Annie Shackleton Bowen

Annie Shackleton Bowen

Annie Shackleton Bowen

Annie was born in the city of London on the 26 of Sept 1840 the last of 9 children by parents John and Susannah Isacke Shackleton. Her father died when she was about 8 years old. There were still 5 children at home, with 4 dying in their infancy. As soon as the children were old enough to help bring in income they had to start working outside the home. Even though regular schooling was not an option, their mother made sure and taught them to read. Annie remembers standing by her mother’s side while she was working and having Annie spell out words. Even though she had no school she did have her Sunday School and a loving teacher that she had fond memories of for the rest of her life.

They were members of the Baptist Church and her mother had her read a chapter from the Bible every morning before they did anything else. So she was “well acquainted with the scriptures at a very early age.” Her mother was very strict in her observance of the Sabbath. She would work until midnight on Sat. and start again on Mon. morning at 12:01 AM.

Annie started working at a large stationary place at the age of 10. About a year later her mother’s youngest brother Sutton was converted to Mormonism and soon became a missionary during the evenings. About this time Annie’s sister Ellen became very ill, one night they were all around her bed waiting for her to draw her last breath, Uncle Sutton came in and her mother asked him to pray. He knelt by the bed and offered a prayer like they had never heard before. When he arose he told them that Ellen would get well and would embrace the gospel and go to Zion. In the spring of 1851 Annie, Ellen and their mother joined the church. Annie was almost 11 years old.

In 1854 Annie quit the stationary job and went to work at a millinery establishment, where she worked until she emigrated in 1860. That year a family by the name of Pascoe invited Annie to emigrate with them and help with their children. Annie accepted and they left on the Vanderbuilt and arrived in Castle Garden’s in New York where they stayed for 2 weeks. They then caught a steam boat to Albany, took a train to Omaha, then a team 6 miles to Winter Quarters where they stayed until the company was ready to cross the plains. William Budge was their Captain.

They were followed for several days by Indians in war paint and all their finery. They were on their way to fight another tribe of Indians. But they saw all the pretty girls and so they kept trying to trade horses for the girls. Finally everyone contributed a little something toward a big present for the Indians, they finally rode off and left the company alone.

They were 3 months on the plains, where they suffered the same things all the others did. They had to wade streams, climb sand hills, getting torn to pieces by prickly Pear cactus and eaten by mosquitoes. One time the mosquitoes were so bad that no one was able to sleep for 3 days. Annie was rather badly run down, she had walked almost the whole journey maybe riding 20 miles out of the 1300 mile trip.

They arrived in Salt Lake in early October. The family She came with bought a house in the 17th ward from a family named Ballen. They weren’t able to move out for a few weeks so both families lived in the house for awhile.

Her Bishop was Hugh Moon and his wife was not feeling well so Annie went to work for them. It was though them that she met her future husband, David Bowen. He had come from Wales where he was trying to earn money to send back to Wales for the rest of the family. Money was pretty scarce to come by, most things that were needed were traded for. He had a 5 acre lot in SLC. When Annie and David got married on 16 Feb. 1861 they traded for a ½ a city lot with an adobe house. Soon Camp Douglas was founded and David hauled fire wood and finally got paid in cash. From that day on every dollar he earned he put aside to get his family here. We finally had the means to get them here in 1863. Ellen came the same year but with a different company. Annie was so desperate for clothes that she had to borrow a dress to go meet her sister. Ellen brought some clothes that belonged to an older sister that had passed away.

The Civil war was still going on and supplies were hard to find. Flour was as much as $25.00 a hundred pounds and butter and sugar $1.00 a pound. In 1864 Annie’s mother Susannah and her brother George finally made it to Salt Lake. While they were waiting to get off the ship all of their things were stolen. It was an extremely tuff trip and Susanna made it to SLC but died 10 days afterward.

They lived in SLC for 8 years where 4 of their children were born, David, Emma, Lewis and Agnes. David finally got work on the railroad where he worked until completion. From there they moved to Idaho. The grasshoppers were so bad that they didn’t know where their next meal was coming from. In 1869 they moved to Henderson Creek Idaho where they farmed. They lived there for 7 years where 3 more boys joined their family, Charles, Walter and Albert. As there were no schools in the area so Annie did the same as her mother and taught the kids herself during the long winter nights.

Annie also made all the kids clothes by hand, her 9th child, Edith, was a year old before she had a sewing machine. Her oldest son, David was 17 before he had his first tailor made suit. All their socks were also hand knitted by Annie.

In 1876 they sold the farm and moved to Samaria Idaho where her 7th child, Albert was the first child to attend public school from the beginning.

The Bowen family was a very musical family and were always in high demand in the different areas they lived in. David Sr.’s dad was sent to Tooele, Utah to start a music program there. David was asked to start a music program in Samaria and he and Annie had their work cut out as there was no books. They spent many a night hand printing music so David could do his calling. Annie was soon called as the young women’s president. Being handicapped without books again, she was thankful that she had a good memory and was talented enough to remember stories, poems and other things that made her group do well. In 1901 she became the secretary for the Relief Society. She died 28 years later in Logan Utah.