Reunions are for embracing, remembering, reminscing and sharing!

This year's P.H. Rex Family Reunion was held Saturday, September 8 in the Randolph Ward at noon, and was no exception! Yearly it is the first Saturday following the Labor Day Weekend.  

Some of us traveled north and returned over Monte Cristo.

Cousins shared lunch, histories, artifacts, and memories. 

Yara and Flora Lee

Stanley and Nancy, Tom, and Jay.

Irene hosted and presented a Power Point presentation of early family reunions. It was so much fun. Pictures reminded us of our beginnings and those who weren't able to be with us. We missed them.

Stanley, Daniel, Nancy, Tom, Jay, and Michael

Richard, Bessie, Bob, and Judd

Stanely identified the mystery artifact. Tucked away in Helen Rex Frazier's cedar chest, I didn't see it my youth. Stanley recalled it hanging in Grandpa and Grandma Aunt Mary's home.  Near her little upstairs dressing room he thought.

 

Mary Elizabeth Herbert Rex

It's in my home now.  I'm so pleased to know who it belonged to, and that Helen chose to keep it after the final dispersing of Grandpa and Grandma Rex's treasures.



I'd snapped a picture of a very similar item five years ago when I traveled with D. U. P. daughters to central Utah and visited the Fairview Art and Pioneer Museum. I wonder if this was a popular pattern Grandma Aunt Mary or her mother tufted and sewed? 

Note:  Apologies to cousin Janeen for not posting a picture with her in it. She flew all the way from Arizona to be at our reunion. 

1958 Randolph Ward Sisters Gather in Chapel.

 Continued from here.

Of course Aunt Flora Elizabeth Rex Lamborn kept  a list identifying the sisters gathered in the Randolph Chapel in this 1958 photograph. Thank you Cousin Flora Lee!

Click on the images to enlarge!

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.

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. 

1942 letter from Percy Harold Rex to his descendants. Pt 3

(Continued from here.)

(page 5) We named her Flora Elizabeth Rex after one of her Auntys. Now she is just blooming into young women-hood and I hope she grows into a loveable woman such as her Mother and sisters.

In October of 1929 I was again called into the Bishopric of this ward to be the First counselor to Bishop Lawrence B. Johnson and served for a little over 10 years.

Your Grandmother was very active in church duties singing in the choir in the Y.M.I.A. both in the stake and ward and in the last years of her life she taught in the Relief Society with her very dear Friend Sister Vera H. Peart.

In the cold Bleak days of Nov. 1938 Our Father in heaven saw fit to call your angel Grand Mother home to him and while writing this My eyes fill with tears and hope and pray that when our time comes we will all be as well prepared to meet our Maker as

(page6) she was. She was so sweet Loveable self-sacrificing and such a noble and grand Mate. May we all meet her sometime I pray.

In Aug. 1941 the 25^th day I married Mary E. Herbert in the Salt Lake Temple for time and eternity and she is doing a wonderful job in filling the space that was made by the death of your Grandmother.

I may not be here when this is opened or Aunt Mary either but if she is and I am not will you all please be kind to her in her last years.

I pray that you will all live lives worthy of a kingdom in our Fathers Mansion when you have finished your labors here on earth.

Signed, Percy Harold Rex

Notes:

Flora Groesbeck Morgan posts are here and here.

From Granddaughter Susan Frazier’s Journal: January 12, 1979. Aunt Mary died tonight. I was glad I was there with Richard [Lamborn]. Even though she might not have known we were there—she might someday. I was praying so hard for the Lord to take her home, and for Grandpa to come get her. I told her a few days before it wouldn’t be long before she would see her parents and brothers and sisters and grandpa and be out of pain. I told her it had been 2 years since she had seen “P.H.” and she said, “Oh no it hasn’t, I saw him the other night.” I cried after because I really will miss her.

The picture is from Helen Rex Frazier’s collection. Notice Maeser’s hand hanging onto his father’s—which may have been steadying Maeser for the picture. Remember part 2 of Percy Harold’s letter; “Now he is like a young Robin that thinks he can fly.” This picture was probably taken about 1939. Flora is wearing a Spring dress, and they must be outside at Randolph; L-R back row, Morgan, Harold, Winnie, Percy Harold (P.H.), in front Flora, Maeser.

The Rex Family’s Ordinary Hero.

L-R Diana, Yara, Judd, Harold, and Jay Rex. Percy Harold (P.H.), Marion, and Mary Rex. Helen Rex, Glenn and Susan Frazier.

In about 1962 P.H. Rex family members were hosted by their Montana, Victor Rex Jackson, cousins at a Rex Family Reunion in Cook, Montana. I well remember how excited my mother, Helen Rex Frazier, was to go to that reunion. She is the lady with her genealogy binder under her arm.

