William Joshua Crook

WILLIAM JOSHUA CROOK (4) was the first child born to Samuel Lane Crook(8) and Sarah Ann Haines(9) on 1 June 1857, at Centerville, New Castle, Delaware. His parents were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had immigrated to America from England in 1856. They made their first home in Centerville, Delaware where his father worked at farming for nearly four years to get enough money to continue their journey westward to Utah. A sister, Sarah Ann, was born 19 November 1858, and died 30 November 1859, in Delaware.

The family left Delaware in March 1860, and rode the train to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where they secured a handcart, loaded their possessions in it and began the long walk to Utah. They pulled and pushed their handcart, and it is told that Joshua had to have his shoes resoled three times during the trek. Joshua was three years old, and later told of meeting a herd of buffalo so large that it took several hours for them to pass the train of handcarts. Sarah was three months pregnant at the time. They came in the 9th Handcart Company with Daniel Robinson as Captain of the company with 235 souls, six wagons and 43 hand carts leaving Florence, Nebraska on 6 June 1860. When they got to the Green River Crossing, they were met with a load of food which had been sent by the church leaders in Salt Lake City for them. They arrived in Salt Lake City 27 August 1860. The trek had taken them two months and three weeks to make. This was the next to the last handcart company to cross the plains.

Joshua’s sister Margaret Ann was born, 9 September 1860, shortly after their arrival in Salt Lake City. (She died five years later.) The Crook family was sent to Kaysville, Utah where a few of the saints were living and engaged in farming. Two more children were born in Kaysville, Samuel Orson and Laura Louise. The family was asked by President Brigham Young to move to the Bear Lake area to help establish a stronger Mormon settlement there. They first settled in St. Charles where George Henry and Elizabeth were born.

When Joshua was a boy, he herded oxen at night in Logan Canyon. The oxen were being used to haul the logs to the saw mills to be used in the construction of the Logan Temple. The place was one mile below the ranger’s office - Tony’s Grove.

The family next moved to Fish Haven, which is about five miles south of St. Charles. The following children were born at St. Charles, John Edwin, Richard Lasell, but died when he was two years old and Willard. Of the ten children born to Samuel and Sarah only Joshua, Orson and Willard lived to adulthood. The Fish Haven Ward record shows Joshua baptism year as 1868 and being re-baptized 27 August 1876.

At one time when food was very scarce, a strong southeast wind blew the water off the lake
onto the land and when the water receded, fish were left by the hundreds. The people soon gathered a supply and ate their fill. They also dried many for future use. This event has never happened since. At this time flour was $1.00 a pound and cloth which was called ‘factory’ was $1.00 per yard. This family only had one pound of sugar in a year. An ox team was used to go to Paris, Idaho for conference. Farming was done with homemade implements. Mowing was done with a scythe. In February 1871, Bear Lake was frozen enough to hold a team and sleigh. Races were run on the ice. One year in March, the lake was entirely frozen over and cattle were driven to the east hills to feed. At one time Joshua went across Bear Lake on the ice to get wood and decided to come back that night with his load of wood instead of staying overnight. The next morning the ice had broken up.
One summer the grasshoppers were so thick the sun looked red, a wind came from the west blowing the grasshoppers out on the lake and when they were washed up on shore they were about three feet thick, this saved the crop that summer.

The main amusements at this time were dancing and house parties. A ticket to the dance was paid in wheat, butter, eggs or other produce. The people traded cattle for horses brought from California. In 1877, the whole family was stricken with diphtheria and his sister Elizabeth age nine, and brother John who was seven both died and were taken to the cemetery for burial at the same time. In 1867 a letter came and as there was no money to pay postage and stamps were unheard of; it laid in the post office six months, when they were able to get the letter out it contained an account of their grandmother’s death.

