parents, and they were looked upon as being a disgrace to their families. At that time my father was engaged in the mercantile business for a livelihood and had been very successful, but as soon as it became known that he had joined that hated and despised people known as the Mormons, a great change was soon apparent. His old patrons withdrew their patronage and did all they could to injure his business. As a result he closed out at a great loss which left him very much reduced in circumstances. In the spring of 1856 we emigrated to America. We crossed the ocean in a sailing vessel named the Horizon. After about six weeks we landed in Boston, Mass. It had been the intention of my parents to go right through to Utah but upon our arrival, their funds were exhausted and they could go no farther. We moved into a large tenement house several stories in height right in the heart of the city. The houses were occupied principally by the family of Irish laborers and a rough set they were. Our family consisted of seven and here we had troubles galore. It was in the heat of summer, we were in the depths of poverty and Father was out of employment. We were strangers, in a strange land without the bare necessities of life. Sickness came upon us and within the space of two months the three youngest children died. Father was unable to pay the expenses of burial and they were buried by the municipality of Boston. Mother had the heart-rending experience of seeing strange men enter the house, take the bodies of her dear ones away to where, she never knew. In the fall of that year Father was offered employment in a small town called Ashland. There we moved and there is where my first recollections commence. What I have written so far was what I learned from my parents. At that time our family consisted of Father, Mother, my sister Elizabeth three years older that myself Father worked in a paper mill and we were treated well by the people. Soon after moving there I was taken sick with scarlet fever and almost died. I was once sliding on the ice on a mill pond close to our house when one of my playmates dared me to stand on a place where the ice was very thin. I took the dare and went down in about ten feet of water. Had I not been rescued by some men skating I would have been a goner . 4 .. .. • • • • In 1859 we made another start for Utah, we got as far as Florence, Nebraska. This was the place where all the emigrants for the west outfitted for crossing the plains. There could be seen frontiersmen of every type and the Pawnee Indian in all his glory. Father obtained employment with Mr. William Piper a merchant, as a salesman in his store. In the latter part of summer, a way was opened for us to continue our journey to Utah. Ebenezer R. Young of Salt Lake City was loading an ox train of ten wagon with merchandise for Salt Lake and offered Father and Mother passage for their services. Father was to drive an ox team and Mother was to cook for half of the men. The offer was accepted and we were soon on our way to Utah. Up to that time I don't think Father had ever seen an ox team. After a tedious journey we arrived in Salt Lake in the latter part of October. I remember seeing vast herd of buffalo as we traveled along the Platte River and across the Laramie plains. We averaged about 12 miles. One morning a fine mule was missing also one of the teamsters. They had gone off together and never returned. Upon our arrival in Salt Lake City, we found Samuel Mulliner of America Fork, who wanted to get a man to go down there and work for him. Father took the job and the same day as we landed in Salt Lake, we put our few effects in Mulliner' s wagon and started for American Fork. We stopped that night at Gardner's Mill on the State road and the next day we arrived at our destination . There were a very few good houses at the time They were principally log and adobe shacks. But we finally got a dugout just outside of the settlement and moved in. It was a hole dug in the ground about eight by ten feet with a fireplace dug out of the bank at one end, with a hole dug up through to the surface for the smoke to escape. In the other end a rough board floor was fitted into the bank with steps dug in the earth to ascend and descent. The roof was a composed of willows and straw cover with a layer of dirt. When it rained it was a question which was the driest, inside or out, but as it was warmer inside we generally chose to be there. For fuel we had to bum sage brush that Father used to go out to the bench and gather with ox team. We lived there about two months and then moved in to the settlement to an adobe shack belonging to Mr. Mullner. It consisted of one large room with a dirt roof and a fireplace at one end. Mother conceived the idea of teaching school to help make a living. She had only a common education. Our house was fitted out for a school room, three long slabs were obtained, two holes bored in each end and sticks sharpened at one end and driven into the holes for legs. These benches were placed on each side of the fire