If you click on these pictures, perhaps the enlargement will make it easier to recognize some of the family members who gathered in Montana forty-seven-some years ago for a William Rex Family Reunion.

The three P.H. Rex grandchildren I know for sure are on the back row. Back left corner is Yara, center, is Marion, right back corner is Susan. I’m guessing Jay and Judd are in the right front corner. I don’t know who their other teen aged cousins are. It would be nice to know.

Yesterday’s Lee Benson column in the Deseret News, featured an "Ordinary Hero," Victor Rex Jackson. Thank you for the tip Flora Lee.

Note: Victor Rex Jackson (1912-2010) is Helen Rex Frazier’s (1913-1982) cousin. He is the son of Ada Rex Jackson, Percy Harold Rex’s sister.

Pictures from Susan Frazier's scrapbook.

Note: Check the John Hamilton Morgan Descendant's latest Newsletter here.

A Valentine from Mary Elizabeth Herbert to Percy Harold Rex.

Percy Harold and Mary Elizabeth Herbert Rex about 1972.

Their biographies can be found here and here.

Percy Harold and Mary Elizabeth Herbert Rex, Part 9

Percy Harold and Mary Elizabeth Herbert Rex were married, 25 August 1941, in the Salt Lake Temple. Mary’s biography is here.

Percy continued to work at the B. Q. Ranch. His son Harold married Diania Haycock, 14 October 1940. in the Salt Lake Temple. They lived in Washington, D.C. Daughter Winifred married Theron Roscoe Andrus, 22 November 1941, in the Mesa, Arizona Temple, ultimately settling in Marion, Utah.

In 1945 Percy leased the “Wimmer Place” enabling him to feed his own cows there, and he bought out the Mary Brough Rex Estate heirs in 1950, running his cattle on some of his father’s original land.

In the late 1940’s Percy was called as a Woodruff Stake high counselor and as a member of the Stake Agriculture Board. As a board member, he asked stake members to donate heifer calves to build a stake welfare herd. These men kept and fed their donated heifer, giving its new calf to the stake herd each fall, thus growing the herd. The stake also purchased two farms near Evanston, Wyoming. Percy took great pleasure in working on the farms; haying, branding, and tending the cattle.
His youngest son, Maeser, served a tour of duty in the South Pacific before the end of the war. Upon his return to the states, he married Dorothy Tipton, 23 July 1947, in the Logan Temple. And on 8 December 1948 Percy’s youngest daughter, Flora Elizabeth, married Richard Dawson Lamborn.

A story to remember.

Percy Harold Rex had two grandsons who liked to ride his horses. The older of the two, John, would drive from Salt Lake City to Marion, Utah, in Summit County, to pick up his younger cousin, Millard. They would drive the hundred miles to Randolph for a weekend so they could ride their grandfather’s horses. There were three horses at that time; Prince, Margo and Button.
On this occasion the cousins were going horseback riding to Rex Peak in the mountains east of Randolph. John was going to ride Prince, who was only a partly broke horse. Millard wanted to ride Margo. Grandpa Rex, however, wanted Millard to ride Button, an older, not nearly as spirited horse as Margo. Millard really wanted to ride Margo, but his grandfather convinced him otherwise.

They got partway across the valley and came to a closed gate. John could not get off of Prince to open the gate. The only way he could get on Prince was to snub him to the fence in the corral before they left.

So, John told Millard, he’d have to get off and open the gate. Millard said, as he got off, rather than take his left foot out of the stirrup, he swung down. There was snow on the ground and his right boot slipped as it hit the snow, and he fell onto his back, his left foot still in the stirrup. Button didn’t even jump or move. He just turned his head around and looked at Millard as he lay there in the snow.

Millard wrote later, had he gotten his way and been on Margo, she would have run, and he would have been dragged with his foot caught up in the stirrup. At that time, he said, “I was sure glad I’d listened to Grandpa.”

He was able to roll over onto his stomach and get his foot out of the stirrup. He opened the gate, they went through, and were able to finish their ride. He learned from that experience, how valuable Grandpa’s hard earned knowledge of horses was to his grandsons. “I will ever be grateful to Grandpa for his insistence that I ride Button, saving me from possible injury.”

Percy Harold’s grandchildren loved to visit him in Randolph. If there weren’t enough horses to go around, he had a jeep that the grandchildren loved to drive and ride in. They’d pile in as many grandchildren as would fit, and drive the old dirt roads.

History, Descendants, and Ancestry of William Rex and Mary Elizabeth Brough of Randolph, Utah, compiled and edited by Ronald Dee Rex, 1999, pg. 268. Pictures from Helen Rex Frazier collection. P. H. and Mary Rex. P. H. with Maeser. P.H. with Maeser and Flora Rex. P.H. shoeing his horse. Rex grandchildren with P. H. on the right, and one of his brothers on the left of his jeep. Grandchildren L-R Judd, Jeff, Rex, Yara (in front), Richard behind P. H. Thank you to cousin Millard for recording (2004) and sharing this account.

