Helen Rex's May 1937 trip to Los Angeles, California.

On April 4, 1937 Helen Rex wrote in a letter to Harold:  "Well it has been five months since I saw Glenn last. He should be on a mission. He is fine, working most of the time. Sometimes his letters are so cheerful and other times he gets down in the mouth, but such is life. A fellow from Mississippi is living with him, and he doesn’t even have any kind of work, so Glenn does feel pretty good about his luck."

On May 29, 1937 in a letter to her brother Harold, Helen Rex wrote the following account of her trip to Los Angeles, California to see Glenn Frazier.

A week ago at this time I was in California. Now it is all memories. I was going to write from down there, but didn’t get it done. Anyway now I can tell you all about it. We surely had a grand time. I mean Glenn and I. He had to work some of the time, but got a couple of days off. I got down there the night of the 15^th. Went on the bus and it was twenty minutes late. Glenn said he had nearly worn the corner off the street.

The first day I was there we went to the Forest Lawn Memorial Park. It is a beautiful burial grounds. There is some of the most beautiful sculpture work in there I have ever seen. There are two little churches there too, that are beautiful. Will Rodger’s funeral was held in one of them. Lots of the society of Los Angeles get married there.  Jannette McDonald is going to be married there in June. We took a lot of good pictures there.

The next day Helen went down town herself. I got me a hotel apartment to live in. It was surely nice and just as reasonable in price as a hotel in the center of town. I was only about three blocks from where Glenn lived. The center of Los Angeles is Broadway. On the corner of Broadway andSeventh Street is supposed to be the busiest corner in the world. The people are so thick there, that you can’t walk without rubbing shoulders, and the street is so narrow. Just barely enough room for two car tracks and two lanes for automobiles, beside the side walk. On one corner is one of Los Angeles largest theatres, Bullock’s store on another, the Bank of America on the third, and on the fourth the Hamilton Jewelry store. The Bullock department store is just immense. It takes in just one-half of the block on Broadway and one-half of the block on Seventh.

Then on Tuesday, Glenn’s cousin Ella and his Aunt Maude Eastman, (re-member her) took me to Hollywood and out to see the movie star’s homes. I got pictures of Mary Pickford’s home, Ronald Coleman’s Fred Astaire’s, Charley Chaplain’s and the estate of Gene Stratton Porter. I had some of the others pointed out to me, but couldn’t take their picture, because they were so far away. We went way up on the mountain and looked down on the city, it is a beautiful sight.

Wednesday we went to Long Beach. There I got my first sight of the ocean. I was surely thrilled. Water, water and more water, but I guess you know what that is. However, I’m not as good a sailor as you my dear. I was on the water about 5 hours and got sea sick. Maybe it wasn’t seas sick, but I was so dizzy I couldn’t stand up. We went out to a big ship had dinner and danced. It was anchored about 9-1/2 miles out. They had a big room where they gambled. Oh, I never saw so much money in all my life. You know those big wheels they whirl and every game you could think of. There were just piles and piles of silver dollars. Glenn & I kept our money in our pocket. Daddy called me tight, but I am a poor looser.

Thursday I went down town again. Glenn laughed at me, because I said I stayed on Broadway between Fifth Street and Ninth streets. My directions weren’t so good and I didn’t want to get too far from where I caught my car. Anyway I think I was pretty brave. There were enough stores between those streets for a person to go window shopping all day. There is a big furniture store called the Eastern. Glenn’s cousin Roy Eastman works there and June Tingey’s uncle. It is in a building 14 stories high. Every floor is filled with furniture. The window decorations were just beautiful. The Bus depot is on main street, Right next to it is one of the largest hotels in L.A., the Rosslyn, but other than that Main street is an awful place. Lots of foreigners down there.

Helen's account of her trip to Los Angeles to be continued.

A picture of Maud Eastman is at the bottom on this post.

Bessie Morgan Rex - 1937 Spring undated letters.

Glenn and Helen Rex Frazier, probably 1936

when she visited him in Los Angeles, California.

 

 

My dear boy,

It is Sunday evening. Helen & Daddy have been to Mutual & now Helen says we must all write a letter. I have been very negligent, haven’t I? Have been enjoying rather poor health, but am feeling better now.

Morg sits here with a book on aviation trying to show me a new type of machine with the stabilizer on the top of the rudder—get it? Well, you should be around here for awhile.

We were delighted to get your airmail letter, & so delighted to know you were transferred to Joinville. It is surely a pleasure to know you are so pleased &; we surely feel repaid when we know you are making progress. The weather has been delightful. It is warm & sunshiny during the day. The snow is melting ; blackbirds—they fill the trees.

