March 12, 2026
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, focusing on the book publisher Thomas Young Crowell and his family line. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today, I continue this series of the Crowell family line that started in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, whose descendants established connections through marriage with numerous early pioneer families in the Cape Cod region, including many related to Mayflower descendants.
Note: Various spellings of Crow/Crowe/Covell/Crowell/Crowel exist throughout the family lines.
Read Part One for more on the early Crowell family and some descendants.
Humble Beginnings Led to the T. Y. Crowell Co. Publishing Empire
Thomas Young Crowell (1836-1915) rose to fame, and his story is well documented.
First, here is some background.
He was born to Captain Levi Crowell and Julia Ann (Baker) Crowell. Levi is the son of Thomas Crowell and Anne (Howes) Crowell, and his 3rd wife Julia Ann (Baker) Crowell, daughter of Crowell Baker and Reliance (Chase) Baker, is a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers William Brewster, his wife Mary Brewster, and daughter Patience Brewster.
Below is an illustration of Thomas’ father Captain Levi Crowell.
Here is a drawing of Thomas’ mother Julia Ann (Baker) Crowell.
Here is Julia’s death notice, published in the Barnstable Patriot. She died on 10 October 1872.
The April 2023 Dennis Historical Society Newsletter provides some background on the family and reports that Thomas’ father died in a tragic accident on 5 November 1836, and his wife Julia must have possessed remarkable resilience to endure that year, caring for her six-month-old (Thomas), two-year-old, and nine-year-old children alone after losing her husband.
I found a newspaper clip that describes the “Melancholy Accident” of the death of Levi Crowell.
This article reports:
We have seldom to record a more melancholy accident than that we have just been informed. On Saturday evening last, Capt. Levi Crowell, of South Dennis, left his house for the purpose of taking care of his scow boat, lying at Bass River, and nothing was learnt of his fate until during the day following, when his body was discovered floating in the River. The night being dark it is supposed he must have got tripped by a rope on board the boat and fallen overboard. He was doing an extensive business at that place, was highly respected, and his loss will be severely felt by the citizens of that place.
Thomas married his cousin, Sylvia Baker Crowell (1840-1926), daughter of Captain Elisha Crowell and Angerette (Matthews) Crowell. She was considered the belle of West Dennis.
The couple married in Glouster, Massachusetts, on 4 October 1860. Their wedding announcement was published in the Boston Recorder.
Pictured below are Sylvia’s parents. Here we see Captain Elisha Crowell, son of Elisha Crowell and Roxanna (Chase) Crowell, and Angerette (Matthews) Crowell, daughter of Ezekiel Matthews and Bethiah (Crowell) Matthews.
Captain Elisha Crowell operated a prosperous coasting and wholesale fish business in Gloucester – more to come on his story in a later article.
Thomas Crowell’s Career
According to Thomas Young Crowell: A Biographical Sketch, the natural thing for a Cape Cod boy to do, when out of work, was to go to sea. His father followed the sea as well as his brothers Levi and Howes. So did many of his ancestors.
For four years he lived the life of a mariner – scrubbed decks, “slushed” the masts, cooked on occasion, stood watch, furled sails, took his turn at the wheel, painted, and did the hundred-and-one chores of a sailor.
He had risen to the position of second mate, but he had no desire to spend the rest of his life on the sea.
In 1856, at the age of 20, he secured a position with Benjamin Bradley, a Boston bookbinder, at four dollars per week.
It was beginning at the bottom again, with more hard work and long hours. His first tasks were to “take the time” of the hands as they came to work in the morning, sweep out the office, dust, get out the books, and the like.
But that would all change; his obituary published in the Evening Post describes his rise to fame.
This article reports:
Thomas Young Crowell, for nearly forty years head of the T. Y. Crowell Company, publishers, 426 West Broadway, died yesterday at his home, 512 Park Street, Upper Montclair, N. J., at the age of eighty [79] years. He had been retired for several years.
Mr. Crowell was born in West Dennis, Mass., and began work as an errand boy in the bindery of Benjamin Bradley in Boston.
After the death of Mr. Bradley in 1862, he assumed charge of the business, and in 1870 began business for himself in his own name.
For the first few years Mr. Crowell confined himself to the binding of books for other publishers, but in 1875 the failure of a New York house placed in his way a line of children’s and Sunday-school books, which he decided to continue at a New York office, 744 Broadway. Then came the opportunity in the securing of Phillips & Sampson’s “Blue and Gold Poets” – fifteen volumes in all, which formed the nucleus of the successful “Crowell’s Red Line Poets.” The “Red Line,” in fact, was one of the most popular series of its day. In its turn it was the basis of the present “Crowell’s Poets.”
Meanwhile the bindery was still conducted in Boston, but in 1900 a union of the two houses became imperative, and in 1900 the entire business was consolidated under one roof at 426 and 428 West Broadway [New York].
Mr. Crowell is survived by his wife and two sons, T. Irving and Jeremiah O. Crowell.
To be continued…
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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
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