Bessie Morgan Rex and Her Hat!

Keepapitchinin recently published,  "Leave Your Hats Off While We Pray" by Annie Malin. I've been looking for this picture of my grandmother Bessie Morgan Rex and her hat ever since reading the poem.  I believe they go together.

Leave Your Hats Off While We Pray

by Annie Malin (1915)

It's the rule now for the ladies

Almost everyplace they go,

To lay aside their head-gear,

And the rule is good I know;

But if asked for my opinion

I should very quickly say,

"For goodness sake, my sisters,

Leave your hats off while we pray!"

For when the sermon's ended

There's a bustle and a stir

As if each one feared her neighbor

Would get out ahead of her;

There's a pinning and a bobbing

In a most distracting way -

So I feel like say, "Sisters,

Leave your hats off while we pray."

We try to see who's called on'

To make the closing prayer,

But the sisters still are pinning

And smoothing down their hair.

I should truly think the brother

Would forget himself and say,

"We would like to see the sisters

Leave their hats off while we pray."

Bessie Morgan's new hidden picture.

Cousin Claudia S. sent a copy of our GG Grandmother Elizabeth Thompson Groesbeck's recently found and published journal to one of her cousins in the East. Soon thereafter she received from that distant cousin a package of wonderful old family pictures. Claudia was familiar with most of the pictures, but sent me this one because it was labeled "Bessie Morgan," and she thought I might know who else is in the picture.  I don't, but I can guess and suggest.

That is my grandmother Bessie Morgan seated on a stool to the right of the group which may include girl friends. The two girls look to me like they may be sisters. The longer I look at the picture, the more people appear. There is a boy in the tree and two more at Bessie's knee. And there is a child in the barn loft across the fence. 

My guess is that the picture was taken in her mother's back yard, but it could have been taken in anyone's backyard.  It does fit well on Bryan Avenue in my imaginings.

Bessie was the youngest daughter in her family, she had two younger brothers. This picture was probably taken between 1910 and her 1912 marriage and move to Randolph, Utah. She worked with her sister Gail at the telephone company as a secretary before her marriage. She and her girlfriends established their own literary society at her mother's Bryan Avenue home in 1910. 

The flowers against the fence are reminiscent of the flowers Grandma Bessie grew along her fences in Randolph, Utah. 

 Bessie when she was about 18 years old.

1935 and 1936 Christmas time offerings from Vash Young.

Continued from here.

 Vash Young was an Insurance Salesman. 

Bessie Morgan Rex saved these things he sent her.

Vash Young, childhood friend of Bessie Morgan Rex.

Continued from here.

In this Waterloo (Farmer's Ward Area)  School class picture, Bessie Morgan

is #25 counting  L-R from the upper left corner. Vash Young is #8.

According to the photo services stamp on the reverse side of the picture, Bessie Morgan Rex received this copy in 1938. She then identified and wrote the names of the classmates she remembered on the back.

Bessie mentioned Vash Young in a few of the letters she wrote her son Harold between 1936-1938 linked here and here and here. Her letters and those she saved from Vash Young helped me come to understand why.

Vashni Young was born in Salt Lake in 1899. His paternal great-grandfather was one of Brigham Young's brothers. The 1900 census listed Vash and three younger siblings living with their grandparents; John F. and Margaret S. Cahoon.  

Vash Young became an American author of motivational and self-improvement books with a poplar following during the Great Depression. My Grandmother Bessie Morgan Rex became one of them.

His early life was one of deprivation and hardship. His father was more often absent than not, and his mother died when he was twelve years old. His schooling was cut short when he had to help support the family. Tragedy struck Vash again when his grandmother died and he left Salt Lake at sixteen to live with an older brother in Chicago. He struggled with unemployment, his lack of education and not enough money. He eventually moved to New York where he continued to battle depression, self-doubt and failure until the revelation that turned him into a success.  

The series of books he wrote explained his philosophy which placed great emphasis on helping others. He became a successful author, speaker, and insurance salesman. His final book Fortunes for All put together the background, philosophy and methods that secured his fortune and became a model for generations to follow, including Dale Carnegie. Vash Young died during retirement in Florida when he was 78. [1]

Vash Young

50 East 42^nd Street

New York

April 10, 1936

Dear Bessie:

This is the first opportunity I have had to acknowledge one of the most interesting and entertaining letters I have ever received in my whole life—yours of March 4 which was handed to me by Hamilton Park when I was in Salt Lake last month. I remember you and your sister [Gail] very well and I also remember as though it were yesterday, all the incidents and characters mentioned in your letter. Incidentally, you have a very descriptive style and I want to place my order now for any book you may ever write—whether it is published or not.