The ward held a reunion last Wed. Everybody had a very nice time, I think. The hall is so grand. Bishop & Sis. Oluf Larson were up. Now, my dear boy, he has sent you 10$ & you have not written to thank him. Please do so right away. Their address is

 

216 D St., Salt Lake. They are both very much interested in you. Grace Norris told me to be sure & remember her to you. Every body of course asks about you.

Oh Helen says to tell you she & Glenn haven’t any day set yet. They have a hard time trying to get married but we must all have patience with them.

My dearie, it is morning & Helen has her letter all ready. My, I’m slow. It is cold & foggy this morning, but I think we are going to have an early Spring. You haven’t told us whether you got your garments. I can’t understand your not getting but two letters a month. I very seldom miss a week.

One year has gone. It seems an age since you left. These missionaries are in the home now. Will get those shirts to you if we can get hold of a missionary for Brazil.

Must close & get this off. Be a good boy, study hard & get all you can from your mission. That is your part my dear boy & may the Lord be with you to inspire you. Lovingly Mother.

 

My dear boy,

Well if I cant do any better, I shall use a pencil on type paper & sit in front of the stove. You didn’t get a letter last week, did you dearie, but really, I was sick all last week. Helen was studying to give a story at conference last night. Daddy has a new job. He is on the soil conservation committee. Everybody is so busy around here. Helen has to go to Coalville tomorrow to take an examination. Is she excited. She better get married.

We haven’t had a letter for two weeks, but if you haven’t been getting our letters, well I don’t blame you, but really dearie, this last week I believe is about the second time I have missed writing.

Yesterday was conference, and Br. & Sis Burdett were here for dinner. We had a lovely time. Then after church Clara & Afton came up to see me. You see, they held meeting in the new amusement hall & the seats aren’t comfortable, so I thot I better not go. I feel much better today though. Clara is a lovely girl, & we are all glad you got a letter to her. She seemed very much pleased too. Bro. Jos. T. Merrill was here for conference & everybody enjoyed him so much.

Evanston is crazy about our new hall. It is surely grand. Did they tell you the basketball tournament. [?] Helen says yes.

Morgan is--what would you say, girl struck—or maybe it is the girl

[illegible]  Woodruff has asked him to go to a party with her. Does that boy get razzed? He pleaded with me not to tell Maeser.

I suppose you got the news of the terrible explosion in Texas. 425 children killed in an explosion. Bro. Merrill told the people yesterday to not expect better.  It wasn’t common.

I am to give a book report tomorrow in Relief Society & I have had to study. My ambition is at a low ebb.

Don’t you get the Des. News or Sat. News. I thot they sent it out to the missions. Let me know & we will try to get something down to you.

I am so glad you are at Joinville. I worried about you at Blumenau.

Next morning. I see the family has been writing. It has snowed several inches during the night. Not a very good day for Helen to go to Coalville.

Well, my dear I must close. I wonder if you will have a strong German accent when you come home. You are having wonderful opportunities. Make the most of them. I know the Lord is helping and it is just for us to do our part.

Love & kisses my dear from all of us & I should certainly love to give you an big hug. Time is going tho; isn’t it;

Lovingly, Mother.

Brothers Double Blessing, August 9, 1894.

 

September 6, 2012 I visited the Church History Library in Salt Lake City to look at the Fourteenth Ward’s original membership records. I determined that if I could locate a blessing record for Mellie Groesbeck and John Hamilton Morgan’s youngest son I would be able to prove or dispel the notion that the baby’s name had been changed following his father’s untimely August 14, 1894 passing.

I had only a few hours to spend downtown so I went to the desk in the library and submitted my request for the microfilm of the earliest 14^th ward membership records. I was disappointed to learn that the microfilm was in use by another patron that day, and I wouldn’t be able to use it. The librarian suggested that was most unusual, and if I searched through the catalog further I might find something else I’d like to use. There was a book version of the very record I wanted, so I asked for that. The librarian apologetically explained that the book wasn’t available for patron use. I suggested that since the microfilm was in use, and the pockets of time that I can get to the library are few and far between, perhaps the “powers that be” would permit me to use the book this one time. And they did! What a thrill!

The original Fourteenth Ward Record Book was delivered to my table in the reading room. The large 18 x 14 black leather volume took up the entire table when it was opened. Gold leafed lettering in the center of the cover read

 

Nineteen beautifully penned Morgan names were written in the index-- I found what I was looking for. Each numbered member’s name is followed by their parent’s name and birth and blessing dates.

# 858, Morgan, John Hamilton

John Morgan, Helen Groesbeck

7 Feb 1894, Salt Lake City

 blessed on  Aug 9, 1894 by M. F. Cowley

 

# 859, Morgan, M. [Mathias] Cowley

John Morgan, Mary Ann Linton

24 Jan 1894, Salt Lake City

blessed on Aug 9, 1894 by M. F. Cowley

 

These entries answered more questions than I’d asked. And they raised quite a few additional ones.

