John Lowry Sr. (1799-1867), his first wife, Susan Groome (d. 1823), his second wife, Mary Wilcox (b. 1802), and their ten children were converted to the LDS Church in Missouri in 1833. They moved around Missouri, then to Nauvoo, Illinois, where they were present at the death of Joseph Smith. They traveled with the Joseph Taylor Company to the Salt Lake Valley. They lived in Salt Lake for a year and then moved to Sanpete or Sanpitch Valley in 1849, becoming some of the first farmers in Manti. John Lowry Jr. joined Parley P. Pratt's exploration party to southern Utah and then joined the Elk Mountain (now LaSal) Mission in 1855. The mission was short-lived, but he learned to speak Ute which allowed him to serve as interpreter and diplomat between Chief Walker, Arropeen, and Brigham Young.
The John Lowry Sr. and John Lowry Jr. biographies of both these early settlers to Utah are undated. The biography of John Lowry Sr. was dictated to his granddaughter, Sarah L. Reynolds and that of John Lowry Jr. to his great-granddaughter, Olive Anderson. The latter biography is more detailed and contains a full account of John Lowry Sr. Several pages of the biographies tell of the Black Hawk War and the cricket-seagull episode of 1848.
Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.
The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library's
Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Processed by Della Dye and Nancy Coulam in 1983.