THOMAS REES of Wales by his grand daughter

THOMAS REES

must be written by

 Mary Margaret Rees Allermand

            I will begin my history by beginning with my grandfather.  Thomas Rees, my grandfather, was born about 1819 at Tolbenny Parish, Pembrokeshire, South Wales.  They came here on the railroad in 1872. 

            My cousin, Thomas Parley Johns, wrote to me, and this is what he wrote:  "I have heard my mother (my father's sister) say, that they lived for some time in Salt Lake City and later they moved to Portage, Utah, built them a log house and lived there for some time.  Later they settled where Washakee is now located.  (Washakee is an Indian Village of perhaps two hundred Indians.)"  Grandfather and Grandmother lived in a house of one room, and it had a dirt roof.  I well remember the happy days of childhood when I visited at that home.  I can see the old brass clock yet, and I can distinctly hear it tick.

            Grandfather was a fine looking man.  I have heard it said that he was six feet two inches in his stocking feet.  No one ever had a better friend than Grandfather Rees was. 

            When he was a young man in the old country he was moving hay with a scythe, and in going from one field to another with the scythe over his shoulder, fell and cut his back.  From this time until the day he died he walked bent over using two walking sticks.  He died about 1886.  Grandmother was a rather small woman not so short but quite thin.  She loved her Bible and knew its contents well.  Her patience was much more limited than grandfather's.  She made the best biscuits and butter that I have ever tasted.  She died about August 1892 at Thurber, Wayne County, Utah.

            About forty-two or three years ago the family went to Rabbit Valley in Wayne County where the youngest son is still living and the rest are scattered from Alberta, Canada to the southern part of Utah.

            Grandfather Rees was a shoemaker, and some of the relatives on my mother's side were butchers.  (Williams line)

            Grandfather Thomas Rees and Grandmother Rebecca (Williams) Rees had a family of twelve, eight of which were girls and the other four boys.  They are as follows:

            Mary Rees                             born 15 Sep 1841

            Rebecca Rees                      born 11 Dec 1842

            Elizabeth Rees (died)           born      Jun 1844

            Betsy Rees                            born 25 Mar 1845

            Sariah Rees              born 17 Dec 1849

            Brigham Rees                       born   9 Apr 1851

            Heber Rees (died)   

            Ellen Rees                             born 22 Jun 1854

            Noah Rees                             born 14 Aug 1857

            Margaret Rees                      born 15 Nov 1859

            Lettuce Rees                         born 29 Dec 1860

            Thomas Parley Rees            born   2 Jun 1864

            My father, Brigham Rees, was born 9 Apr 1851 at North Crocket Farm, Pembrokeshire, South Wales.  He was the oldest boy and the sixth child in the family, came to Utah in 1869 at the age of seventeen.  He traveled on the railroad to Wyoming and from here he carried his blankets across Salt Lake Valley to Bingham where he had gotten his first work in the Bingham mines.  He was a rock mason by trade, and he also knew farming.  When he first came here, he worked in the mines in Utah and Nevada.

            Later father went from one part of Utah to another and helped erect buildings in different parts of the state.  He helped in the building of the ZCMI, the St. George Temple and also the Mental Hospital in Provo.  At this time the family lived in Rabbit Valley.  My mother being home alone with her small family made it necessary for my oldest brother to learn to milk at the age of eight years.  When father was a boy he used to work early and late on a farm back in the old country.  They used to work from four o'clock in the morning till ten o'clock at night.

            During these first years that father was here he saved his money which brought quite a number of his folks here and finally his parents.  In fact, he was the means in bringing the whole family to Utah.  At one time there were ten members here living all over the age of fifty years.  Father's sisters also worked on the farm in the hayfields and did their share with the making of the butter.   My Aunt has told me that the boys did not do the milking in the old country, that that was always left for the girls to do.  Father's brothers were farmers and most of his sisters married farmers.

            Aunt Becky, the next to the oldest in the family, went with her family out on a ranch in Wyoming about 1890 or probably earlier.

             In St. George when father was working on the St. George Temple, mother helped cook for the men.  Probably this is where they met.  When father and mother were courting, father said that mother was never idle.  She always kept busy with her knitting or crocheting even when they took a walk together.  She was recommended as one of the fastest knitters that was known.  She did all kinds of fancy work.  I still have a few pieces in my possession.

