P. H. and Bessie Rex - letters of July 16, 19, 1936.

P. H. Rex and others working a derrick in about 1936 near Randolph, Utah.

Randolph, Utah

July 16, 36

My Dear Son Harold,

Just a few lines to let you know how we are up here in the land of the north. We are all fine at present with exception of Winnie. She had her appendix cut out Monday evening, 13 of July. She came up to see us on Sunday in just the pink of condition but when she got up on Monday morning, didn’t feel well and the operation is what developed. Uncle Will took Mother and I down Monday evening. We got there while they had her on the table, but Uncle Jack [1] and Aunt Gail [2] and Gail [3] were with her. And she came out in very good shape. Her pulse and temperature were normal on Tuesday evening and she was having the best of care and lots of company, so we came home and we haven’t heard from there since. But I am sure she is O.K. or else we would have,  from someone.

We are having some little sun here now. Flora is trying to get her second tooth out. You know Mother she can’t rest until there is a loose tooth out.

She doesn’t want her mother to pull [it] out, she is trying to get it herself.
  

The boys are out on the lawn having a little fun. We have Darwain [Darwin] Clayton [4] here now so I have three boys now, and one in South America. We have started haying. We sure have some good crops and not nearly so many fox tails. We have been having some of your rains up here. We had one of the grandest rains Sat night and Sunday we have had in a long time

.

We received the cards you sent to Winnie, also the picture of your four boys from your last letter. You have something to bother you sometimes, but my advice to you is to keep your angry passions down and don’t argue with a fool are [or] a drunk person as you couldn’t change their mind.

We haven’t started to build the opera house as yet but we expect to before long but it is going to be hard to get men for a while, until part of the hay is up

. 

I had better close now as my paper is nearly full. I wish you could send us a roll of those pictures of your country. Is it all as badly broken up as it is around that harbor? May the Lord ever bless and inspire you in your labors, is the prayer of your Father. P. H. Rex

P.S. Helen is a little bit jealous of my writing to you as I never wrote to her. [Bessie’s hand] Helen said she is not.

Flora got her tooth out, so she has the bottom front two out.

[letter written by Bessie]

Randolph, Utah

July 19, 1936

My dear darling boy,

Really, son, I mean it. I would give much to give you a good big hug right now, but never mind—time is flying isn’t it. I must write a few lines tonight, tho’ I’m so tired. We went to Evanston to Pres. Baxter’s [5] funeral. He had a very nice funeral. Pres. [Rudger] Clawson, of the twelve was up. It was so hot tho’, I’m all in. Well, I also saw a lovely little girl. She looked very sweet and her mother said she had received an airmail letter. I suppose Winnie has  told you they were down last week and brot [sic] Winnie. They were shocked when I told them about her being operated on. She will soon be home now.

Bishop would like us to go on a trip thro’ Yellowstone Park and up to Billings, Mont. With them. I should love to, if we can scrape up a little money.

Before I forget, I saw Bp. Larson [6] today. He wanted your address, so I shall send it to him. He would like to hear from you and he will write. H was very nice today.

It is Mon. morning and I must hurry this off. Rather cloudy and oh so warm.

Must tell you about Dallas. He has developed ulcers of the stomach. Do be careful about your eating. Keep your stomach in good conditions. He is quite sick and miserable, and folks are worried.

The men are haying. Darwin is here with us. Big hay crop this year. Had plenty of water. We went up to see the church gardens. They look pretty good.

Do hope you keep well. I sometimes wonder about that climate. Your picture looks good tho’. We are jealous. I told Clara Winnie had a picture of you. Everybody asks how you are. Hope your hay fever has gone. Take care of your chest and lungs.

I had much more to tell you but I can’t think fast enough.

Remember, we are always thinking of you, my dear. I am glad you enjoy your work. And will you learn Portugese too. My, some linguist with three languages.

