I help at the Oneida Pioneer Museum, mostly because I like old things and because I know Jean Thomas.  The third grade visited the museum on the last Monday of the schoolyear, and I got to welcome them and share a few historical stories about Malad.  We started with pictures of homes and how they had improved over the years, going from sod-covered log cabins to the pioneer brick homes we still see scattered around town.  Then, we discussed the downtown buildings and how businesses evolved.  Most businesses back in the day were family operations.  Families worked together and many left a legacy in our community that is still felt.

One of those families was the Edward and Mary Crowther Family.  They came into the valley in 1912 from the Bear Lake area, where they had been operating a mill.  According to Bob Crowther they purchased the Malad Roller Mills which had been here since 1867 from William E. Jones.  They renamed it Crowther Brothers Milling Company and began a business that would serve our area until the latter part of the century.

Junius, one of Edward and Mary’s sons, developed a lift system back in the 1930s that made it possible to build the continuous-pour cement silos that still stand today at Idaho Milling and Grain.  The concrete in the silos was all mixed by hand and poured day and night over an extended period.  Those silos look like they are made of metal, but it is cement under the covering.  The family also built Crowther’s Reservoir to help power the mill.  

As a child I fished the banks of Crowther’s Reservoir with my grandparents, and I never dried a dish with anything but a Big “C” Flour sack.  My breakfasts consisted of either germade or cracked wheat along with homemade toast made from Big “C” Flour, all products of Crowther’s Mill.  I lived a charmed life.  But the Crowther’s influence didn’t stop there.

Jean Thomas’s dad, Boyd, grew up in a home overlooking Crowther’s Mill when they weren’t at the ranch in Daniels.  In fact, his father, Dave Thomas was always referred to as Davey Crowther because he worked at the Mill and there were too many other Dave Thomases in town, so nicknames had to be used.  Boyd served in Italy during WWII and was on KP one night.  He went into the mess kitchen and saw several cans of Big “C” Flour sitting in the storage area.  He later told his family it was like getting a postcard from home.  And it made him homesick!

It is good to have a family and a hometown to miss.  Good hometowns are built of good families and that gives strength when times are tough.  Strength to keep going so you can get home…home to the Good Life.