HARRIET JANE HOWELL(5) daughter of Henry(10) and Frances Goble Howell(11) was born 19 March 1860, at Avondale, Chester, Pennsylvania. She was the third child in a family of nine children. Shortly after her birth, the family left Pennsylvania for Florence, Nebraska where they made preparations for their trip to Utah. They were members of an ox team company which left 15 June 1860, when Harriet was only three months old. and arrived in Salt Lake City Saturday 1 September 1860, 2 months and 17 days later. The family moved to Bear Lake Valley in 1864, first living in Paris and later moving to Fish Haven. In the Fish Haven Ward records her baptism is recorded the 21 August 1871, by Bp. William Budge; re-baptism 20 September 1875, by President William Budge. (Often they had to be re-baptized each time they voted).
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Harriet went with her father when a young girl to Salt Lake City to get winter supplies via Laketown, Randolph and Woodruff. In the 1880 census, both William Joshua age 23, and Harriet Jane Howell 20, were listed as living at home with their parents. She wrote lots of letters in her lifetime. Even to cousins in England whom she had never seen. She took advantage of all the schooling she could get. She taught school in Fish Haven for $12.00 a month before she was married. At one time she had a discipline problem and tapped one of the boys on the head with a ruler. He went home and told his mother that the teacher had hit him and his head was sore. His mother looked to see how bad it was and found a wood tick embedded in his head that was all swollen up.

The Howell family moved to Fish Haven in 1868, and two years later the Crook family moved there also. It was here that Joshua and Harriet began their courtship and were married in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, 14 October 1880, traveling to Salt Lake City and back in a wagon. While there they rode on street cars drawn by mules. Harriet and Joshua both received their Patriarchal Blessings in April 1880 by Elder J. M. Wourks.

After they were married, Joshua purchased twelve acres of land in Garden City, Utah located on the east side of the highway at the first turn going north from the Garden City intersection. Their first child, Frances Sarah, was born 2 June 1882. Then William Henry joined the family two years later on 3 May 1884. Before the arrival of Joshua Lane, who was born 24 December 1885, the grandparents from Fish Haven had been visiting and they left their dog tied up at Joshua and Harriet’s and when the baby arrived, Joshua attached a note on the dog’s neck and turned it loose and the dog ran home announcing the arrival of the new baby.

In the summer of 1887, Joshua staked a claim for 160 acres and started building a cabin in the southern end of Star Valley area later known as Smoot. Joshua sold his twelve acre farm in Garden City. Early in the spring of 1888, he moved his family to Fish Haven where they lived with Grandmother Howell until Ezra John was born 5 April 1888. Meanwhile, Joshua went to Star Valley early that spring via Crow Creek taking a load of furniture. The finished the two-room cabin was about 12 X 26 feet on the homestead northwest of the present town site of Smoot, along a creek and planted a small crop. Later that spring, he went back to Fish Haven and moved his little family to their new home. Most of Wyoming was still open territory at this time. Settlers were staking new claims and some were simply passing through on the Oregon or Lander Trails bound for the northwest.

When the William Joshua Crook family arrived in Star Valley there were only three other families living in Smoot. However, several more families came that year. Later that summer the family had traveled to Afton, which was no small task in those days, for the 24 of July celebration. When they returned, they found their crops had been destroyed by a large herd of cattle that had detoured from the Lander Trail and made a dust bowl of their grain crop. This left them with nothing to feed Tucker and Nell (team of horses) and their one cow so, that winter Joshua would go over to the east hills each day and cut a bundle of hay (wild wheat grass) to feed the cow and gave each horse a quart of oats. He later traded old Nell to Jim Walton for a saddle.

Their second major challenge in their new home came with the change of the seasons. They were not prepared for the harsh winter of 1888 which was one of Star Valley’s famous winters. Many cattle were lost. It was milk from the cow and supplies brought from Idaho that helped them through that first winter. An excerpt from the book Star Valley and Its Communities reports on the winter of 88. “The snow fell to a depth of three and a half to four feet in the level valley bottom. It is said that it snowed and melted again and again until all together eighteen feet of snow fell that winter.”

In the early days professional medical attention was not available and the families relied on each other for help in time of sickness and need. There were many a heartache when a child would die. Seth was born 27 June 1890, only to live seven months when he contacted scarlet fever and died 23 January 1891. He was their first child born in Smoot and was the second burial in the Smoot Cemetery. In 1891, a plague of diphtheria took 15 lives in Smoot. For the early settlers it was a helpless feeling.

