Mary Mead, the rest of the Story (couple 3)

[Dad's paternal grandmother's paternal Grandparents]
[Ada Estella Rex > William Rex > Rex/Mead]

Based upon Mom's questions, I thought it wasn't fair to leave Mary Mead Rex hanging in 1853 in St. Louis, when in fact she lived for nearly 50 more years!  Here's the rest of the story.

So where we left off is that they arrived in St. Louis in December 1850, William Rex set up a bakery and did very well, until he died in the spring of  1852 from a "serious malady."  From here,

"Mary attempted to carry on her deceased husband’s baking business. Her lack of experience forced her to sell the business and find other work to support her family. She did nursing and was considered gifted in the care of the sick.  Her boys, Thomas, William, Charles, and Alfred were resourceful and tried every available means to help support their mother. They swam the Mississippi River and gathered drift wood for fuel, selling the excess. They did errands of all kinds. At one time William [my great grandfather 1844-1927] and Alfred had a contract as lamp lighters for the City of St. Louis. William used to say that the poem The Old Lamp Lighter [by Robert Louis Stephenson, 1850–1894] was a story of what they did. He often told of how they went about the streets with a torch and ladder to light the gas lamps.” There is a nice sketch and information about early lamplighters like Mary’s boys here."

St. Louis in 1860, from here.

 James Clucas and family had arrived in St. Louis the year before, having sailed on the same ship, in fact.

Clucas, James, [born] 1823
Clucas, Ann, [born] 1827
Clucas, Elizabeth A., [born] 1847

It looks like Ann (Jame's Clucas wife who came to St. Louis with him) died sometime during 1853, and with him being a widower and Mary Mead a widow, they were married on 28 December 1853 by Mormon Elders Samuel James Lees and Brigham H. Young.

Also from the AncestralTies blog:

James Clucas died from dysentery on December 23, 1864.

"As the boys grew older they went away from home seeking more lucrative employment. Thomas, the eldest, joined up with a surveying crew which took him over much of the territory, even into Wyoming. William went onto a farm in Illinois and it was from there that he enlisted in the union Army. Alfred G. also enlisted in the Union Army for the duration of the Civil War." -- “The Rex Family,” Edna B. Rex, Our Pioneer Heritage, V5, Kate B. Carter, 1962, pgs 498-500.

"Alfred G. also enlisted in the Union Army for the duration of the war. He was a drummer boy and William played the flute." --Rex Family History, pg 16.

[note:] Family stories preserved the fact that Mary's sons enlisted in the service while they were too young. Their mother went to camp to retrieve one of them and took him home with her. He purportedly left home again, and returned to the war. I couldn't find any documentation on Alfred's service."

Then continuing on another webpage:

Mary wrote in her diary, “Today, April 22, 1869, my two sons, Alfred G. and William left St. Louis for Utah with the first train-load of cattle to go west on the new railroad, to be delivered to Bishop Smoot of Provo.”“They unloaded at Uinta, Weber County [Utah] on the 12th of May, 1869. From there they drove their cattle to the point of delivery in Provo [Utah]where they were received by Bishop Smoot.

“William found employment with the Overland Telegraph company and went on to St. George [Utah]. Alfred G. worked at odd jobs until the spring of 1870 when he joined a company of Saints who had been sent to help colonize Randolph, Rich County, Utah. Later in the summer William arrived in Randolph where he and Alfred built a log home on Canyon Street and Third East in anticipation of their mother’s arrival. The home still stands after 90 years of use." --Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol5, Kate B. Carter, "The Rex Family," by Edna B. Rex, 1962, pgs 498-500. 

“Mary arrived in Randolph, Utah in June, 1871, twenty-one years after leaving England, to the log home her sons Alfred and William had built for her. Thomas stayed in St. Louis, but she brought her two remaining children, Charles and Mary, to her Third East and Canyon Street log home with her. "

 “Mary took her family to Salt Lake in November of that year and was endowed and sealed to William Rex, November 6 [1871]. Her daughter, Mary Clucas, was also sealed to her and William. Charles, the youngest son, moved on to California, where he died at Susanville, in 1874. Her sons, Alfred and William, were very good to their widowed mother and always shared with her what they had.

“Mary Mead Rex was a tall, good-looking woman with thick, dark hair in braids which she wore over the top of her head. She was always willing to help care for the sick. She homesteaded land east of Randolph on the Bear River, now known as the Telford property. Her daughter, Mary Mead, took a mid-wife obstetric course in Salt Lake City and helped deliver many babies in the Randolph area.
“Mary had a row of gooseberry and red-currant bushes south of her house, and an asparagus bed. She had flowers on both sides of her walk from her door to the gate. She let neighbor children pick berries and flowers with her.

“Mary was a very good housekeeper. When the Indians came to her home, she always gave them food, but was annoyed when they put their dirty feet in her clean oven or on her hearth. Although she was good to the Indians, she was always afraid of them.

“In 1882 Elizabeth Corless and Thomas Wilson were married and for the first three winters of their married life they lived in one room of Mary’s home and paid their rent by milking her cows and doing her chores. She always made very good butter.

“She was a beautiful knitter and kept knit shams on her bed and wide knit lace across the bottom of her white aprons. She loved her Bible and from it learned to be an excellent speller. A beautiful penman, she kept a neatly written diary, still legible.

“Mary Mead Rex died in Randolph, December 10, 1899, at the age of 86, at the home of her daughter, Mary Mead Pearce. The following was written of her at that time: “Mary had her share of joys and sorrows but she bore them all with calmness and fortitude. She has set an example worthy of imitation.”-- Randolph; A Look Back, Mary Mead Rex, submitted by Kathleen Rex Thornock, 1981, pgs 421-422.

Explore the area here.  Notice "Rex Peak" along the eastern mountains.  The "Bear River" mentioned in the story is probably "Big Creek" noted on the map.  Here's a cool picture. And the Wilford Woodruff Home.map. And a