Sylvester Oliver Low, Sr.

• Find a Grave Memorial

Citation: Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/65654184/sylvester-oliver-low : accessed 24 June 2021), memorial page for Sylvester Oliver Low Sr. (12 Mar 1836–17 May 1908), Find a Grave Memorial ID 65654184, citing Cardston Cemetery, Cardston, Claresholm Census Division, Alberta, Canada ; Maintained by Ellis & Lynn (contributor 47403919).

Sylvester was the fourth child born to David Low and Jane Oliver. He grew up in the parish of Tealing in Forfarshire and began working at farm labor at age 7 to help his family. At age 14, he began to farm his own land and to serve as an apprentice to a local miller. His parents had brought him up in the Free Church of Scotland. While working in Arbroath in 1854, he met Mormons and was baptized a member of the LDS Church on 24 Jan 1855. Faced with a storm of ridicule and opposition from friends and relatives, he decided to emigrate to Utah. On 20 Apr 1855, shortly after his 19th birthday, he boarded the ship, Samuel Curling, in Liverpool. On board, he met and assisted the widowed Jacobina Paton and her two children, who were also "bound for Zion." The widow's heart went out to Sylvester in his loneliness, and she promised him that when the time came, he could marry her daughter. Jacobina later said that she had seen Sylvester in a dream before leaving Scotland. The ship reached New York City on 22 or 23 May. They all traveled by rail to Pittsburg, then by boat on the Ohio River. At St. Louis, Sylvester had to stay and work to replenish his funds. Jacobina and her children continued by boat on the Missouri River to Atchison, Kansas, where they joined a wagon train to Utah. Sylvester reached Salt Lake City later, on 13 Nov 1855. In 1857, he helped defend Echo Canyon in a seven week campaign against Johnston's Army. True to his promise, he did marry Jacobina's daughter, Ann Allan Paton, in the Salt Lake Temple on 28 February 1858, and in the spring of 1860, they moved to Providence in Cache Valley. In 1863, church authorities called them to help settle Bear Valley, and they returned in 1865 to settle in Smithfield. Sylvester's service included helping build Cottonwood Canal, his LDS mission to Scotland in 1886-88, and the genealogical work he did in Scotland in 1889. Sylvester married his second wife, Mary Smith, in the Logan Temple on November 13, 1884. In 1892, after the Manifesto, Sylvester moved to Cardston, Alberta, with Mary and their three children, while Annie remained at Smithfield, with her 11 adult children. Sylvester and Mary eventually had seven children, five boys and two girls, some being named the same as children of his first family! Mary died in 1936 at Cardston. Children born to Annie who died in infancy: Jacobina, Lucina, Jane & a son. Children born to Annie who survived her: James P., Sylvester Jr., Osborne, William, Annie, Jenette, Lydia G., Laurena M., Sylvia E., Charles D, and Milicent. Children born to Mary in Utah: Mary J., Sylvester W. and Joseph Smith Children born to Mary in Alberta: Sterling, Brigham Young, Edwin, and Mabel M.