and the third bench was placed across the end forming a square. The pupils were facing inside, mother took the position inside the square and there she ruled supreme. As pay for Mother's services we would receive some flour from one, some potatoes, or a little piece of meat and so on. Meat, butter and cheese were considered luxuries. I think mother was paid about fifteen or twenty dollars a month. While crossing the plains I was taken sick with ague, or chills and fever. Mother would put me to bed, 77 • • • our beds were made on the floor, and when the fevers left Mother would resume her duties as school teacher. At that time the U.S. Army under command of General Albert Sidney Johnston was stationed at Camp Floyd, afterwards named Fort Crittenden, twenty miles west of American Fork. It created a ready market for hay, grain, and everything the farmers could produce. It was an extremely cold winter and the Utah Lake froze over so thick that teams could drive over the ice. One day a loaded wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen passed. I ran out and tried to climb on the hind end of the wagon to get a ride. In doing so I shoved my leg between the spokes of the wheel and if the driver had not stopped just in time, my leg would have been broken. I could not set my foot on the ground for 6 weeks. In 1860 Father obtained employment in Salt Lake City as a salesman in the store of Alexander Piper. I spent my days swimming in the Jordan River and we were always barefoot in the summer. Nearly every boy had a sore on one or both big toes all the time. We went bareheaded and as a result we had freckled faces and sore lips. While living in Salt Lake we encountered soldiers from, Camp Floyd, saw lots of Indians, and was acquainted with Porter Rockwell. There were lots of adventures involving these people. When preparations were being made for the departure of the army, it was estimated that they sold under the auctioneers hammer, four million dollars worth of merchandise. Brigham Young Jr. and AM. Musser of Salt Lake bought thousands of dollars worth of stuff for the church. They stopped at mother' s house while there. The army had thousands of firearms and I saw hundreds of new muskets destroyed. They would pack them out of the arsenal by the arms full, smash each one on a rock to render the lock useless and beyond repair. The ammunition they hauled out on the beach. When they had reduced the amount of ammunition in the arsenal to make it safe they touched a match to it. It took several nites to dispose of all their shells. They threw them out on the bench about a mile or so from town and left cast iron scatted all over the beach. After the army left we used to pick it up and sell Some of the shells would miss exploding. Two young men named Albert Jones and Robert Pettit, found one of these and tried to oust the plug with a cold chisel and hammer. There was an explosion and those poor boys were mangled frightfully. Jones was hurt the worst and Oh! How he did plead for someone to shoot him and end his misery. He lived about an hour. Pettit was put into a wagon and started for Salt Lake to get surgical attention, but died on the way. I did not have the advantages of much schooling but at one time I attended a private school known as Mously' s Academy. One day while school was in session there was a knock at the door. Mr. Mousley went to the door and we heard him talking to a man. In a minute he came back and dismissed school, went into his house and came out with a gun on his shoulder, and started up to town as fast as he could walk. All the boys were following him ands as he went along we could see men coming from all directions making for up town. When we got to where the B. Y. monument now stands were soon . . , . • • • learned what was the matter. It seemed that the military authorities at Fort Douglas had trumpeted up some charges against Pres. Young and were threating to arrest him. The Mormon people were preparing to resist them. At that time there was a stone wall ten feet high extending about one half block north of where Hotel Utah now stand, and east along South Temple to a little beyond Eagle Gate. Behind this wall they were erecting a scaffold just high enough for a man to stand on and shoot over the top. Soon all was ready for an attack. A large detachment of cavalry rode out of the Fort and came charging down the hill were it drops down to the level of the city and there they halted and stood for a long time as if in consultation and then turned and rode slowly back to the Fort. This action on the part of the soldiers took the strain off the minds of the people to some extent but for several days and nights a heavy guard was kept around the residence of President Young and horsemen were out patrolling the city. In the fall of 1863, Father sold his business to Wm. Eddington and took in payment a piece ofland in Weber Valley, two yoke of oxen, one span of horses, some cows and a Peter Shuttler wagon. The wagon Brother Eddington had bought originally for the purpose of hauling