Anthony and Ann Lofthouse were both born in the little farming village of Dallowgill, in the township of Laverton, within the boundary of Kirby Malzeard parish, West Yorkshire, England. This is in the dales of Yorkshire. It is beautiful country: mountains, hills, dales, streams, and lakes. The heather grows over the moors in summer, it blooms in all its glory.
Most farms had a name that has carried down for ages. According to the Clitheroe L.D.S. Branch records, Anthony was born in Not House (sometimes spelt Knot or Nott) the 21st of September, 1802, the son of Ralph Lofthouse and Sarah Ashby Lofthouse. Ann was born at Lady Hill Farm the 25th Dec. 1804. On her endowment card, she gave the 24 Dec. 1805 as her birth date, the daughter of Ralph & Margaret Procter Lofthouse.
Both Anthony and Ann were christened at St. Andrews Church, the Anglican church in the parish of Kirby Malzeard. He on the 21st of Oct. 1802 and she on the 19th Jan. 1806. A font stands at the rear of the church (inside) that looks something like this. It was there in 1975 , when we visited the church and was probably the same one that was there when they were sprinkled so very long ago. Ralph Lofthouse of Knotts, left a will. He claimed Anthony as a son.
Anthony and Ann were married in the parish church. It was recorded as follows: Anthony Lofthouse of this parish and Ann Lofthouse of this parish were married in this parish by Banns on this first day of February in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty seven, by me William Lawson. Anthony signed his name and Ann signed with an X. The witnesses were William Hodgson and Margaret Lambert.
Now I would like to go to a history written by my dear aunt Nellie (Sarah Helen) Tams:
My paternal grandmother was a large woman. She was a good story teller. The incidents in this sketch are as I remember them when I spent afternoons with her alone.
Grandmother was born Dec. 25, 1804, in a farming district in Yorkshire, England. Her father's name was Ralph Lofthouse and her mother's name was Mary Proctor Lofthouse. Her flaxen haired mother died when she was nearly 10 years old. Grandmother had a younger brother James that she dearly loved.
At the age of eleven, grandmother went into service or as we would say, hired out. At first she worked for a childless couple. They had another servant, a middle aged woman who had a "love child" about grandmother's age. Naturally she wanted her own child with her. The mistress treated Grandmother more like a daughter than as a servant. When the work was done, the mistress had her sit on a little stool by her side while she put Grandmother's hair in curl papers. The attention made the servant jealous, and she was often very unpleasant to Grandmother.
At one place she worked, they had flagged (rocked) floors on the kitchen, back kitchen and the passageway between. These had to be sanded and scoured on knees. She contracted housemaid's knees and had to go home until her knees were better. When she returned, the old gentleman forbid her to scour flags again. Her older sister Mary kept house for her father after her mother's death. She was very particular. There were two sources of water supply, one near the house, the other was down a hill about twenty rods away. When grandmother was at home, Mary insisted on her carrying water up the hill for the washing. Mary said it was clearer. She told Grandmother to rinse the stockings in enough water so the last would be clear enough to use for soup making, not that it was ever used for that purpose.
One year the wheat was frozen. For Sunday bread and especially when the minister was coming to tea, Mary put flour in a cloth, tied it up like a plum pudding, and boiled it several hours. After the cold crust was taken off and the center pulverized, she could make it into bread the usual way.
Uncle Parley Lofthause also wrote a short history of Great grandmother Ann. He also said her mother's name was Mary Procter.
Another family by the name of Lofthouse lived in the vicinity. The parents were Ralph and Sarah Ashby Lofthouse. They had sons Robert and Anthony. During the intervals when grandmother was at home, she often visited at this home as they were distant relatives of her father. The mother often asked, "Which one of my sons will you have, Ann?" Grandmother told her she wanted Anthony although the mother seemed to think she should have Robert.
At the age of twenty-one Grandmother came home to be married. Mary still unmarried, ridiculed her for marrying so young and said, "our Ann is going to be married and cannot even make a shirt." This aroused Grandmother. She was not used to sewing, but she bought materials for two Hicory shirts. This she put in her box upstairs. Then as she found time, she slipped upstairs and cut and made shirts. She gathered sleeves into arm holes and wrist bands, then stitched around taking four stitches forward and two back. She did this where shirts are stitched. After finishing the shirts, she held them up for Mary's inspection and said, "Am I fit to be married now?" February 1, 1825 she and her Anthony were happily married. Instead of receiving presents, they gave presents to nearest relatives. His mother receiving a ribbon for her neck.
Their first child little Jane was christened at Kirby Malzeard parish. This is the last we found of them in Dallowgill.
It was in the Clitheroe, Lancashire L.D.S. branch records that we found the family again. It was recorded here that son John was born at Scotter Bolton by Bowland on 3 July 1830. I decided to go to the records of that parish. He was christened the 1st of Aug. 1830. He was of Scots Laith. In 1974 Jessica took Deon Morlock and I to Scots Laith in Bolton by Bowland. There were several houses there; she was not sure which one was the birth place of her grandfather.
We have never found the birth place or date of births of two sons Robert and Ralph. I did do a search for them in Bolton by Bowland. They were not there, but I did find the burial of little Jane. The name was spelled Loftus. Bolton by Rowland is in Yorkshire.
We found the birth of son James in the Clitheroe branch records also. He was born 1 Nov 1833 in Downham, Lancashire. We were unable to find his chistening in Downham parish. Jessica went to the Vicar for help but they did not find it.
