Grandmother Lillian Lee Taylor Lowe

Our Grandma Lowe ~ Brown ~ Grochow

Lillian Lee Taylor was born November 17, 1902, in Taylor, Missouri. She was the second child born to William Patterson and Mary Alice (Bates) Taylor.

Taylor, Missouri

When she was two years old, her father sold his half of the family farm to his older brother Lee.

Taylor Family Farm - William Patterson, father William Inskip, mother Ellen Elizabeth, younger sister Lulu May

William Patterson and Mary Alice (Bates) Taylor

William, his wife Mary Alice, Lillian's older brother Lucius (Lou) and she began the move to Canada. Papa Taylor took advantage of the Canadian Land Grand Act.

On their trip north a family named Brown, from Illinois, joined the caravan. The Brown children were Robert, Grace and a 13 year old named Leonard Douglas.






The Taylor and Brown families settled near Acme, Alberta, Canada. Lucius (Lou) and Lillian's younger sister and brothers were born there and the family enlarged. They were: Ruby Alice, Bates Inskip, William (Bill), and Albert Dudley.

Lillian, age 15

Many stories were told by Grandma of those early days growing up in Canada. One story was about the remittance man from England who had his own private movie theater. Another story was of the two English sisters that lived with the Taylors; one cooked and the other sewed. Then there was the time that she and her younger sister Ruby were invited out to dinner by an English brother and sister. The main course was 1 boiled egg - each!

She shared memories of the fact that water was brought in by the water wagon. Water was taken from a distant pond, which of course froze in the winter and every one ice skated. Lillian loved playing ice hockey. Another item of great interest in that time was the laying down of food stores for winter use.






The Taylor Family of Acme, Alberta, Canada, would have visited neighbors and school friends, as seen in the photos below of Grandma's friends who had a farm near Carstairs, Alberta, Canada.

Wood's home near Carstairs, Alberta, Canada, Ralph Heaton, Lillian (age 15), Ray Woods (brothers John & Harry Woods)

Henry Wood's farm east of Carstairs, Alberta, Canada - Harry Wood, Lillian (age 15), Ralph Heaton, Margaret Wood

Franklin High School, c. 1912

Grandma moved to Seattle in her high school years and lived with her Uncle Albert Webster and Aunt Lulu May McIntyre, (Lulu was younger sister to Papa Taylor.) She graduated from Franklin High School, in Seattle, WA, c. 1919.

Kamola Hall Dormitory, Ellensburg Normal School

She then attended Ellensburg Normal School  and received her teaching certificate.  She roomed in the same dormitory (c.1919 - 1921) that I roomed in 1969-1971, Kamola Hall, an all girl's dormitory.

Kamola Hall, 1971, friends - Lou, Steph, Maggie and me

Ellensburg Normal School became Central Washington College of Education in 1937, Central Washington State College in 1961, and finally Central Washington University in 1977. I attended Central from September 1969 - August 1971.

 I'm 60 years old and the Dormitory is 100 years old

I re-visited Kamola Hall, on the Central Washington University campus, in May of 2011, on its 100th Anniversary.











Grandma's first employment was the all-grades school at Hyak, WA, on Snoqualmie Pass, where her younger brothers and sister must have been some of her pupils. Their Papa Taylor was one of the sub-station operators.

http://content.statelib.wa.gov/u?/ellensburg,2240 - 1928

"A school teacher, stands in the doorway of the Hyak School building located at Hyak, Washington near the summit of Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains.  The school served the children of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad workers."

Grandma would have taught here c. 1922 - 1923.


When the Taylor family moved to Kittitas, WA, Grandma began teaching in the Kittitas Valley. One of the School Board director's name was Robert C. Grochow (R.C.)

She married Thomas Lee Lowe in 1927.  Her brother Dudley brought Tom to the Taylor home as Tom had fed Dud canned pineapple. Dud thought, "This man is worth knowing."

Grandma and Grandpa lived in Cle Elum where their son, William Thomas (my father), was born in 1928. They moved to St. Marie's Idaho where their daughter, Norma Lee (my aunt), was born in 1929.

Thomas Lee Lowe, 1930-41 - Othello, WA

They moved again to Othello, WA, to Kittitas, WA, and back to Othello, WA, always to places where Grandpa Lowe worked as engineer on the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.

Grandma led the singing at the Presbyterian Church and joined the Ladies Aid Society in Othello, WA.

The photo on the right is of the Easter Sunday School, 1932, in Othello, WA. My father "Bill" is the little 4 year old sitting down on the far right, with his sister, 3 year old Norma beside him.



Grandma also always provided ample hot food to the hobos who rode the rails during the Depression. Many times my father and my aunt would come home from school at noon lunch and a stranger would be sitting on the back porch having his lunch too, provided by Grandma.

The Lowe family moved to Poulsbo, WA in 1941, where Grandma resumed her teaching and she became the Poulsbo Elementary Librarian.

After the death of Grandfather Thomas Lee Lowe in 1946, Grandma re-met Leonard Brown, now a widower, and they were married. They continued to live in Poulsbo, WA.  They often visited extended family who were still located in Ellensburg and Thorp in Kittitas County, Ephrata, Grant County, and Alberta, Canada.

Grandpa Leonard Brown, Great Grandma Alice Taylor, Grandma Lillian (Lowe) Brown, Cathy Lowe c. 1956 Ellensburg, WA

We lost Grandpa Leonard Brown in 1969. Some time later Grandma re-met R.C. Grochow (from the time she was teaching in Kittitas, WA), and they were married in the Spring of 1972. At that time Grandma was living in Issaquah, WA. R.C. Grochow died in 1973, living Grandma a widow again.

Norma Lee (Lowe) Mathies, Lillian Lee (Lowe) Grochow and William Thomas Lowe, 1976

In 1981, she moved into a Redmond retirement home where she was still very much in charge of her life. After a serious operation in September 1988, she moved to a nursing home where she lived to the age of 91. We lost our Grandma in 1993.

She was known by many names - Mother - Mom - Grandma - Sis - Sister - Auntie Sis. A uniquely brilliant, kind, loving woman who left memories to warm the heart whenever her name is mentioned.

Lillian, Cathy & Bobby Lowe, 1953, her first and third grandchildren

This photo is very dear to me. My baby brother, Robert Thomas Lowe (Bobby) was born in April 1953. He died of polio, 2 1/2 years later. The loss of this precious baby was hard on our entire family: parents, big sister, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

~ Much of the above history was provided by my Aunt Norma Lee Lowe Mathies. She is Grandma's daughter and second child, sister to my father William Thomas Lowe. I am grateful that she wrote down the memories and history of Grandma's life. ~