his family back to Jackson County to assist in building up that place. In November 1863 we moved into Weber Valley. Father built the first house and his family was the first to live in what is now known as South Morgan. All that flat upon which stands this beautiful little town was then merely a cattle range. The next four or five years were spent in the varied occupations of the settlers, such as riding the range, hunting cattle and horses, hauling wood and lumber out of the canyons making roads and ditches, in fact about any thing but going to school. Our amusements consisted of hunting, fishing, going into the hills picking service berries, horse racing and swimming. In the winter time we had candy pulling parties and dancing. We thought nothing of driving three miles with an ox team, dancing all night and returning home about sun up in the morning. I remember one night a young fellow and myself hitched up an ox team and we took our best girls to a dance. When the dance was over our girls, were missing and upon investigation we learned that some young fellows with a horse team had offered to take them home. The temptation to ride behind a horse team was more than they could resist, so my companion and I went home minus our girls, vowing that the pinnacle of our ambition would never be reached until we could drive a horse team. In the summer of 1868 I drove a team back to the terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad to meet the Mormon immigration. Each settlement in Weber Valley was called upon to furnish a team, wagon and driver. David Cool bear of South Morgan was called upon to drive the team from that place. We started out the sixteenth day of June. At that time there was no bridge over the Weber River and the water was so high we couldn't ford it, so we went down on the South side about eight miles and crossed over on Peterson's bridge and went East up the river. The first night we camped in the little town of Enterprise. The next day about noon found ourselves in North Morgan about one mile 79 • • • from where we started the day before. There we found the people greatly excited. It appears John Ager, brother-in-law of Dave Coolbear had undertaken to cross the river in a boat, the boat capsized and he was drowned. There was a message from Dave's mother and widowed sister asking him to give up his trip east, but he did not feel that way. We camped that night in Dry Creek. That night here came Fred Kingston with another message from Dave's mother and sister begging him to return. I took his place as teamster so be could return. Everything went well until we reached Green River which was to high to ford, so we traveled up stream to Robinson's ferry. There we found quite a gloomy condition of things. It appeared that one of the Mormon outfits had attemped to ferry cattle over, they rushed to the upper side of the boat which dipped water, the rope broke and six of the boys were drowned. This happened about an hour before we arrived. At the end of about six weeks, all the immigrants having arrived and loaded on the other teams it was found there was none left for our outfit so they loaded us with fright for Walker Brothers of Salt Lake City, where we arrived the latter part of September. (He enjoyed adventures in mining, driving his team, trailing cattle, even working as a flunkey or waiter in a hotel. Until 1872.) About the first of July I received a letter from home informing me of the death of my father and requesting me to come home, so I hired out to a mule outfit that was going to Corrine for freight. We arrived in the middle of August where I took the train for Morgan, my home. I went to work hauling charcoal with my mother's team out of Hardscrabble Canyon and in the spring I put in a crop on her farm .. On the 12th day ofNovember 1873 I was married in the old Endowment House to Sarah Jane Tomer, of Morgan City. There were born to us nine children. The next fourteen years I spent working my mother's farm in the summer and doing team work in the winter. In 1877 I was ordained a High Priest and set apart as 2nd Councilor to Bishop Chas. Turner. I also served 2 stake missions, and filled the civil office of road supervisor. On the 11th day of September 1879 I took as a plural wife Mary Pricilla Lerwill who has born me five children. We also adopted Wm. J. Cotrell whose mother died when he was sixteen months. In the early eighties, drastic laws having been passed against the practice of polygamy many men living in that condition were arrested, brought before the courts, and fined and imprisoned. Not having much relish for prison life I spent considerable time on the under-ground railroad dodging from place to place to keep out of sight of deputy marshals. On the 20th day of December 1899 my first wife Sarah Jane Tommer Crouch died. This autobiography written September 12, 1923. Ebenezer Crouch died August 5, 1942 . Buried August 8, 1942 in Salt Lake City. Retyped 1967 by Carol Ann Crouch Smith from an earlier copy . Submitted in April 2006 by Diana Crouch Williams