I must close, We are having Winnie come home on the through bus, I guess, and we must get these letters off. Love and kisses and the Lord’s blessings my dear. I know he will be with you.

Lovingly Mother

NFS New Family Search
[1] John "Jack" Clayton (1882-1974)
[2] Gail Morgan Clayton (1888-1984)
[3] Gail Clayton (1919-1968)
[4] Darwin Spencer Clayton Sr (1921-1997)
[5] John McKinnon Baxter  (1859-1936)
[6] Oluf Larson (Randolph Bishop 1922-1929)

Grandpa P. H. Rex used long sentences in this letter. I added some punctuation to make it easier to read.

John Morgan Salt Lake Cemetery Plot

This early picture of John Morgan's gravestone in the Salt Lake Cemetery

is from his picture collection at Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah.

The John Hamilton Morgan Website has a new NEW...Morgan Cemetery Plot page. Flora Lee is doing a great job adding important new materials to the site. You’ll want to visit there frequently.

This is the Spring we plan to add the information posted here to the east side of John Morgan’s gravestone. I believe it’s important that each of his wives be identified on his gravestone, and directions to their gravesites available.

We would appreciate any $$ contribution you’d be willing to make toward this addition. 

You may contact me at iseethecreamery [@ sign] gmail.com. run that e-mail address all together. 

Bessie Morgan Rex - letter written July 7, 1936.

Sample of the Rich County Reaper Bessie refers to.  

Are you getting the Reaper? Wm Marshall has sent it to you. If you write to him watch your spelling. He publishes the letters. Isn’t your mother the limit?

Randolph, Utah

July 7, 1936

My dear faraway boy,

I must get this letter written tonight. It is two days late now. I am ashamed & apologize, but that doesn’t help your waiting, does it? I received your letter addressed to me. Now dearie, did I scold you so much? You should know me. Why your father thinks I must be sick if I don’t do just so much scolding. But please dearie, don’t register your letters. They are coming every week now regularly, & it costs to register them.

I think the hotel where you stay seems real nice from the picture & if you are putting on weight the way you say you are, I think you are being fed all right. You didn’t say anything about your hayfever. Is it better? I hope so. I am so glad you are enjoying your mission, but my- you are serious.

The sky is all cloudy & maybe we will get some rain. We are  far more fortunate than the poor people in the Midwest. Drouth  [sic] has taken their crops, & the thermometer has been above 100 for days. We have plenty of water this year. It surely is grand.

The campaign is going to be hot this summer & fall. Would you like to have been here?

Roosevelt is not nearly so sure of himself since the Rep. convention, as he was before. Oh my dear, that pen is a mess. It keeps stopping on me. This old pencil is much better. I’m sure I can give you the news better.

First of all. The building program is causing much controversy. I hope they soon settle down to work. This picture will give you some idea of what has happened to the opera house. We have had a good laugh at these pictures. Guess you will too.

The 4^th of July has gone by, but my such a toll of accidents. 444 in the nation. Helen told you of the deaths in Evanston.

Well, back to the pen. Maeser wants to write with the pencil. Oh dear, Helen is typing a story for me & between her and Measer my mind is fairly addled.

I was speaking of politics. I am ready to fight this year.WPA men are the only ones who can get any work. I am disgusted.

I’m afraid you will be waiting for a letter this week all right. Hope you like these pictures, of these good looking folk.

Well dearie, I better not write on another page. This letter will be heavy enough.

Be a good boy, & may the Lord bless you. I surely feel all right about you, even if you are a long way from home.

Oh, I forgot, Mrs. Sam Nelson of Bountiful was here on the 4^th & she told me of a missionary who had been in Brazil a year over time. Now I have forgotten his name. He liked it down there. Well, I’m sure I wont want you to stay that long overtime. Well I’ll do better next week. Love & kisses from all.

Lovingly Mother.

Elizabeth Thompson Groesbeck's last year. 1883.

This concluding post on Elizabeth Thompson Groesbeck’s life is continued from here.