Mary Elizabeth Herbert Rex

Mary Elizabeth Herbert Rex
b. 5 Feb 1892, Redmond, Sevier Co., Utah
p. Charles Martin Herbert, Martha Ann Wells
m. Percy Harold Rex, 25 Aug 1941
Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah
d. 12 Jan 1979, Salt Lake City, Utah
b. Randolph City Cemetery, Randolph, Utah

Mary Elizabeth Herbert was born in Redmond, Utah in 1892, the 7th child of Charles Martin and Martha Ann Wells Herbert. Soon after her birth the family moved to Salina where she grew up. Mary attended a year of high school in Nephi, Utah and graduated from B. Y. U. High School in Provo, Utah. She was only able to complete her education after her mother moved to Provo and took in borders. She and a sister received teaching certificates there. She taught school in many Utah school districts. In the 1921-22 school year she taught at the Randolph, Utah elementary school. She and another school teacher boarded with P.H. and Bessie Rex.



Aunt Mary on Old Spot, Randolph, winter 1922.

While teaching in the Granite School District her bishop asked if she would fill a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She agreed to serve if she could earn and save $900 that year. She did and was called to the Central States Mission where she served from June 1930 to May 1932. After hearing of Bessie Morgan Rex’s death in 1938, she sent a note of condolence to the Rex Family.

She and Percy Harold [she always called him P. H.] corresponded. Then she met him and some of his family in Salt Lake City at Conference time. They were married 25 August 1941 in the Salt Lake Temple.



She asked P.H.’s family to call her Aunt Mary. Everyone did. An early instructor said of Mary, “she was a natural born teacher.” The Rex family, and Randolph community benefited from her talents. As an active Church worker, she served in primary, relief society, and the stake mutual. She worked as the welfare director and as a news reporter for the Salt lake Tribune. She was artistic and crafty. She painted ceramics and collected salt and pepper shakers, and amassed a collection of upward of 300 sets. She made attractive covers for her kitchen appliances, and kept them in place. Hand-crocheted doilies covered the backs and arms of her upholstered furniture.



Aunt Mary and the P. H. Rex Granddaughters (except Bessie and Nancy) at a family reunion, Liberty Park, Salt Lake City, Utah, about 1962. L-R, sitting in front, Irene, Yara, Aunt Mary, Susan F., Flora Lee, Susan R. Back row; L-R, Ilene, Marilyn, Geraldine, Marlene, Carol, sitting on the table, Janene, standing with Marion.

Aunt Mary warmly welcomed each of P. H. Rex’s children and their families to their Randolph home. She cooked for them and housed them, rearranged plants and quilts and furniture so everyone fit. And she let the grandchildren construct hospital beds on her stairs and hall seat so they could play “nurse.” Ever able to nurture any plant to grow and blossom, she extended compassion to the old and the ill.

In the winter of 1959 she worked as a messenger, and was secretary to eight legislators at the Utah State Capitol Building in Salt Lake City. Thereafter she and P.H. frequently rented a Salt Lake apartment during the winter while the legislature was in session. They worked as aids and messengers. Aunt Mary’s sister, Mabel, and nieces and nephews lived in Salt Lake City and she liked to visit them. Aunt Mary’s Randolph grandchildren called her “grandma,” were very close to their grandparents, and visited frequently through the back fence.

In 1976 P. H. and Mary Rex left their Randolph home and moved into an apartment in South Salt Lake near Glenn and Helen Frazier.


I inherited Aunt Mary’s copy of One Silent Sleepless Night by Spencer W. Kimball. The title and utility bill envelope tucked inside, offer a brief history of P. H. and Mary’s stay in Salt Lake City.

P. H. Rex passed away 20 March, 1977. Aunt Mary lived in The Salt Lake Home, across the street from the 17th Ward Chapel to the West, and across from the old Groesbeck Homestead to the East. She made some very dear friends there. Family visited with her as often as possible. One of my fond memories of Aunt Mary while she lived there, is a trip we made together to the Salt Lake Temple for an endowment session. She passed away 12 Jan 1979 at the Hill Haven Convalescent Home on 9th East in Salt Lake City. Loving family members stayed near and were with her at her passing.


Randolph, A Look Back, written and compiled by Steven L. Thomson, Jane D. Digerness, Mar Jean S. Thomson, 1981, pg. 438. History, Descendants, and Ancestry of William Rex and Mary Elizabeth Brough of Randolph, Utah, compiled and edited by Ronald Dee Rex, 1999, pg. 271. Pictures from Helen Rex Frazier collection.