History of Langlade County, Wisconsin, 
from U. S. Gov't Survey to Present Time, with Biographical Sketches
Dessureau. Antigo, WI: Berner Brothers, 1922, p 278 - 279
Submitted by Cathy Kubly

Michael F. CROWE, a retired pioneer locomotive engineer, residing at 836 Superior Street, Antigo [Langlade County], Wisconsin, was born in Schuylkill County, [p 279] Pennsylvania, 11 June 1850, the son of Cornelius and Mary (GARVEY) CROWE.  He was the fifth of eight children.  When he reached the age of twelve he was taken out of school to begin work in the anthracite coal mines.  The Civil War was then raging, and due to the shortage of manpower the boys were used in menial work about the mines.  It was Mr. CROWE's duty to haul coal from the mines on a cart to which a mule was hitched.

At the close of the war, 1865, he [Michael F. CROWE] moved with his parents to Neenah, Winnebago County [Wisconsin] in 1866.  A half year later he started out to seek his fortune, going to Cheyenne, Wyoming [organized into a territory in 1868; became a state in 1890], which then consisted of nine buildings, eight of which were saloons and the ninth a trading post.  English traders were here at that time purchasing buffalo hides.  Mr. CROWE hired to a Mr. VAN DUEREN, cattle owner, of Red Oak [Montgomery County], Iowa, as a cattle herder.  The equipment consisted of two broncos, a revolver and a sawed-off shotgun, used to blind cattle in a stampede.

He stayed in that service for two years, being stationed between Cheyenne and Ft. Larama [Fort Laramie, Goshen County], Wyoming.  He returned to the farm in Grand Chute [Grand Chute Township, Outagamie County, Wisconsin] and a little while later hired out as a brakeman on the old Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railway.  Gerry DONOHUE was then Superintendent and the road went as far as New London [Waupaca or Outagamie County?], Wisconsin.  He first "braked" for Conductor "Vet" GRAVES.  Accidents among brakemen were numerous and therefore Mr. CROWE entered the firing service in 1877.  Three years later, in 1880, he was promoted to the rank of an engineer.  He first piloted Engine No. 1, called the "Ben Jones."  He served as an engineer on the old M., L. S. & W. railroad until it was purchased by the [Chicago &] Northwestern Railroad in 1893, and thereupon Mr. CROWE was in the employ of the latter concern in passenger service for nearly thirty years, and for eight years on the Wolf River Branch out of Antigo [Langlade County], Wisconsin.  He was pensioned after nearly fifty years of railroad service on 01 December 1921.  On 14 May 1922, Langlade Division, B. of L. E. [Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers], of which he has been a member for over forty years, presented Engineers H. DARTON and George WATSON, together with Mr. [Michael F.] CROWE, with a Badge of Honor, which they prize very highly.

Mr. [Michael F.] CROWE was married 12 August 1884 to Mary HICKEY, daughter of Michael and Mary HICKEY, of New London [Waupaca or Outagamie County?], Wisconsin.  To this union [of Michael F. and Mary (HICKEY) CROWE] three children were born.  George, deceased, was born 27 May 1885 in Antigo [Langlade County], Wisconsin.  He attended the public schools and graduated from the Antigo High School, after which he was employed as an accountant in the Chicago & Northwestern Railway offices of Antigo.  He enlisted when the [First] World War broke out, and served as a Lieutenant; [one line missing in photocopy] stationed at Manchester, England, in the Western General Hospital there.

John Earle CROWE, the third son, was born [in Langlade County, Wisconsin] 27 December 1896.  [His birth is among those listed in the pre-1907 Index of Wisconsin Birth Registrations].  He is now a student in the College of Medicine at Marquette University [Milwaukee], from which he will graduate as a dentist in 1923.  [The second son was likely a Cornelius F. CROWE, born in Langlade County, Wisconsin, 27 April 1889, whose birth is among those recorded in the pre-1907 Wisconsin Births for Langlade County.  Submitter did not view any microfilm of vital records as evidence to support the dates and places of events given in this biography.]

The CROWE family has resided in Antigo since 1882.  Michael F. CROWE has been identified with much of Antigo's public work.  He served for thirteen years on the City Council from either the Third or First Wards, was Chairman of the Board of Public Works for four years when the sanitary sewers were laid in Antigo, was for two years Chairman of the Board of Public Property, and was a member of the Council Committee selected at one time to investigate the feasibility of a municipal gas plant.