I had one of the grandest times of my entire life during my last visit to dear old Salt Lake. It is too bad you could not have been there. Minnie Margetts [2] arranged a meeting of a number of our old classmates and in addition, I addressed two public meetings. I enclose reprint of an editorial from the Salt Lake Tribune. It was one of the finest compliments I ever had paid to me.

As I look back over my life it all seems like a fairy tale. I have been wonderfully blessed and am grateful beyond words. As a matter of fact, all I live for is to try to show my gratitude and appreciation by doing all I can for others.

It was a real treat to hear from you, Bessie, and I hope that some day our paths will cross. If and when I get out home again I will attempt to look you up. Meanwhile, if you or any of your family come this way please be sure to look me up.

With kindest regards

Sincerely yours,

(To be continued.) 

[1] Vash Young, Wikipedia. Fortunes for All. Wikipedia.

[2] Minnie Margettes was the daughter of Salt Lake pioneer actor, Phil Margetts (FamilyTree). She was 55, single, head of her household and a librarian in the 1930 Salt Lake City, Utah Census.

Picture and letter from Bessie Morgan Rex collection. 

Randolph, Utah Chapel 1950 and 1958

This Picture of the Randolph Ward was probably taken in 1936-38

 while Harold Rex was serving his mission in Brazil, South America.

The P.H. [Percy Harold ]Rex Family History Book Project has a lot of descendants looking back. 

Grandmother Bessie Morgan Rex's letter to her son triggered cousin Flora Lee's memories of the Randolph Ward Chapel she grew up attending. The following pictures were taken in the choir-seat section described in this earlier letter.

Grandmother (Aunt) Mary Elizabeth Herbert Rex is on the front row, 6^th from the left. Her sister-in-law Agnes Rex appears to be on the front row also, 3^rd from the left. Agnes’ daughter, Kathleen Rex Thornock appears to be on the top back row, 2^nd from the left. It appears a few of the choir seats described in the 1938 remodel are in use here. 

This is the chapel cousin Flora Lee remembers from her youth. This picture was taken in about 1958 judging from what Flora Elizabeth Rex Lamborn is wearing. Flora is on the top row, third from the left.

Grandmother (Aunt) Mary Elizabeth Herbert Rex is on the second from the top row. If you locate the lady in black beneath the organ pipes, count four to the right. Mary is wearing a white corsage and a jacketed dress.

The only person I would take a guess identifying is Bess Rex. Note the little lady wearing black seated in the center of the first row wearing a corsage. I think Bess is directly behind her on the third row back wearing a hat; Elizabeth (Bess) Smith Rex (1890-1973) born in Manassa, Colorado, cousin of Bessie Morgan Rex.  Bess married Samuel Rex March 6, 1912, and moved to Randolph. Three months later on June 12, 1912, her cousin Bessie Morgan married Samuel’s brother Percy Harold Rex. They too settled in Randolph.

There have to be a hundred lovely Rich County women in this picture.  Anyone happening upon this picture and interested in identifying an ancestor, I’d love to add a name here.

Mary Elizabeth Herbert Rex,

Flora Elizabeth Rex Lamborn

Elizabeth (Bess) Smith Rex

Kathleen Rose Rex Thornock 

Agnes Amelia Hellstrom Rex 

A big Thank you to Grandma Aunt Mary's nieces for their generosity in gifting her papers to us.  Cousin Flora Lee has just finished writing Grandma Aunt Mary’s biography. Yeah! 

Note: History, Descendants, and Ancestry of William Rex & Mary Elizabeth Brough of Randolph, Utah.

"Good Timber" -- President Monson today, Grandma Bessie Morgan Rex's scrapbook years ago.

I was delighted to hear the Prophet this morning. And pleased to hear him recite Good Timber. A poem Grandmother Bessie Morgan Rex clipped and pasted into her scrapbook years ago. I discovered it a few years back when my Aunt Flora Rex Lamborn left her mother’s scrapbook with me for a week or two--to plough through. Such pleasant days!