George Vernon was born 15 March 1892, and Sharon Howell was born 22 September 1893. As a child Sharon had three fingers chopped off his right hand while Vernon was chopping wood. Sharon had been helping move wooden benches at the church for the 17th of March party and got a sliver in his finger and it developed into blood poisoning and he died a week later on 5 April 1908, when he was 15 years old. That fall Joshua did Sharon’s endowment work in the Salt Lake Temple.

Ernest Ray was born 23 October 1895, Rulon James was born 8 August 1897 and Harvey Orson(2) the 16 October 1900. One of Harvey’s earliest remembrances was on Christmas Eve 1902, when the family Christmas tree got set on fire from lighted candles that were used as decorations. Ezra was putting on his white shirt and preparing to go to a dance, he grabbed the tree and threw it outside. Three weeks before Ella Harriet’s birth on 24 July 1903, the family moved into their new two- story, seven room frame home. (This home was unoccupied and destroyed by fire in the 1990's.)

William Joshua was ordained a minister for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 18 Sept 1908, and left for the Eastern States Mission where he served for six months. He was in
Camdon, New Jersey and Washington D. C. The family always went to church on Sunday, Joshua was Superintendent of the Sunday School for years. The Cottonwood Ward was organized in 1889, and later renamed the Smoot Ward in 1901. The ward met in a log building on a ridge above Cottonwood Creek in the early 1890's, and this building was also used as a school until 1908. A new church building was built in 1900, which was one big hall, with long wooden benches. When they held Sunday School, curtains were drawn to separate the classes and at times it got quite noisy. A stove at each end of the hall was used for heating the building in the winter time. Harvey and Newell Peterson were the first babies blessed in the new church. A lot of basketball games were played in that same hall. In the wintertime the family would go to church in a sleigh and in the summertime in a big white-topped buggy, which had two big seats in it.

The land which lies north of the old Tom White sawmill a few miles north of Thayne and east of Salt River was set aside as an Indian reservation except for several places which were already homesteaded. The Indians were wiser than to stay in the valley during the winter. This land was opened up for homesteading some time after the turn of the century.

Vernon purchased Annie House’s homestead in 1913, which is located north and east of Etna. Mrs. House and her children moved to Idaho. Vernon enjoyed living in Etna, especially playing baseball and going to dances. Etna was a boom town at this time.

Vernon Crook, the fifth son of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Crook passed away in Salt Lake City, Utah, at noon 20 Jan 1920, after suffering for nearly two years with his side injury. In the spring of 1918, he was branding and dehorning cattle and met with an accident breaking several ribs. He did not suffer any at the time and paid little attention to it, thinking it would be better in a few days, and kept on working as usual. The inflamed part finally began to gather and from then on he has been suffering. He was operated on twice to have the decayed parts removed but the sore continued to gather and break until death claimed his precious young life. He was among the first children born in the valley--his birth being on the 15 March 1892. All through his life he has been bright and energetic--very successful as a farmer in Etna where he owned almost 200 acres of land. Everyone sought Vernon’s company because of his kind and cherry disposition and his association among the young people can never be replaced. Harvey, the youngest boy was the only member of the family with Vernon when he died. He accompanied the remains to the valley.--SV Independent (During the summer, before Vernon died of TB of the bone, he slept outside in a tent because of the odor from the infection.)

Before Vernon’s death he had been courting Eva Stone. Vernon had gone to Idaho Falls with a wagon load of pigs to sell and when he returned Eva had died from complications of appendicitis and was buried. Her mother came to Joshua after Vernon had passed away and told him that, Eva had come to her in a vision wanting to be sealed to Vernon. Joshua agreed and this work was done 6 October 1920, in the Salt Lake Temple.

Joshua served several terms as a trustee for the Smoot Public School, and a term on the Consolidated District #19 school board. Harriet was a teacher in the first Relief Society organized in Smoot. One day, Harriet and Joshua and two other couples, Joe Clark and wife and Charles Gomm and wife rode horses to Cottonwood Lake. When they were near the last bend on the trail, before coming to the lake, Joshua whispered to Harriet and told her to ride ahead so she would be the first white woman to see Cottonwood Lake.

