Rex Family Memorial Day Gathering. May 27, 2013.

William and Mary Elizabeth Brough Rex buried six of their thirteen children, as children, here in the Randolph, Utah Cemetery. Visit this beautiful updated William and Mary Rex Gravesite at the cemetery on Memorial Day, May 27, 2013! One month from today!

Flora Lee extended an invitation to interested family members to drop by her childhood Randolph home at 85 W. Canyon Street on that day. There will be visiting and refreshments and she will hold a P.H. Rex Family meeting there at 2:00 p.m.

The William and Mary Rex children are:

William Thomas Rex (1875-1962)
Charles Rex (1877-1882)
Alfred George Rex (1878-1956)
Mary Elizabeth Rex (1880-1880)
Olive Celeste Rex (1881-1882)
Samuel Rex (1883-1967)
Arthur H. Rex (1884-1952)
John Osland Rex (1887-1967)
Percy Harold Rex (1889-1977)
Ada Estella Rex Jackson (1892-1974)
Myrtle Rex (1894-1894)
Alfreda Rex (1895-1901)
Hyrum Mack Rex (1901-1902)

There is a footstone with each child's initials on it. They were leaning around the main Rex headstone for years. That too was deteriorating. Last year William and Mary Rex descendants, Nancy and Flora Lee, set out to “fix” that. They solicited support and donations from other family members. As you can see, the upright, repaired stones are completed and ready for you to view in the Randolph Cemetery.

I haven’t seen many grave footstones. Some graves in the 18th century contained footstones to mark the foot end of the grave. Footstones were rarely annotated with more than the deceased's initials. Many cemeteries and churchyards have removed those extra stones to ease grass cutting by machine mower. In some United Kingdom cemeteries the principal, and only marker, is placed at the foot of the grave.  

It appears that the first William and Mary Rex baby was buried in 1880. Perhaps thereafter they placed a small footstone for each child. Or sometime later other descendants may have  added all of the footstones.

I know of only one other family grave that has a footstone. The picture below is poor and crooked. It does, however, show Myrtle Morgan's grave on the left with her footstone further on at the foot of her grave. Myrtle Morgan is John and Annie Smith Morgan's daughter. She died July 28, 1890 and is buried in the Manassa, Colorado cemetery. 

I took this picture to illustrate what had happened to her grandfather's headstone to the right. It appears a truck backed into it and the corner of the nearby plot. It is a project that needs attention.