Hope all enjoyed conference as much as I did.

A quick search for Timber on my blog brought two returns. I thought I'd put it here!

One from Grandma Bessie's scrapbook.

And a mention of Timber in my husband's ancestry.

Last week's visit to Randolph, Utah. July 9-11, 2013.

Last week I was invited to Randolph, Utah to visit and quilt with cousins. 

The outing was as wonderful as it sounds.

I thought you might enjoy walking some streets with me. 

I passed P. H. and Bessie and Mary Rex's home on Canyon Street several times.

 It looks very very nice. 

An evening walk through the cemetery revealed the  Church Steeple

 amid the pines and the Crawford Mountains in the distance.

Walking back down Canyon Street from Cemetery Hill

 you pass a new school complex on the right. 

The lights were on in the Chapel on Main Street that evening. 

It is built of bricks made by my great-great Grandfather Samuel Brough.

I visited the Old Town Jail where it is housed on a lot east of town next to the DUP Museum. Both buildings were moved there and are filled with Randolph and family memorabilia. Such a treat.

 This wall phone hung inside the jailhouse door and looked to me exactly like the one that hung inside of Grandpa P. H. Rex's front door. I remember watching the grown ups crank it up to use it. Grandmother Bessie Rex wrote to her mother in Salt Lake about her phone, saying she'd have called her with the news, except she can't hear on their new telephone.

This cream separator is similar to the stainless steel separator

 my Grandmother Emily Frazier used in Woodruff, Utah.

 She kept it on her back porch. 

This is the front door to the DUP Museum that formerly

 stood behind the church house.

 This bench  is familiar, and very like the one that once sat
 on Grandpa P. H. Rex's front porch.

 It is an early bench from the Randolph Church.

 This pressed glass pedestal cake plate and the green vase below it

 were donated by Grandmother Aunt Mary Herbert Rex.

Whoever the items originally belonged to isn't known. 

  

This chrome trimmed stove displayed a Brough cast iron cooking kettle

 on the left rear of the cook-top. 

This Honor Roll hung in an early Randolph Court House. 

It names John Morgan Rex and others

 who made the supreme sacrifice in service to our country.

The view to the East across the meadows is beautiful.

 The Crawford Mountains border the valley on the East.

The Randolph Recreation Hall was built by the community in 1936. 

P. H. Rex was the bishopric counselor over the work project. 

It now houses the Senior Citizens Center and Library. 

Bessie Morgan. Salt Lake Tribune Society Page, April 7, 1901 .

Salt Lake Tribune, April 7, 1901

In Society

Bessie Morgan turned eleven in 1901. That Spring she was mentioned “In Society” in the Salt Lake Tribune for Sunday, April 7, 1901. It appears she was one of twenty-two young people who attended a party during the week before Easter.

The newspaper article began, “Holy Week was without any large or important event, society devoting most of its time to church-going and millinery openings. The weather last evening was not of a description that would denote a brilliant Easter parade today after the church services, a custom of the day in fashionable circles in nearly every city in the country.

“The festive high ball is to be relegated to obscurity at the Country club.

“The Easter bonnet is quite gay this year. 

This picture of Bessie Morgan from among her older brother, Nicholas Groesbeck Morgan’s papers (thanks to cousin Karen M.) is of Bessie as a young woman. Her daughter Winnifred had never seen it before I showed it to her in 2010. Bessie's hat makes the picture fit well with this article. Bessie does not look eleven-years-old in her hat. 

  

The newspaper article continues, “On Tuesday evening Miss Ruby Thomson entertained, her guests being Genevieve James, Elsie De Groo, Ruby Thomson, Gail Morgan, Jessie Freeman, Jennie Freeman, Bessie Morgan, Rosella Price, Ethel Liddle, Julia Smith, Florence McFarlane, Perry Liddle, John W. James, Harold James, Ralph Kunkle, Art, Kunkle, Clarence Van Saub, Guy Hart, Earnest Smith, Will Thomson, Wallace Burt, Raymond Thomson.”

I recognized some of these young people and put them together using their last names. There were twenty-two young people at Miss Ruby Thomson’s party and many of them were there with brothers and sisters.