Now let's us go back to L.D.S. church history. This is taken from the Essentials of Church History, page 200. One Sunday June 4, 1837, the prophet approached Elder Heber C. Kimball in the Kirtland Temple and whispered to him "Brother Kimball, the Spirit of the Lord has whispered to me; 'Let my servant Heber go to England and proclaim my Gospel, and open the door of salvation to that nation.' I have added this article from the church section to this history. Now let me add that Elder Kimball was told that the people in Chatburn and Downham were a wicked people and that it would be a waste of time to go there.
Quote from Aunt Nellie: The Elders were holding a street meeting when Elder Heber C. Kimball took Father (meaning James Lofthouse) under his cloak to protect him from the chill and the rain of the evening. Grandmother had been holding him in her arms although he was four years old.
The following taken from the Clitheroe L.D.S. branch records: Anthony Lofthouse was baptized at Downham the 6th March 1838 by Joseph Fielding and confirmed by Joseph Fielding. Ann Lofthouse was baptized 24 Mar 1838 at Downham by Heber C. Kimball. According to a history by Uncle Parley they were baptized in Pendle Brook.
This statement caught cousin Jessica's eye. When Deon and I went to England in 1975, Jessica took us to Downham. It is a beautiful place, a small country village. She took us to Pendle Brook where a small stream ran through the village. Jessica drew our attention to the fact that the stream was so small, it would have taken a lot of work to back up enough water to baptize by immersion. Then she had Deon drive us to the other side of the village. Here we stopped, walked through a large gate, across some pasture ground to a stone wall. Here a stile was built, special arrangements of the rocks in the rock wall so there were steps to climb over the wall. Over we went, across some more pasture ground. We then crossed over a narrow rock bridge, very picturesque, across more pasture to a shady pool under tall trees. The pool was formed by Pendle Brook and another stream Rimington Brook coming together. Jessica told us, it was where Downham children had had their swimming pool for over a hundred years. She was sure the Downham baptisms had been performed here.
I (Aunt Ellen Alger) want to bear my testimony here that as I have come close to these great-grandparents, and have read the stories of the missionaries going to their area, I do humbly feel that they were guided to be in the right place at the right time, to Downham, Lancashire, England.
Sometime after this, Anthony and Ann with sons John and James moved to Clitheroe. Clitheroe had a branch of the church. They were active in the church there. They ran a Temperance House. A Temperance House was much like a Bed and Breakfast house today. The Temperance meaning they did not serve hard drinks.
Quote from Aunt Nellie's history: The Mormon Elders were entertained at this Temperance Hotel. The upper story was one large room. The Elders held meetings there. Anthony Lofthouse died March 17, 1847, leaving Ann with three children: John, James and Joseph. In 1852 she married Richard Crankshaw a widower. On the 9th of February, 1853, she, her husband and sons James and Joseph, emigrated to Utah. John had married and settled down.
They crossed the great waters on the sailing ship Elvira Owen from Liverpool to New Orleans. A returning missionary, Joseph W. Young being in charge of the Saints. By boat they went up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to Council Bluffs, an out-fitting post, where they joined a wagon train for Utah under Captain H. C. Wheelock. They arrived in Salt Lake City October 6, 1853, eight months from starting. Staying in Salt Lake City for a few days, the family moved to Grantsville, Tooele county, Utah. Ann, her husband Richard and Joseph moved in the spring of 1857 to Wellsville, Cache county, making the ninth family to locate there. James had meanwhile married and made his home in North Ogden. They made their home and had a small farm in what was known as the Mendon field where Richard with the help of Joseph raised a little hay and grain.
During the move of 1858 because of the Johnson Army scare, Ann and family moved to Beaver City. They stayed there until the fall of 1859 when they returned to Wellsville. March 10, 1870 her son Joseph (only 25 years of age and unmarried) is called home. On January 6, 1877 she fell and broke her hip. Not having a doctor, her hip never properly healed and she was a cripple the rest of her life.
During the latter part of Richard's life, he was a cripple; being unable to walk or care for himself. Ann, with the help of her son Joseph, grandchildren and neighbors took care of him. Richard, not being bedfast until a few days before the end, spent much time in his chair that had been fixed for him and by which he moved from place to place. He enjoyed going to meetings and some of the neighbors made a low cart out of an old handcart. They would push him and his chair into this cart and then take him to and from meetings. At the church door they would lift him and his chair out and carry him inside. After the services they would take him home. Those who knew him said that he had a Christ-like character, being kind and charitable. He was a kind and loving husband and took his part as stepfather well, treating his stepsons and grandchildren as though they were his own. In November 1879 Richard Crankshaw died and is buried in Wellsville. At the passing of her husband, Ann moved to Paradise to be with her son James and his family. Living with her son and family until they moved to the farm, then she stayed on in the old home with her niece Charlotte Ann to look after her until her son John came from England to Utah in 1882 to make a home for his family whom he expected to follow but who never did. (This is Jessica and Ann Lofthouses' grandfather.) John lived with his mother Ann until her death.
In recalling her early girlhood she says she used to work on a farm not only doing house work but working the fields. She says that her mistress learned she could knit so put her to work knitting stockings. This did get very monotonous but was better than working the fields.
She told the story that one day the lady's two sons were quarreling and she was sent out to stop them. She took a stick to them both, but having a little ill feeling towards the oldest boy, she gave him a real good thrashing thus easing her feelings while she had a chance. Oh, yes, she broke up the quarrel alright.
She kept open house for the Elders from 1837 to 1853 when she emigrated to Zion.
She also shouldered the burden of providing with the help of her son Joseph, for herself and the family. She did this by making yeast and selling it to her neighbors for flour. They had cows so she also made and sold butter and cheese. She learned to braid straw in her young days so she made and braided straw hats. She also made use of her early training by knitting and selling socks and mittens which occupation she followed to her death.
Though she lived to within a few days of her 95th birthday, her mind, while her body was crippled, was bright and clear.