Percy Harold Rex Family Reunion September 8, 2018

L-R Grandpa P. H. Rex, Winifred Andrus, Glenn Frazier, Helen Frazier, 

Roscoe Andrus holding Millard; front, Bessie, Rex, Marilyn, Irene, Marlene, Ilene

Yesterday's note from Cousin Irene concluded her beautiful 2018 Rex Reunion tribute to Grandpa Rex.

In last October Conference Elder Bednar spoke of meekness, that often mis-understood and surely under appreciated attribute of our Redeemer. He gave a great description and as I read it afterward I immediately thought of how well it described our beloved Grandfather Rex. Hope it resonates with you. Elder Bednar said, "Meekness is strong, not weak; active, not passive; courageous, not timid; restrained not excessive; modest, not self-aggrandizing; and gracious, not brash. A meek person is not easily provoked, is not pretentious or overbearing and readily acknowledges the accomplishments of others," In the late 30's and early 40's, Grandpa lived through at least three heavy losses with courage, strength and modesty. I think his example is truly worthy of emulation.

Picture mid-1950

We enjoyed reunion pictures found here:  

The FRAZIERS of Woodruff, Utah continue their fathers' and grandfathers' legacy. Patriots All! Happy July 4th!

I just bid farewell to Frank Union Frazier's grandson, cousin Frank Earl Frodsham. Tomorrow he'd have celebrated his 88th Birthday! 

An earlier 4th of July Celebration post is fitting.

Does anyone know how John Morgan came to be called "John Hamilton Morgan"?

Group of Southern States Missionaries about 1880

3-John Morgan, 4-Matthias Foss Cowley (SS Mission 1880-1882)

Used with permission, John Hamilton Morgan Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. purchased 2012.

Great Grandfather John Morgan's FamilySearch.org family tree is marked "Read Only." Amy's 2014 question is still found there and accessible.

Does anyone know how John Morgan came to be called "John Hamilton Morgan?" The book "The Life and Ministry of John Morgan," makes the following statement about the middle name, but the co-author, Nicholas G. Morgan Sr., does not give a source for the information: "Although christened 'John Hamilton Morgan,' the 'Hamilton' name coming from his mother's people, my father confined his name, throughout his mature life to 'John Morgan.'" Every record I recall seeing from John Morgan's lifetime calls him "John Morgan" with no middle name or initial, with the exception of the 1850 US Census, which calls him "John W." Anyone familiar with any letters or other sources that show him using the middle name "Hamilton" during his lifetime?
25 May 2014   by Amy Tanner Thiriot

During August of 1894 Matthias Cowley was attending to John Morgan as he lay dying in Preston, Idaho.  Cowley's journal entries reveal some helpful family history facts.

Last year cousin Karen discovered a drawer full of 5 x 7 index cards her Grandfather Nicholas G. Morgan had copied his own father's journal entries onto. Among the cards were eleven with Matthias Cowley's August 1894 journal entries.

The card I transcribed below is very telling.

(continued from the previous card where he is writing about Mary Ann Linton Morgan)

Aug 19 – 92 After moving away for some time, she again returned and again, the third time – and this time rented Adam Hunter’s house in which another little baby boy was born [Jan 26, 1894] and whom they called for me – Mathias Cowley. His father blessed him and I blessed him again the night after his father’s death.

After the burial, Mrs. Helen [lined through M. Morgan] Snyder and myself attended the services in the Tab. and listened to Pres. Housdale of the Michigan University on the Essentials of the Mind. After meeting called on Geo. A & Lucy Smith, his wife, the later a second cousin of mine. Returning to Bro. Morgan’s by request of Sis. Helen M. Morgan,  I blessed her little baby boy, sealing upon him the name of John Hamilton. Slept that night at Bro. Morgan’s.  

The following image shows three other index cards of the eleven in Nicholas Morgan's file drawer.

If there is interest, I will add the transcription of the other ten index cards that describe John Morgan's days at Preston, return train trip to Salt Lake and his funeral and burial.

Thank you cousin Karen.

David W. Hamilton. Last Will and Testament 1896.

David W. Hamilton’s recently discovered March 29, 1895 Will revealed so many interesting facts.

He begins with, “David W. Hamilton of Indianapolis, Indiana, make and publish this my last Will and Testament  …

“Item 4: I give and devise three hundred dollars ($300) for the purpose of repairing and putting an iron fence around the graves of my Father [James Hamilton], Mother [Margaret Turner], Brother [presently unknown]and Sister [presently unknown], who are buried on Mr. Burns Peery’s farm in Decatur County, Ind., and to put a stone at the grave of my brother Frank [Frank was not listed among James Hamilton heirs], who is buried in Richland Cemetery, Monroe County, Ind.”

 October 18, 1895 Codicil [to amend or change]:

“I hereby revoke Item 4 of my will in which provision for the purpose or reparing [sic] and putting an iron fence at the graves of my father, mother, brother, and sister, who are buried in the farm now owned by Mr. Burns Peery in Decatur County, Indiana and stove at my brother Frank’s grave in Monroe County, Ind.”

 I've discovered that David W. Hamilton does NOT have a brother named Frank.  David’s oldest brother Jesse T Hamilton is buried at Richland Cemetery in Monroe County, Indiana, as is Jesse’s son Frank B. Hamilton.