James; Genevieve, Harold, John W.

Thomson; Ruby, Will, Raymond

Morgan; Gail (13),Bessie (11), Wallace Burt (12)

Liddle; Ethel, Perry

Freeman; Jessie, Jennie

Smith; Julia, Earnest

Kunkle; Art (12), Ralph (14)

Clarence Van Saub

Elsie De Groo

Rosella Price

Florence McFarlane (13) (Florence was 22 in the 1910 Salt Lake Census—Waterloo District)

Guy Hart

In 1902 Bessie’s older sister, Ruth, married Sol Burke Kunkle. Kunkles also lived on York/Bryan Avenue. Bessie’s oldest sister, Helen, was married to Andrew Burt. Wallace Burt, Bessie’s nephew, was born to them in 1890, the year before Bessie was born. 

A different Tribune Society Page explained that the party Bessie Morgan and twenty-something other young people attended was a surprise party. Such interesting trivia!

Bessie Morgan, Nokomish Literary Club, 1910.

 The Salt Lake Tribune’s January 30, 1910 Woman’s Society and Club Page noted what Grandmother Bessie Morgan Rex was up to. She is mentioned in Club Notes.

Had her picture been included on this page,
 I believe this one would have worked well.

From Club News

The Nokomish club met Monday afternoon at the home of Miss Bessie Morgan, at 359 Bryan avenue, and elected officers for the ensuing year. The new officers are: Miss Bessie Morgan, president; Winnifred Saunders, secretary and treasurer: Ahna Rohlfing, editor of the Nokomish Comet, a paper published by the club. Light refreshments were served after the election and arrangements were made for the taking up of a study of higher branches of literature.

The first Ladies’ Literary Club in Salt Lake was formed in 1877 by a small group of broad minded and forward-looking women. It was one of twelve chapters founded in America and the first west of the Mississippi River. At that time becoming a club woman required great courage. The majority of the women involved were non-LDS women, looking for a social outlet and the opportunity of self-education.  The organization welcomed all women interested in “literary pursuits and the development of mental culture.” The club’s purpose was to provide an environment where ladies could educate themselves and each other in many different aspects of culture and knowledge. The club was divided into sections including art, drama, music, literature, history and others. Ladies could belong to one or several sections depending on their interests. [1]

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,

By the shining Big-Sea-Water,

Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,

Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.

Dark behind it rose the forest

Nokomis is the name of Hiawatha's grandmother in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha. Nokomis is an Iroquois Indian name meaning "Daughter of the Moon" and "Grandmother". Nokomis nursed and educated Hiawatha after his mother died in childbirth. [2]

The literary club's name interests me, as does these young women’s interest in “taking up of a study of higher branches of literature”. That interest never left Grandmother Bessie. She continually thirsted for knowledge and studied. Her sister called her the “brain”. Bessie had a sharp intellect and was interested in literature, music, politics and current events—local and worldwide.

It is interesting to me now to recall my own mother’s interest in The Song of Hiawatha when she helped me memorize it in grade school.

[1] Utah Heritage Foundation, History of Ladies Literary Club.

[2] Nokomis, Wikipedia., Song of Hiawatha, Wikipedia., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Wikipedia.

Percy Harold (P. H.) Rex. Letter to Harold April 18, 1937.

Picture of the P. H. Rex sons; L-R, Maeser, Morgan, Harold, 1930.

Note: The note across the top of this letter reads: Being chief cook and bottle washer along with going to work is some job. I do think of you lots. Will write a big long letter this week. Love, Helen

Randolph, Utah.

April 18 – 37.

My Dear Boy,

Just another Sunday night and time to start a few more lines to the little Boy down in the South. We are all pretty well up here. We did not get a letter from you last week but the week before we received two. It seems that is the way your letters come lately, every other week  two at a time.

We sure get a jack out of your letters and look forward to the time when we receive them, to know you are well and enjoying your labors, which I hope you do every minute of it.

We took mother to Salt Lake City last Tuesday to the Basic Food Clinic and she is still in the city. He gave her a diet and keep [kept] her there to give her treatments. We had a letter from her last night and she is feeling fine and able to eat better than she has done all winter. They treat her just well at Aunt Gails, but she said she is home sick I wonder if you know what that

is. I hope you never have it very bad.