This couple valued the importance of education for their children. When they completed public school in the valley, they were encouraged to attend the Paris Academy in Paris, Idaho or USAC in Logan, Utah. Four of their sons filled missions, William to Germany, Rulon to New Zealand, Harvey to Australia and Joshua L. served a local home mission. Ray and Ezra served in the U.S. Army in World War I.

Their eldest daughter, Frances Sarah, was married to Herbert Schwab and died on 15 May 1921, on Mothers Day, after an extended illness of influenza and pneumonia. She was the mother of eight children.

Ezra never married. He lived in Smoot and Etna all his life, except for time spent in the army during World War I. After returning home, he lived with his brother Joshel and helped run Vernon’s farm. Later in his life while he was living at Harvey’s, they realized Ezra had a bad hernia and Harvey took him to Salt Lake City. Where Ezra had a hernia operation at the Veterans Hospital which made him feel much better. While at the hospital he applied for veterans benefits and he started receiving a pension from the army. He enjoyed playing the violin. He died 8 March 1960, and was buried in the Smoot Cemetery.

Joshua saw many changes in his life time. His experiences in different methods of harvesting are very complete, having seen his father cut grain with a sickle and having himself used a cradle, dropper, hand-feed harvester, binder and having observed and helped to operate a header and combine harvester. He also claimed to have the low down on transportation, as he has traveled by handcart, horse back, ox team, mule team, horses, railroad, automobile and last but not less thrilling, while in Salt Lake City a short time before his death, he went for an airplane ride. “He bought a new Ford car from L. C. Procter a local distributer.”-- date unknown. Article from SV Independent

Harriet lived a very busy and useful life. Besides caring for her family, she always had time to help her friends and many trips were made to help the sick and needy. Everyone spoke highly of her ability to make good bread which she did even when her hands were so deformed from arthritis. Her spinning wheel and sewing machine were well used. Quilts were made and the quilting frames were raised to the ceiling when not in use. The washing machine was turned by hand to wash clothes. Some fruit was dried in the early days. Harriet grew currants, rhubarb, and strawberries between the house and the little ditch. She made strawberry jam which was stored in a crock jar in the cellar for winter along with other fruits, meat and vegetables which were bottled. Potatoes, carrots and other root crops from the garden were stored in the cellar. A cellar is a room below the surface of the ground used to store food to protect it from freezing in the winter and heat in the summer. Access to it was from a door laying on the ground which was covered with straw in the winter. Another door was at the bottom of the stairs, which led into the underground storage room.

Joshua raised wheat and took it to the mill in Afton to be ground into flour. The flour was stored in a large flour bin. They grew cabbages, which were buried in furrows and covered with dirt and straw in the fall. During the winter time they were dug out and eaten. They would separate the cream from the milk and make cheese. Joshua made a cheese mold so the curds could be pressed. They got coloring and rennet from the creamery in Afton. Brine (salt) was used for curing meat and sometimes the meat was smoked.

Joshua and Harriet celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on 14 October 1930, with a reception at the Smoot Ward church house. At that time, of the eleven children born to them, six sons and one daughter were still living. Also, there were 29 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. They moved from their farm up to Smoot in the early 30's. They lived next to Rulon and close to the post office, general store, church house and school.

On 17 July 1936, William Joshua died suddenly with only a few members of his immediate family present. His death came as a shock to everyone because he had seemed to be in such good health. Heart trouble or a blood clot was the probable cause of his death. Ezra who had never married came and helped care for his mother.

Harriet was unable to move around except in a wheel chair for the last seven years of her life. Her hands were so badly crippled with arthritis it was difficult for her to even hold a pencil to write. She was known by loving relatives and friends as Aunt Harriet. The hardships, the pioneering and suffering she endured in her life time didn’t embitter her soul, but made her tolerant and patient. She passed away 17 July 1938, at her home in Smoot. She was survived by six sons, one daughter, 34 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren. Joshua’s funeral was the last one held in the old church house and Harriet’s the first in the new church house in Smoot. Both William Joshua and Harriet are buried in the Smoot Cemetery.