            Father and mother came from Dixie to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City and were married 6 Dec 1875 by Daniel H. Wells.  Shortly after they were married, they moved to the Silver Reef.  One day my oldest brother was nearly drowned.  He was about three years of age.  There was a canal which ran near the house.  Mother saw him floating down the stream and screamed.  Father woke from his sleep, ran and jumped into the canal and saved him.  Father slept in the daytime because he worked nights.  The canal was called the Babylon Mill Canal.

            From the Silver Reef the family moved to Wayne County about the time that Wayne County was being colonized.  Here father farmed and also helped to build a house and a brick store which was kept by two of my Uncles.  This store was called the Mansfield, Peterson, and Rees Store.

            In 1891 the family moved from Rabbit Valley to Salt Lake City and lived here.  They however took a trip or two back to St. George.  My folks traveled back and forth from Salt Lake to St. George or visa versa many times and became frightened by the Indians.  In 1889 they took a trip to Malad.

            While they were living in Rabbit Valley, father was said to be one of their main singers at their parties and meetings.  Sometimes mother and father sang together.

            Whatever father built was built well.  I have the home that father built in Salt Lake.  It is made of brick, has stood for thirty-seven years and is good for at least thirty more.

            One time Willard Snow and my father (Brigham Rees) and family were taking a trip from Rabbit Valley to Salt Lake.  They had traveled all day and about dark had reached the top of Mount Summit in Rabbit Valley.  Here they camped on the Summit.  Mother and the children slept in the white top wagon while brother Snow and father slept on the ground.  In the morning when they awoke they found that they were covered with a white blanket of snow about one foot in depth which had fallen during the night.

            My father was an unusually strong and healthy man.  He never lay in bed ill in his life.  The last trip he took was to Idaho intending to take up land for his boys.  When he came home he was ill with pneumonia, suffered one week and passed away 9 July 1914 at the age of 63.  All of his debts were paid for before he passed away.

            He was a hard working man and after mother passed away 29 Aug 1896, he took the place of both father and mother.  He was left with a family of seven - four boys and three girls.  People have said they had never seen a father being left alone with his family, keep the family together as well as he did.  The oldest child in the family was sixteen years of age and the baby was five weeks.  The oldest girl at the age of  fifteen took the responsibility of the home and did well.  She was recommended as one of the best cooks around.  Everyone who had eaten a meal at our house always remarked how good the meal was.  The baby was taken care of by a friend until she was aged three (2?) years when she was brought home to us.  She is now a strong and healthy woman with a family of eight healthy children.

            Our immediate family is as follows:

                        Brigham Parley Rees  b. 14 may 1878 at St. George, Washington County, Utah  d. 6 Jun 1878

                        Thomas Matthew Rees  b. 5 Apr 1880 at St. George, Washington County, Utah  bapt. 1889, md. Rebecca Ann Angell

                        Johanna Rebecca Rees  b. 15 Aug 1881 at St. George, Washington County, Utah  d. 10 Mar 1913, bapt. 1889  End. 21 Jan 1927

                        George Edward Rees  b. 27 May 1883 at St. George, Washington County, Utah  d. 30 May 1928, bapt. 1891  End.  Md. Harriet Alberta Miles

                        William Heber Rees  b. 22 Feb 1885 at Thurber, Wayne County, Utah  md. Therese Gertrude Klingenberg

                        John Frederick Rees  b. 14 Jul 1886 at Thurber, Wayne County, Utah  bapt. 6 Sep 1894  Md. Vilate Lois Gill

                        Isabella Maria Rees  b. 28 Sep 1888 at Thurber, Wayne County, Utah  d. 25 Mar 1891

                        Mary Margaret Rees  (writer)  b. 22 Jul 1894 at Mill Creek, Salt Lake County, Utah  bapt.   Aug 1902  End. 18 Jan 1927  Md. James Nickles Allermand

                        Ellen Maud Rees  b. 23 Jul 1896 at Mill Creek, Salt Lake County, Utah  bapt. 1904  Md. Charles W. Angell