To think that by the time this reaches you you will have about half of your time behind you, the last half will not seem so long, I hope. But to look back it does not seem so long in a way since we said good bye that morning when the wind was blowing so hard. I don’t think I will ever forget it.

We have spring now but there has not been any farm work done as yet, it is so wet. We are sort of catching up a little on moisture as the ground is so wet, and the snow melting, that it has the river out of its banks, the creeks are all full of water too. It washed out several hundred yards of the railroad over here in Nugget Canyon going to Kemmerer last week, and they had to send there trains by Ogden, but they have it fixed up now.

Helen is here writing to some you can guess very early she is quite thrilled she has her lay off or vacation coming up the 15 of May and is going down to Calif, to see that fellow from Woodruff. We had Sunday school union meeting here today and Miss Burdett was down today. Helen was there and saw her in fact. Miss James came up here with her and say [said] if Ben did not take a fresh notion for her, he is pretty slow, as she sure looked very nice in her new spring outfit.

Last Sunday we had the Evanston choir down to sing for us and the Bishop to speak. We always like to have Harold talk and the choir sing. John Nielson always has them Pretty well trained and timed. They put on an Easter cantata but they don’t seem to have the same kind of music and melody that the good LDS Hymns do--at least to me.

May be mother has told you we were thinking of make [making] a change in the house so we can have an apartment upstairs to rent. We have to parties wanting it now, so this steam Heat is popular  in this cold country. I had better hurry and fill this side of the paper as it is time I was in bed as it is past ten o clock. The boys are going now, Maeser has been asleep on the couch. They are pretty good boys. They have done the work the past two days, as Friday when I came home from Feeding  I felling [fell] and hurt my back so I have been unable to help since. But feel pretty good tonite and hope to be able to get out in the morning and get at the chores, as they have to go to school and I will have to feed the cattle and take care of the milk Cows. Morgan is getting to be quite a man, he has grown quite a little this winter. I will be drawing to a close again asking our Father in heaven to continue his choicest Blessing on you, that you may ever become more of a success in your labors in his work is my Prayer for you, with Love Daddy

[written along the top left side] Excuse the mistakes and pencil.

Note: I added some punctuation to this letter.

Bessie Morgan Rex's history of her Grandfather Nicholas Groesbeck. 1935.

I purchased this picture of Salt Lake City's Kenyon Hotel on e-Bay last year. It was cut from a pamphlet of some sort. The Kenyon Hotel Nicholas Groesbeck built undoubtedly stood on the same corner (2nd South and Main Street) years earlier. Nicholas Groesbeck died in 1884. This card states that the main building opened 1899. The Annex opened in 1900.

The following brief  history of Nicholas Groesbeck was written by his granddaughter Bessie Morgan Rex in 1935 when she submitted her application to become a member of Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. I posted it here three years ago. A close read of her hand written account reveals many interesting facts about her grandfather.

"Nicholas Groesbeck joined the church at the age of 19. He was baptized by Patriarch Hyrum Smith. He lived in Springfield, Ill, but made many trips to Nauvoo, and was intimately acquainted with the prophet, acting as his bondsman at one time. He knew Abraham Lincoln who acted as his counsel on several occasions.

"When he came to Utah he brought considerable merchandise, and engaged in general merchandizing. He later turned to real estate and mining, and provided the money to develop the noted Flagstaff Mine in Little Cottonwood. He later sold it and purchased real estate in Salt Lake. He built the Kenyon Hotel at a cost of $200,000. He became interested in the development of coal & iron, & was director of the Deseret Savings and several railroads. He was recognized as one of the outstanding financiers of his day.

"Elizabeth Thompson Groesbeck was very good to those who needed help & when her husband gained wealth she spent her time helping the poor & meeting immigrant trains to give them food & clothing.

Nicholas Groesbeck's biography begins here. An index to all of the posts about Nicholas Groesbeck is found here. 

1914-1919 World War I. Helen Melvina "Mellie" Groesbeck Morgan worked with the Red Cross.

Someone must have said, 

“Oh, Mother, you look so nice in your uniform, let me take a picture.”

Cousin Karen M. asked me some time ago if I’d like a picture she had of Great Grandmother Helen Melvina Morgan wearing her Red Cross Volunteer uniform.  At the time I wasn't interested. As I have pieced her life together, I now understand where it fits. Her granddaughter Helen Rex Frazier recalled those years in her autobiography.