1883 was the last year of Elizabeth’s life, and on her August 16th birthday that year she turned sixty-three.  Earlier in the year Elizabeth hired Mary Hansen, an exceptional dressmaker,  to fashion a dress for her to wear to the April 11, 1883 (NFS) wedding of Priscilla Paul Jennings to William W. Riter. Elizabeth and her daughter Mellie assisted dressmaker Mary Hansen make the exquisite dress that is described and pictured here.

Elizabeth assisted her daughters and watched over their children in their parents absence. In June of 1883, Mellie accompanied her husband, John Morgan, in his travel to Manassa, Colorado and it’s very likely their children were left in the Groesbecks care. The children were with their grandparents in October when Mellie accompanied John on a month long trip to the Eastern States and the Southern  States Mission.

John Morgan wrote in his journal in early October that he had dinner at the Groesbecks and there discussed plans to travel east with his wife, Mellie, to visit his family and the Southern States Mission. It appeared that travel plans included brother-in-law John A. Groesbeck and his wife Ann.  

John and Mellie left their children home with the Groesbecks and a couple of weeks into the trip John wrote that he’d received a telegram from Nicholas informing him that all was well at home with their children.

That October daughter Josephine also needed her mother ’s help. She left her five-year-old daughter Sara in Elizabeth’s care.  In 1882 Josephine’s husband, Apostle John Henry Smith, was called to preside over the European Mission. A year later [1883] “he sent for Josephine to take charge of the mission home in Liverpool [England]. She left Sarah [born 1878], her first child, with her parents and took Nicholas [born 1881] with her. She had been in England only a few months when her mother died 28 December 1883. Six months later, 29 June 1884, her father passed away. With the death of both parents she felt she had to return to the little daughter she had left behind with her folks. She arrived in Utah August 11, 1883 [84]”.

On November 20, 1883 John and Mellie arrived back in Salt Lake. John wrote in his journal, "Arrived at Salt Lake at 6 a.m. and drove to brother G's [Groesbeck] for breakfast. Had dinner there and in the p.m. brought wife and children down home."  On December 16 he wrote that he "visited Sister Groesbeck who is quite sick."                 

I've gathered and posted information on Great Great Grandmother Groesbeck’s passing that can be read here and here and here. 

Percy Harold Rex - letter written June 14, 1936.

Randolph, Utah

June 14-36

Dear Son,

My Dear Boy we received your letter of May 17 last night and was [were] very glad to hear from you and to know you were well and enjoying your labors. We are all in fine shape up here. Winnie has been home here for the past ten days and we sure enjoy her company, she is a wonderful daughter.

You ask about the river, it got so high that it ran over the road on the other side of the bridge in Uncle Alfs pasture. We have plenty of water although it is some what lower now it was quite cold here for a few days so that is the reason it fell down, but I think there is enough snow left yet to make it come up again.

I traded with Louie  Molouf the Jew a week ago and got a bay mare, she is a lot like the old Dot mare that I let the D.L. and L.S. co. have on the old sheep, I quite like her. I guess by the time you get this letter we will be getting ready to put up the hay again. We are working

On the Church Building program. We have torn all the old wood floor and wainscoating [sic] out of the basement and he [in] the opera house, soon to the windows in the blocks. When you come home we will have the new ones all broken in.

We had a farewell last Wed. nite for Wayne, he is in the mission home now. (he is so thrilled as Aunt Bess would say), he goes down to the Southern States. He will be home now before you are. I was talking to Don Mc. Roy is in Montana now, he is enjoying his labors very much.

Bob Wamsley is [in] the state of Kentucky, his father said he had had the pleasure of sleeping in an old school house. He said he nearly froze before morning came. Dallas has been put in as District President.

Quite a few of the people are down to June Conference so we had a very small meeting, it was held in the evening. We need to come out in the mission field and get a new flock. I must close now, asking the Lord to Bless and inspire you so you may fulfill and [an] honorable mission and be a credit to yourself.

