Kate was born May 2, 1872, in Nottingham, England, the daughter of James Samuel Page Bowler and Matilda Hill. Her father was the son of John Bowler and Ann Elizabeth Taylor. John Bowler was born in 1819 in England and they were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-day Saints. James Samuel Page Bowler was born September 4, 1845, in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. He was baptized by John Walsom. Her mother, Matilda, was blessed and baptized into the church by Francis M. Lyman but her parents were not members. They were Episcopalians and they took a very dim view of any other religion. They never forgave their daughter for joining the church and coming to Utah. Although she used to write every month to them, the letters were never answered. The Bowler family also tried to dissuade them from coming to Utah, although they were staunch members of the Church and used to hold "open house" for the Elders.
Kate had three sisters and five brothers. Her father was a middle-class businessman, a cobbler by trade. He had a small shop in the back of his home. He was blessed with musical talent. In England he had his own choir and most of the members were from his own family. A missionary, Zera P. Terry, while on a mission to England became acquainted with the Bowler family. They needed musical talent in their ward at Hebron, Utah, so he told them they would like them to come to Utah. There was very little money for the trip so it was necessary that they travel by steerage. They sailed from Liverpool, England, on October 23, 1880, on the ship Wisconsin. There were 300 aboard, all bound for Zion. James S . P. Bowler was given the job as steward to help pay their passage and John Nicholson was president of the company of Saints. In mid-ocean they encountered a terrible storm which lasted for two days and nights. The ship started leaking and the men were all pressed into service on the pumps and the women and children were all locked down in the steerage. Their lives were in jeopardy but the captain of the ship said he always liked to carry Latter-day Saint people and missionaries because he felt safe with them on board his ship. The other ship that was traveling along with them went down but their ship arrived safely in New York. The captain was not a member of the church but he always had much respect for the missionaries and members of the church. This storm left a deep impression upon young Kate. Always after that her dreams turned to nightmares if they were about water.
Sister Bowler was expecting a baby at this particular time (George) so the older girls (Lizzie and Kate) helped to take care of the rest of the children. When they would get off the train or stop anywhere, Kate would count the children as they would get back on--"2, 4, 6, 8"--instead of calling their names to be sure they were all accounted for. Upon leaving Castle Gardens, New York, they entered the train and President Nicholson said to Brother Bowler, "You may go in the same car with the returning Elders and where and when we stop you may stop, too. " Brother Bowler greatly appreciated this. They did not have to stop except to change trains until they reached Council Bluffs. There they passed Saturday night and stayed until early Monday morning. While there they heard much profanity by a few men who stated they knew all about Utah and Brigham Young. They then crossed the river and stopped at Omaha to buy provisions and then went on to the Rocky Mountains. They witnessed a prairie fire which was quite a sight to behold. When they left the prairie the scenery began to change, surpassing all imagination, and they sang "0 Ye Mountains High."
Arriving in Ogden they were met by Joseph Morley who took them to his house and happy time was spent until the train left for Salt Lake City. By some misunderstanding no one was there to meet and greet them. The children were very sleepy so they all went together to the tithing house and spent the night. Bishop Hunter invited them to his office and arrangements were made for them to continue to Hebron. However, they stayed in Salt Lake City for some time before they were able to continue on their journey. Kate was nearly nine years old at this time so she was considered old enough to help out. She secured a job as a "mother’s helper" for a lady across town. She was paid the magnificent wage of 75 cents a week.
Thomas S. Terry, at that time Bishop at Hebron, learned of Brother Bowler’s ability to teach both music and shorthand so he made a request to the authorities of the church that he should be called down to Hebron. After all arrangements were completed, they took the train to Milford, Utah. Aaron Huntsman, an old bachelor who had heard about Brother Bowler and his fine daughters, took his wagon and went to meet them to bring them on to Hebron. There were eight children besides Grandpa and Grandma Bowler, making ten. It took three days to make the trip and they had to just sleep out on the ground at night. It was a great disappointment to him that he didn’t get a wife out of the deal but he never did marry. They arrived in Hebron in November of 1880 and there was quite a group of men (young and old) waiting to meet them. Great was their disappointment to learn that of the four daughters they’d heard about, only one (Lizzie) was of marriageable age. Wives were very hard to get then and, naturally, the men were not passing up any chances.
Kate’s father taught vocal music and led the choir. The hymn books at that time had only the words to the songs so he also had to write the music to go along with the words. The family helped out so much in the choir-Harry, Lizzie, Kate and Annie. Also, Brother Bowler with his wife and Kate and Harry sang many numbers together. There was not much demand for his ability to teach shorthand in that small community.
They only stayed in Hebron two or three years and then they went back to Salt Lake City where Brother Bowler worked in the Church Historian’s Office. They left four of the children in Hebron to work for their board-Lizzie, Annie, Kate and Walt. Then Lizzie decided to marry John David Pulsipher, they wrote to Brother Bowler for his consent and he came to Hebron to find out what was going on and he finally gave his consent. Then he went to St. George with them for their marriage. He couldn’t go through the temple with them but they let him witness the ceremony when they were married.
It was hard for Sister Bowler to console herself with part of the family in Hebron and Harry didn’t like it in Salt Lake. He ran away and came back to Hebron. He liked to be able to get out in the hills. So, they moved back to Hebron.