Helen wrote, “World War I was being fought in Europe at this time. Grandma Morgan [Helen Melvina Groesbeck Morgan] came from Salt Lake to visit [Randolph, Utah]. I remember watching her knit socks and scarves for the Red Cross and watching her and mother save the pits from peaches for use in making gas (I believe). They let Harold and I arrange them in dripper pans as they put them out to dry."  [Helen and Harold were 5 and 3 in 1918.]

Peach pits were used during World War I as filter for their gas masks. They would soak them in urine and make a special charcoal out of them that was used for the mask. World War I years were 1914-1919. Peach pits would have been available at canning time from August-September.

Presumably Helen Melvina “Mellie” Morgan was a part of the American Red Cross.

During an extremely active era beginning in 1917, the Greater Salt Lake Area Chapter of the American Red Cross saw the creation of several essential services. Home Service, the forerunner of our current Armed Forces Emergency Services, helped families cope with the problems associated with having a loved one in the military. Classes in First Aid and Home Nursing were begun and Canteen Service was started up to assist with wartime needs. The local Red Cross provided nursing services throughout the state during the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918.

During World War I, 2,000 Utah Red Cross volunteers shipped bandages to the frontlines and clothing to impoverished Belgian families.

In 1918 Grandmother Morgan’s son John Hamilton was training in the armed forces as the letter he wrote his mother that appeared in a Salt Lake Newspaper and posted here attests.

I was moved by the realization that in the course of writing her autobiography, three years prior to her passing, Helen recalled her Grandmother Morgan’s visit to Randolph, and that her mother Bessie joined with her mother’s “war efforts.” 

Helen and Winnie Rex reaped President George Albert Smith's promised blessing.

Helen and Winnie Rex, Randolph, Utah, 1936.

I read a statement from last week's Relief Society lesson from the Teachings of President George Albert Smith that was very familiar and reminded me of the P. H. and Bessie Morgan Rex family of Randolph, Utah, and some of their letters that I've been posting here.

The following statement from "Doing Our Part to Share the Gospel," pages 141-142 (1935 conference report) reminded me of the Rex's support of their missionary son Harold during his 1936-1938 mission to Brazil. Daughters Helen and Winnie contributed a portion of their salaries to their brother's support in the mission field. There is no doubt they reaped the promised blessing.

"A plea has been made ... that we send our sons and daughters into the mission field. ... It has been a joy to me to see men and women economize and plan in order that their children may go into the world. Within the last few weeks a young man ... left to go into the mission field, and his two sisters ... are sending him part of their small salaries that he may enjoy the blessing of a mission. He is the first of a large family of children to go into the mission field to disseminate the truth. ... I know the joy that will come into the hearts of those two fine women who have faith to give their means to their brother in order that he may serve the Lord in the field. They will receive the blessing that comes from teaching the Gospel, as far as it is possible to receive it without personal service."

Bessie Morgan Rex - letter written March 31, 1936.

Horse drawn sleigh in front of Percy Harold Rex Randolph home.

Randolph, Utah

March 31, 1936

Your big sis’s birthday

My dear wandering boy,

Another week means another letter and it seems so strange to be writing letters to someone who doesn’t answer to give me something to write about. Well, we just received a letter from that dear girl [Winnie] in Salt Lake. She says she writes to you every week, but will soon run out of gab if she doesn’t get an answer. She writes the nicest letters. She sent a birthday card to Helen. She is a dear. 4 “shes” in a row. I am sitting by the kitchen stove watching a fruit cake. Have a piece? And now let me tell you it has snowed about 18 ins. Of good wet snow since Sunday. Are we wet. Maybe we’ll drown this summer. The roads are nearly blocked. Skies are still gray, but it has stopped for a few minutes. Dear, dear, how slow I am. Two days have passed & I am holding up the family’s budget of letters to you

So I must finish this and get it in the mail. It is a beautiful wintry spring day today. Snow 3 ft deep in places, but I believe the sun has made an impression on it. Spring must soon come – or else –

I just read a piece in an old Era about Brazil. I’m wondering what you are thinking of it. Black beans and corn bread don’t sound very good to me. Hope you fare better than that. The picture of the chapel at Joinville is quite nice. I do hope you don’t have to go native but then, you are not there for personal gain, and I suppose there are people there who must hear the Gospel.

