A photograph album, sugar bowl and butter dish belonging to Harriet.

Harriet'sHarriet Bower Brown
Herbert Brown
Mabel Brown Blacker
Ruth Blacker Waite father, William Bower, kept a diary for many years. Included was the following about how Harriet became a servant at the age of fourteen years. "June 26 1869 Saturday, my daughter Harriet went to Nottingham to service at one shilling and six pence per week for the 1st month. Saturday July 24 The month being over, I went to Nottingham to see her and arrange for her wages which was set at 2 shillings a week for the future. (When children went to work, their wages went to their parents to help the family. Probably she was left with a little for personal spending) Oct 25, 1871 My daughter Harriet went to service this day to Mr. J.S. Smith Esq. in Chesterfield at 9 pounds 2 shillings per year." (About $45.00)

However, the family left for the US June 12,1872 and eventually settled in Almy, Wyoming, where mining provided coal for the Union and Pacific Railroad. Harriet married Adin Brown and they built a home in Almy where they lived for the rest of their lives. Because Harriet had worked for wealthy people in England, she knew how to organize and manage a home, and how to make it beautiful. Her granddaughter, Mabel Brown Blacker, was born in that house, and remembered what a lovely home it was. "I recall the green lawn enclosed by a white picket fence. Beautiful flowers of many kinds, and bushes of yellow roses. There was a little stream of water, running about halfway through the lawn, with a little arched bridge over it. There was a floral carpet on the floor. There was one room on the east side of the house where she grew her beautiful houseplants. There were pretty curtains at the windows, and hanging from the center of the ceiling was a chandelier lamp with long, glistening prisms. When the lamp was lighted, they glowed with all the colors of the rainbow. The coal and wood burning stove had an isin-glass window through which we could see the red flames glowing. It was the most beautiful house I had ever seen."