Charles Henry Crow: Part 1

(Editors note: This record is about my great great grandfather, Charles Henry Crow. It is based on two biographies, one written by his Son George and the other on file in the church history office which has no author. Some details were added based on folklore told by my grandfather. )

At age 17, Charles was apprenticed to a saddle maker near Birmingham, England. His parents were expecting twins and so it was his time to move out and get a job. At 22 he married and shortly thereafter they joined the church. He was quickly ordained a priest. His wife had twins, but they passed away shortly after the birth. In just a couples of years they emigrated to New York City. For some reason they stopped there for 3 years. My guess is they needed more money to continue their journey. But I have no evidence of this. There may have been some delay because of the rumored rebellion going on in Utah. At any rate Charles and his wife were in New York City from 1856 to 1859. While there he was ordained an Elder. Two more children were born as well but neither lived to adulthood.

While there Charles found employment at a saddle shop that had a government contract to provide for saddles (probably the saddle Capt. George B. McClellan designed. Thanks, Bill.) for Johnson's Army. The army was preparing to go west to Utah to put down the Mormon rebellion. An army officer was assigned to monitor the progress of the contract. During his periodic visits, the officer discovered that Charles was Mormon. The officer said some less than charitable things to him. To which Charles responded "Sire, You are going out west to get licked". (Bill, the closest I could find to an original source was an account written by George H Crow, Charles' son. George attributes these exact words to his father, but paraphrases everything else. I'll keep looking.)