Yesterday I saw the nicest girl at Mary McK. Tingey’s shower. She was with her Mother. Oh yes—they came from Evanston. Don’t you wish you had been in my book?

We are hoping they will soon get started fixing the meeting house and building a new amusement hall but so many are kicking about it.

I must tell you, you are a poor trader. That other black & white calf died. We are paying for dead horses

Helen and Harold Rex with their 4H calves in perhaps 1934-36. 

I don't know who the boy in the rear is. Is

 it Morgan?

Or calves, I should say, yet. Oh, yes & I hope you learn that banks aren’t in business as a charity organization. Morrell Booth presented daddy with a bum check signed by a certain H.M.[Harold Morgan] Rex. You are some boy & if you were here I should give you—well you know—just one good old scolding.

Charles Stacy brought Mrs. Burdett & the girls down yesterday & they had to get out and shovel snow. Isn’t that the limit the first of April.

Well if I write too much I shall have to put on an extra stamp, so I mustn’t do that. Hope you have received your money all right.

Next Sunday is conference in S.L. [Salt Lake] We are going to listen right here. I don’t suppose the mission president from there comes to conference, does he. I heard Bob Wamsley had been right in the flood area. It has been so terrible & today they said there had been a bad storm in Georgia that had

Killed fifty people and had done a million dollars damage. I read the 24^th Chap. Of Matthew the other night. The prophecies are surely coming true.

My washing is out waving on the line & I must bring some of it in. It is nearly five p.m. and supper to get. Poor old Tenet, I’m afraid, is doomed. She doesn’t get better. Flora is playing with Eloise. She was to come home at 3:30 but if she had I should have fainted.

Make the best kind of use of your time. Are you learning German? Let it help you with your English grammar. Do study that—and spelling. Don’t be afraid to look up a word. I want to see plenty of improvement in two years. Are you quite sophisticated yet for rubbing shoulders with the world? I surely hope it does you much good. I also hope you are enjoying a missionary’s life by now and that you make a real one. It will mean so much more to you if you do really enjoy it. We all send love and kisses and prayers for the Lord to be with you always. We are anxiously waiting for a letter from the Land of the Southern Cross.

Lovingly Mother 

Bessie Morgan Rex - letter written March 25, 1936.

Maeser and Flora Rex about 1941.

The next of the letters Bessie Morgan Rex wrote to her son Harold while he served a mission in Brazil.

Randolph, Utah

March 25, 1936

My dear son [Harold],

Here it is 5 in the after-noon and I have been going to write all afternoon. Tonight is the missionary pic-ture show, so I cannot write it then. I must hurry. Let me see, I suppose that within the next 24 to 36 hours, you will feel the good earth again. I wonder if you will be glad. We are sending $25 to the church office in the morning. Hope you received the other 20$. We will send it down to be sent on the first from now on.

Would you like something to cool you off. The snowbank out in front of the house that they shovelled [sic] to get the big gate open is still about three feet in the air. It has stayed quite cold and the meadows are still covered with snow. Last Sunday was stake conference. It was held in Evanston again, on account of the condition of our buildings.

I shall have to write on both sides to save postage. Daddy & Helen went up. Of course a little girl [Clara] grabbed daddy & took him right up there. He said there was a big picture of a good looking guy on the bookcase. Am glad you got your fountain pen back. The bishopric is trying to get this repair & building job going. It is hard. People haven’t enough community pride & they are so afraid it will take a penny out of their pockets. I hope we can keep you there ourselves. Money seems to come some way. Daddy’s loan has just been approved. He is very glad & thankful. Town [Randolph] news? There isn’t much worth while. Vella S. [Smith] Kennedy has a baby boy next door. I think we told you Mary & Francis [Frazier] were married. I simply don’t get the gossip. I’ll tell you what Flora said. Max A. [Argyle] spoke to them in Primary. She said it was a grand “spoke” too. She wishes Maeser would be more “kindly.” Maeser and Morgan still go the rounds and Maeser wishes his big brother were here to deal the middle sized brother a little misery. Well I wasn’t going to write any at night, but it must be or I

[That ends the letter. Sadly the next or final page is missing.]