ANNIE ELIZABETH CRYSTAL
Born March 26,
1882 in American Fork, Utah to James A. Crystal and Sarah Jane Barratt Crystal,
the third child in a family of 10.
In her childhood
days work was required at a very young age.
Her first recollection was when she was 5 to 6 years old, she was to
help around the house and do odd jobs.
Later she was required to go into the fields and help hoe the corn,
potatoes, and sorghum. She also helped
around the house with the cleaning and washing.
The washing was done on a scrub board, you placed the clothing on the
board after wetting it and rubbing it with soap, then with a up and down motion
holding tight against the board until it was clean. In the fall of the year it was the children’s
job to harvest the crops.
Many times she
relates that the grasshoppers were so numerous that they were eating the
crops. They would plow a furrow around the outside and
fill it with straw and scare the hoppers from the fields into the straw and set
it afire. When the crops were gathered,
the sorghum was squeezed through a roller and the juice was boiled to make
molasses. They made candy from some of
the drippings, at Christmas, this was their sweets. They called it burnt candy. Later she worked in people homes housekeeping
for 50 cents a week.
She married
William R. Greenwood, December 30, 1901.
She was a very good housekeeper and cook. The family was her main
concern. She always encouraged her
children in things they wished to do.
When they lived in Bingham, she was very interested in politics and
worked unfiringly for the Democratic party, and was very interested in seeing
that things were carried through in honest and energetic manner. She worked very hard and her energy was
inexhaustible, she never seemed to tire.
She insisted the
children went to church and was active in Primary, Mutual and Relief
Society. She was a visiting teacher some
50 years.
Her ability to
nurse her children in their sicknesses never ceased to amaze me. Doctors were only called for broken bones or
when children were born.
In 1918, when the
influenza epidemic was so bad, and in bed herself, she directed the nursing job
to the family, no doctor ever came to the home.
She nursed the sick in the town from early morning to the late evenings,
laid out the dead, and helped to line caskets.
When crops failed
one year, she cooked for a railroad construction crew of 50 men, feeding them 3
meals a day. Father cut the meat for her
and helped with the dishes.
Anne’s happy
disposition endeared her to the children of the school. They loved her. She formed a close friendship with Emmaline
Healey, who also was employed at the school, and they had many jolly times
together. On days off, it was not
unusual for them to take the bus to Salt Lake City for a day’s shopping
around. They were both good walkers and
thought nothing of walking down to Sears store and after they were through
there, crossing the street, walking up to the bus stations, stopping for
something to eat on the way. These good
times together continued until Anne’s health began to fail.
She was most
appreciative of her home, her family and friends. In her history she wrote: “God was good to us
even in our worst days. I have many
things I am thankful for and I love my good friends and neighbors. I am happy I have a home here in the
mountains and my children live close around me.”
She passed away
June 13, 1968.
Anne was the
mother of eight children, six of whom are living. They are: Frank C. And Harold
of American Fork; Burton R., of Salt Lake City; Mark J. And Wilson C., Lehi;
and Vie, Mrs. Lloyd Hayward, Ogden. An
infant son, Grant Clifford, died when twelve days old and a baby daughter,
Irene Iris died at the age of eleven months.
Surviving also are 16 grandchildren, 16 great grand children, 1 great
great grandchild and a sister, Mrs. Jennie Baxter of Pocatello, Idaho.
-Dena S. Grant Services June
18, 1968, Anderson Mortuary, American Fork, Utah.
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