With lots of Love,

Your Father P.H. Rex

Picture from Randolph, A Look Back, written and compiled by Steven L. Thomson, Jane D. Digerness, MarJean S. Thomson, 1981.

LDS ‘Island of Goodness.’ Manassa, Colorado.

John Morgan fields in Manassa, Colorado

Take a few minutes to read the interesting article posted at The Ancestor Files yesterday.

• Manassa, Colorado, a town of “spacious, uncluttered dirt streets.”
• The “hub colony” of Mormon colonization in Colorado’s San Luis Valley
• Established by a group of 72 converts to Mormonism from Georgia and Alabama, led by Elder John Morgan

A glimpse into John Morgan’s life in Manassa, Colorado, from his journal, is posted here on this blog.

John Hamilton Morgan Journal, and picture, from Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah.

Bessie Morgan Rex - letter written June 11, 1936.

Randolph, Utah

June 11, 1936

My dear son,

As I wrote that date, I was reminded of the fact that P H Rex & Co lacked just one year of a quarter of a century since its foundation. What a change. When I think of you way down “thar” us way up “har”-- it just doesn’t seem real.

We had a letter from you last Sat. & Winnie’s letter was forwarded to her & we had it Tuesday. I do hope you are getting our mail more regularly. It helps out, I think. I believe you are growing up fast. I am glad you enjoy your work- & surely hope you manage your German, I can say “Ich kunn Deutchin sprachen.” Is that right?

They had Wayne’s farewell last night. He goes to the mission home Monday. Winnie played for congregational singing & it sounded good to have that organ dusted out. She & I have decided she is to go on a mission when you come home. She will be just 20. The opera house is coming down fast. Some busy town, this.

Winnie has one more week home. It surely 

Seems good to have her home.

Summer is really here at last, alto’ it froze just three nights ago. If getting a taste of things makes one appreciate them, we should appreciate summer here. My flowers are so slow. The garden is just showing. I feel sometimes like I could wade thro’ a jungle, just to see tall plants & small flowers all around me.

We had a party here for Wayne Tue. Night. Aunt Maud & Uncle Alf were in Logan. Uncle Will was sick & Uncle Arth & Aunt Caddie wouldn’t come. We had quite a nice time tho’. Sunday is M.I.A. conference in S.L. Don’t suppose we will go tho’.

I can’t think in the afternoon. 5 a.m. is my time to write letters. My brain works better.

Oh dear, here it is Mon & our boy will miss a week. We will do better this week dearie. Our great fault-procrastination. Don’t worry over your little troubles, and just plug away. Love & Kisses from all of us & we pray for the Lord’s choicest blessings on our dear one far down these Americas.
Lovingly, Mother

Perhaps Bessie hoped the drama she wrote for the silent screen, The Light Eternal, A Drama in Six Reels, would be produced and could be shown here in the Randolph Opera House.  Picture from Randolph, A Look Back, written and compiled by Steven L. Thomson, Jane D. Digerness, Mar Jean S. Thomson, 1981

“In June 1908, the six Rex brothers, William, Alfred, Arthur, Samuel, John Oseland, and Percy joined a partnership and purchased the Ford Ranch east of Randolph.”  History,  Descendants, and Ancestry of William Rex & Mary Elizabeth Brough of Randolph, Utah, compiled and edited by Ronald Dee Rex, 1999, page 86. 

A New John Morgan Newspaper Clipping from Salt Lake Herald. August 16, 1894.

Be sure and read the Ancestor Files today and check out the newspaper clipping from the August 16, 1894 Salt Lake Herald that Amy posted.

It’s amazing what searching old newspapers can produce! I'll add the clipping to my growing list of good references.

John Morgan’s death

Southern Star obituary

A complete list of John Morgan posts on the Ancestor Files is found here.

A complete list of John Morgan posts on this blog is found here.