Kate finished the sixth grade in school and at this time was quite grown-up. She was very pretty--blue-eyed, black-haired and she had a very lively sense of humor. Kate loved to sing in the choir and could also chord the organ to sing by and also played the mandolin and the accordion. She especially enjoyed the "Big sing", as the choir practices conducted by her father were called. She could dance as gracefully as a ballerina and would swirl around the ballroom just like a butterfly. Kate seemed like a husky person. She was never very large but she did lots of work and was always affable and jolly. She was very fond of dancing but Charlie never did dance. When the boys began courting her, there were two in particular that took her eye - one was a bashful cowboy, Charles Zera Pulsipher, and the other was Leonard S. Conger, who had money and had a way of dealing with people. Charlie used to get jealous when Kate would go with him. Kate was quite a rider and Leonard would persuade her to come out to the sheep camp on the horse and this bothered Charlie. She went with those two until she finally decided it was Charlie she wanted for a husband. Shortly after her 16th birthday they went to the St. George Temple and took out their endowments and were married on May 26, 1888, by David H. Cannon. Charles was the first white child born in Hebron. His folks had been sent there to look after the Church herds where there was plenty of water and green feed.
In the summers they would go to Rattlesnake, through Little Pine Valley, and make cheese and butter -- (Ann Truman was there, too). This they would take to the Washington Mills to trade for cloth, flour, etc. Sometimes they would go to Parowan and even to Richfield to trade for honey and other things they could get there.
Their first child was Matilda, who was born March 26, 1889, but she died in January of 1890 of pneumonia. She learned to walk by holding to the dog and he would walk with her--Tige, he was called. One day she went out with the dog and got cold and it developed into pneumonia and she died. Two weeks after this the dog died and it was felt that he grieved so over the little girl that it was the cause of his death. Kate had a little tin box with curls in it and also some little dishes which had belonged to her baby. At this time Kate’s folks had moved to Gunlock and they didn’t get to Hebron until after the funeral, but Kate told them all about the funeral, the songs that were sung and what beautiful services they had for her.
Their daughter Rozella was born March 4, 1891. Mary was born June 4, 1893. She was called "Tiny" and it was after this birth that Kate became afflicted with a sickness that was to blight her life. She took spells and consequently became an invalid most of the time and the burden of raising the family passed her by. The larger girls took over the household chores. Kate seemed to sense when these spells were coming on and if she was holding a baby at the time she always managed to make it to the bed to lay the baby down and she never hurt any of them. She was always quite sick before her babies were born and her favorite food to eat then was bread, butter, fish and tea. This illness also put the responsibility of raising the family on Charles. Kate’s father was always her refuge when things went bad and whenever she would have one of her sick spells, as soon as she would recover sufficiently to get around, the first place she went was down to her father’s place and he never failed to send her home comforted. She loved him most devotedly. Her father never gave up hope of being able to help Kate. One time he rigged up a dry cell battery and gave her shock treatments and some thought it did help her some. She depended on her father so much and he always seemed to give her the courage to continue on in her struggles in life.
Kate was given a Patriarchal Blessing by Thomas S. Terry on August 9, 1916 and in this blessing it was promised her that her later years would be her best years.
Charles William was born June 24, 1895. At this time they traded some property in Hebron for some property in Gunlock. It was here that James Francis was born on July 5, 1897. That year the Fourth of July came on Sunday and was celebrated on Monday so he was born on the day of the celebration.
They raised a garden and fruit in Gunlock. They always had the earliest fruit and vegetables in town and usually had melons on the Fourth of July. However, there were years when there wasn’t enough water for the fruit and gardens and it was at times like this that they were lucky to have even a little flour and some milk. A little flour didn’t go very far with such a large family and the girls had it quite hard with their mother sick so much of the time.
Kate did a lot of nice crocheting and handwork. They didn’t have much and occasionally "Chot" would go out in the hills and round up wild horses and sell them. At one time when he was riding out in the Bull Valley Mountains he found a whole herd of cattle that were so old they could hardly walk and they decided they were from the Mountain Meadows Massacre. At one time he found a herd of Palamino horses. For a time he hauled ore from a copper mine below Gunlock at Shem. He hauled it to Modena and Tacoma and would haul coke back to use in the smelter. Sometimes they would haul freight for the store. He usually had some cattle and horses. Many went to their place for a melon feast and in the spring they had currants which Kate used to make delicious currant pie. She also made molasses ginger-snaps better than anyone else could make them. She would make as much as 50 pounds at a time and they were really good. When she would come to Mesquite in later years she went to many homes and baked some of these ginger cookies. Nevada says there isn’t anybody that could make salt-rising bread and milk. It was delicious!!
John Henry, was born May 24, 1899.
Emily Elzina was born July 4, 1901.
Walter was born September 30, 1903.
Leona was born February 1, 1905.
Maida Elizabeth was born May 1 , 1907.
Ruth was born November 26, 1909.
Raymond was born May 28, 1912.
Leonard was born July 6, 1915 - died July 12, 1915.
Kate was not very well but she always had strong, healthy babies.
Mary went to live with Frank and Emma Holt for two years and with Francis and Annie Bowler for one year, leaving Rozilla with most of the responsibility at home both in the house and helping father on the farm. Kate did have some medicine which helped her some but it cost money, of which they didn’t have much. She depended on her father so much and he always seemed to give her the courage to continue on in her struggles in life. One night after being with Kate through one of her spells, he came home quite discouraged and said to France "I’ve done all I can do. You go over and spend the rest of the night with her."
She believed the promise given her in her patriarchal blessing that her last years would be her best years. She believed this so completely that no amount of sickness could change her and she never lost her faith in the Gospel.