Both of John Morgan’s sons were blessed by Matthias Cowley on the same day, five days prior to their father’s August 14, 1894 passing.

John Hamilton Morgan Jr.’s name was NOT changed following his father’s death. I wonder what he’d been called before he was blessed and given the name John Hamilton Morgan.

Were the babies blessed in Preston, Idaho?

Family history tells us Grandmother Mellie sent her ailing husband to Preston, Idaho to recover from his illness. She must have hoped that away from the city he would have had a better chance for recovery, his wife Mary Ann would watch over him.

At some point Mellie traveled to Preston to be with her husband, only to return to Salt Lake when she received word her own baby at home had become very ill.

The train trip between Salt Lake and Preston was routine, and the trip was familiar to the Morgans. The train for Preston departed Salt Lake City daily at 5 p.m., and arrived Preston at 11:30 p.m.  The return train to Salt Lake left the following morning at 5:30 a.m. On John Morgan’s normal visits to Preston he would remain there the second day--his journal entry usually read something like, “Read and quiet today. George C. Parkinson [a community leader] called.” The next morning John Morgan would depart Preston on the 5:30 a.m. train, and arrive home in Salt Lake at 11:00 a.m.

 



 John Hamilton Morgan, Jr.

born February 7, 1894

 

Mathias Cowley Morgan

born January 24, 1894

 

You will find further information about these children at The Ancestor Files:



Where did John Hamilton Morgan die -- Preston, Idaho home.

John Morgan's Children

And a Story of Mary Ann Linton’s cure for baby John on this blog.

Pictures of John Morgan's sons are from Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, used with permission.

New Helen Melvina Groesbeck and John Hamilton Morgan gravestone. Sept 15, 2012.

 

Smiling into the sunshine on Saturday, September 15^th, some John Hamilton Morgan descendants gathered at his grave site in the  Salt Lake City Cemetery. We were celebrating his life, and that of our grandmother Mellie Morgan, and the completion of several projects at their grave sites.

This new Helen Melvina and John Hamilton Morgan gravestone was recently completed and replaced the former deteriorating poured stones, placed there after Grandmother Morgan’s 1930 death. They had become increasingly difficult to read.

A big “thank you” to cousin Karen M., who led the way to the new gravestone's plan, design, completion, and purchase--and to all who contributed.

 

Gathered around the east facing side of the John Morgan Monument are L-R John Hamilton Morgan descendants; Claudia S., John Morgan G., Karen M., Rick P., Nancy B., Yara S., Bessie S., Judy H., Tom H., John Hamilton Morgan, Jr., in front Tom K. H., and Perry H.   

 

John Hamilton Morgan, Jr., grandson of Great Grandfather John Hamilton Morgan was with the group in the cemetery. His father was born February 7, 1894, just months before Great Grandfather Morgan's death.

 

Earlier updates at the John Morgan Family cemetery plot are posted here and here. Additional pictures will be posted at the John Hamilton Morgan Family Website in the near future.

John Morgan's Commercial College, The Pioneer College of Utah. March 1869.

                                                               

On Saturday The Ancestor Files posted this pamphlet for Morgan’s Commercial College. Seeing it in its entirety answers and poses a variety of questions.

All eight pages appear in The Life and Ministry of John Morgan, “For a Wise and Glorious Purpose,” by Arthur Richardson, copyright 1965, Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr., pgs 51-58. Thanks to modern technology, internet access, and Amy’s discovery anyone can study and enjoy this little pamphlet, as it appeared in 1869.

The following is my list of questions and answers triggered by reading The Pioneer College of the Rocky Mountains pamphlet.

1-- After the lengthy vacation students have been treated to, caused indirectly by the illness of the Principal, the work is taken up with renewed interest; and during the time of the vacation arrangements have been made perfect for the more complete control of the school, and an entire reorganization of the management coupled with the experience of the past, satisfy that the college will excel its previous success---unparalleled as that has been in the territory. What illness did John Morgan suffer from that caused his school’s lengthy vacation?

2—"Change of Base to the Music Hall."  J. Morgan, M. A., Principal, Music Hall, First South Street, Salt Lake City, Utah.   Was the “Music Hall” John Morgan moved his school into on First South Street the site of the future Morgan Hotel?

3— Great Grandmother Mellie Groesbeck is listed in the “Ladies Class” and as a teacher in the Music Department after she became Mrs. Mellie Morgan, Teacher, Piano-Fortes because the students listed on pages 3-4 are a “List of Students who have attended the College between Feb. 1, 1868, and Jan. 31, 1869.” Mellie Groesbeck married John Morgan October 24, 1868. 

