Michael and Eliza (Elizabeth) Byrne Lowham
Eliza was born July 30, 1846 at Queenstown, Cork, Ireland. Her father was Richard Byrne and her mother was Mary Elizabeth.
She married Michael Lowham on October 9, 1872 and they set sail for Canada the very next day. Michael had been born in Dublin, Ireland September 29, 1841.
They lived in London, Canada for a short time and then Michael left for the United States to find work. Communication was most difficult, thus it was some time before he learned of the birth of his son. Their first son, William Richard, was born December 4, 1873. Eliza did not hear from her husband for over a year. She wrote many letters but did not receive an answer. She began to believe that he had left her for good and she feared for herself and her son in a strange country with no family or friends.
After she wrote each letter, she would take it to the post office and ask if there was any mail for her. Each time she was told ìNot today, lady.î She would return home and cry and find her only comfort in her baby.
One day, she went to post another letter to her husband and the Postman asked her if she would like some mail. He told her to open up her apron and he poured all the letters from her husband into it. It looked as if he had written to her everyday. Apparently, his letters had been going to London, England instead of London, Canada and that was the cause of the mix-up.
In this bunch of letters, she found one that had the money for her to travel to Rock Springs, Wyoming where Michael had a job as a section foreman on the Union Pacific Railroad. When she arrived, they both admitted that they each had thought that the other had deserted them, but they soon found that their love was as strong as ever and they had both just lived to see each other again.
They lived in Rock Springs for a few years and then moved to Bryan in Uinta County where five more children were born to them: Garret OíNeil on November 11, 1875; Joseph Patrick on February 1, 1877; John Edward on August 20, 1878; James Archibald on February 10, 1880; and Michael on June 26, 1881. They lived here for eight years where Eliza cooked for the men who worked on the section. She would cook for eighteen men in the daytime and sew for the children at night in order for them to have clothes for school. All of the sewing was done by hand and she would also knit all of their socks.
By 1883, the family had moved to Hilliard, Wyoming where Michael had taken up a ranch on the upper bear river and they filled a life-long dream of working for themselves. It was here that their first and only daughter was born. Mary Elizabeth was born on January 30, 1883. They also had four more boys: David Gordon on June 14, 1884 Thomas Albert on November 29, 1885, Samuel George on November 25, 1887, and Benjamin Ulysses on May 26, 1889
All the boys worked hard on the ranch, and it was lucky that the Lowhamís had ten boys, as there was always something to keep them busy. Eliza and Mary Elizabeth kept each other company with the household chores,
At one time seven of the boys worked on the railroad. Five of them were on the Lowham special. Bill and Garret were both engineers, Joe and John were conductors. Jim and Mike were brakemen. Sam was a fireman. The boysí father, Mike, was the section foreman. Sam was killed about 1903 in a train wreck below Castle Rock, Utah. The train hit a rock and turned over. Joseph was killed in 1904 when two trains collided. Garret was killed about 1907 in an accident.
It has been said that Michael and Eliza Lowham had a ton of boys. They were tall and large and very strong men. If they were all together, it was said that they weighed a ton.
Michael Lowham died December 7, 1922 Eliza died June 22, 1919 and are buried side by side in the Evanston, Wyoming cemetery. Her heritage of children have contributed greatly to Unita County and their memory lingers on with Love and affection among their descendants.