Mr. Burns Peery’s 1917 obituaries tell us a little about where James [died 1844] and Margaret Hamilton [died 1855] and two of their children are actually buried. No wonder I’ve never found them during “traditional searching.”

The Old Peery Homestead and Auburn Hill

"Thomas Burns Peery was born on a farm near Kingston, Ind., in the old Peery homestead now a part of Auburn Hill. In early boyhood his parents bought the farm later known has Wm. S. Peery Farm and removed to that place.  ... His father was a pioneer of Methodism in Decatur county, his home being used as a place of worship in the early history of the county before there were any churches unless perhaps in the county seat."  (August 3, 1917 Greensburg Standard Newspaper)

"The deceased was married to Louisa J. Guest, of Milford, February 27, 1866, and they resided for about forty years on the farm two miles northwest of Greensburg, retiring to this city ten years ago."  (July 27, 1917 Greensburg Standard Newspaper)

All of this helps answer the question of why James and Margaret Hamilton don't appear in any known cemetery records. Their son's Will identifies their burial sites. The names of the brother and sister buried with their parents remain to be discovered.  

                                       

Franklyn B. Hamilton Richland Cemetery gravestone

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."

Garrard Morgan died when? And he is buried where?

Recently a Find A Grave volunteer took this picture of Great Great Grandmother Eliza Ann Hamilton Morgan's grave site at my request. She was buried here in South Park Cemetery, Greensburg, Decatur, Indiana following her April 18, 1901 passing. She was living in Greensburg with her oldest son at that time.

Sadly there wasn't anyone living to see to it that a gravestone was placed at her grave site.  Or perhaps there wasn't any money to pay for one. Her obituary appeared in the Greensburg newspaper and is posted here. 

It was a pleasant surprise to discover her brother David W. Hamilton's gravestone prominently placed next to the unmarked area, which is her grave site. His death was five years before hers. 

The part of the story we don't know, is, "where is her husband Garrard Morgan" buried? According to a letter Eliza Ann wrote her daughter-in-law in 1895 Garrard was still living with her then, in Champaigne, Illinois. In the 1900 census (June 14, 1900) Eliza Ann is a widow living with her son William H. Morgan in Fall Creek Township, Middletown, town, Indiana.

It's presumed Garrard died in Illinois and is buried there somewhere.   

"Champaigne, Illinois April 29, 1895
"My dear Daughter [Helen Melvina “Mellie” Groesbeck Morgan]
“It is Monday morning and wash day …. Yes, this is your Pa’s birth month and all the children have written him such nice affectionate letters and he puts all the letter writing upon me. Says he cannot wright—I am sorry to say it is true—he cannot collect his thoughts. I am very fond of writing letters, but oh how I dread to write your Pa’s.”

John Hamilton Ham - son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Hamilton) Ham

According to Mary Ann Linton Morgan's research notes, in the late 1700 between seven and eight-hundred Hamiltons lived in Bracken County which was located about 30 miles from the Blue Lick Springs. It is essential that we gather all of the identifying sources possible in putting our John and Elizabeth Hamilton’s family together.

The following biography of John Hamilton Ham included in an 1882 Nicholas County History Volume identifies him as the son of John Hamilton’s daughter Elizabeth Hamilton Ham and her husband Samuel.

JOHN HAMILTON HAM, dealer in real estate, Carlisle, was born in McBride's Run, Nicholas County, Ky., Dec. 22, 1821, to Samuel and Elizabeth (Hamilton) Ham; he died in April 1837, at the age of fifty (see history of M. K. Ham); she was a daughter of John and Elizabeth Hamilton, and died at the age of fifty, in 1852; she was the mother of five children, viz: Leann, wife of Thomas M. Mathews, residing in Orange County, Ind.; John H., William W., Jacob A., married, died and left a wife and three children (two sons and a daughter) in Orange County, Ind.; and Samuel W., also deceased; John H., the third child and subject of this sketch, began his career in life as a farmer, and followed the same until a few years since, when he engaged in the real estate business.  He was married in Carlisle, Nov. 9, 1848, to Elizabeth McCune, both in Nicholas county, July 15, 1830, to John and Elizabeth (Mathers) McCune, natives of Nicholas County; he born in 1796, she in 1806, to Thomas Mathers, born in 1759, and Elizabeth, his wife, born in 1768; John McCune, a son of John, born in 1762.  Mr. Ham, by this marriage had three children, viz: R. Edgar, born Nov. 17, 1849; Oscar, born Sept. 6, 1852, and Elizabeth, died in infancy.  Mr. and Mrs. Ham are members of the Church at Carlisle, of which he served as Deacon several years; he is neutral in politics.  His youngest son, Oscar, was married Oct. 28, 1879, to Miss Luella Kimbrough (born to Joshua and Mary (Bowen) Kimbrough) May 14, 1857 (see history of Mrs. M. C. Bell).  After marriage he engaged in business with his brother-in-law, Mr. H. C. Kimbrough, at the hotel and continued his stock interests and trading.  They are the owners of the famous trotting horse, "Pegasus."  In business, they are enterprising, energetic, and are highly esteemed by the people of the county.

Ham Hamilton Mathews McCune Kimbrough Bowen Bell = Orange-IN

REF:  History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky, ed. by William Henry Perrin,  O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago, 1882.  p. 749. [Nicholas County]  [Carlisle City and Precinct]

 http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/nicholas/ham.jh.txt