4—In an earlier time this pamphlet was considered “Very Rare,” which is penciled on the top of the cover, perhaps because Samuel Auerbach is listed as a student on page 3.  It looks as though a “book dealer” was hoping to get $25.00 for it.

5—I would have liked to audit Grandfather John Morgan’s Commercial Course on “Railway.”  I wonder if he could have imagined at that point in his life, the expert on railways he would become in the remaining twenty-five years of his life.

Picture of John Morgan from Richardson, pg. 45. 

Buskirk Bridge area New York.

(Continued from here.)

 Buskirks Bridge

Cousin Geraldine M. lives in New York and has done a lot or research on the Groesbeck Family. Three or four years ago she visited the area where Great Grandfather Nicholas Groesbeck (1819-1884) lived. She sent me pictures from that area to share here.

 She said, “I don’t know precisely who each of these gravestones belong to, but they are our Groesbecks.“

Thank you Geraldine for sharing these beautiful pictures!

Nicholas Groesbeck (1819-1884). "He possessed a character of rigid integrity, and his word was always his bond".

I found this undated Nicholas Groesbeck "Our Gallery of Pioneers" clipping in his folder at the DUP Museum History Room yesterday. I'm looking for a source, and a date, of GG Grandfather Nicholas Groesbeck's conversion and his baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Hyrum Smith.

I thought I might at least find the date of the newspaper clipping by looking through the Utah Digital  Newspaper Project. No luck. I didn't find that clipping, however, I found the following March 31, 1900 clipping. It didn't answer my specific question, but gave me a lot. My favorite is the author's description of this grandfather, He possessed a character of rigid integrity, and his word was always his bond.

"The important part which the late Nicholas Groesbeck took in the founding of Salt Lake City is well testified to by the monument of his industry  and energy which still stands in the Groesbeck and Wasatch blocks on the corner of Main and Second South Streets.  Mr. Groesbeck belonged in the foremost rank of our financial pioneer stalwarts whose pictures have already appeared in this series of articles, but he was almost the only one of them who made the bulk of his fortune through real estate properties. He also engaged somewhat in merchandising and mining. His death took place on Sunday, June 29, 1884 at the age of 64. He was born at Buskirk Bridge, Rensellaer  [Rensselaer ] county, New York, September 5^th, 1819. He joined the Church in 1837, and moved to Springfield, Ill., where in 1841 he married Elizabeth Thompson, who remained his companion for years, and whose death occurred only six months before his own. While living in Springfield he became one of the bondsmen of the Prophet Joseph Smith who was tried there on trumped up charge in 1842. Although never living at Nauvoo he made frequent trips to that city, and was engaged in coal mining and contracting there. He emigrated [immigrated] to Utah in the fall of 1856, passing a division of Johnston’s Army on his way, and saving his goods only by a narrow chance. He was noted for his energy of character and for his incessant hard work at his business.  He possessed a character of rigid integrity, and his word was always his bond. His name is perpetuated in that of the Groesbeck Company today, which owns the property he left behind. The stock is now held by others than his own family, business reverses having overtaken nearly all his heirs. The president of the company, however, is Hon. John HenrySmith, who married one of Mr. Groesbeck’s daughters [Josephine]."

Some posts about Nicholas Groesbeck's life are here and here.

Additional information will follow soon.

[Note: the first newspaper clipping is too difficult to read. It follows here:]

"A native of New York state, where he was born in 1819, and a prominent citizen of Utah from 1856 until his death in 1884, Nicholas Groesbeck left in the local community many marks of his loyalty and business  sagacity . He joined the Church in 1838 in his native state, and removed to Illinois the next year, making his home in Springfield. Here he engaged in trading, for which he had a natural aptitude, and acquired considerable wealth, so that when he decided to come to Utah he was well equipped for entering at once upon his career of future prosperity. He performed adventurous and valuable service upon the plains during times connected with the western movement of Johnston’s army, and at the time of “the move,” he located and went [text missing] turned to Salt Lake where he thereafter made his home.  As early as 1858 he purchased what was later known as the Wasatch corner, Second South and Main streets (now the Kenyon) and built upon it. In 1869 he began to engage in mining, and in his operations in Little Cottonwood he opened up and later sold the famous Flagstaff mine. Everything he touched seemed to prosper, and he was always on hand to join in any enterprise that promised the development and up-building of the country. He performed two or three missions, and was steadfast and consistent in his religious belief. He was at one time a member of the city council, and he was ever a public spirited and exemplary citizen generally. He died wealthy, being a large holder of real estate, mining [text missing]."