A Reese Mini-Reunion in Utah

In August I was able to set up meetings in Salt Lake Valley and Cache Valley to give a presentation on my recently published book, News From the Antipodes: The Australian Letters of William Griffiths Reese (1906 – 1909). It was a wonderful treat to be able to see so many of my Reese cousins—some for the first time ever, others for the first time in many years. I truly appreciated the warm reception and enthusiastic support of the book.

While I was in Cache Valley I took the opportunity to visit the Logan Cemetery and take photos of the graves of William Griffiths Reese and his wives, Mary Maria Rees and Karen Andrea Andersen. (If you don’t have a good quality photo of these headstones, you’re welcome to download these versions. Be sure to click on the photo first to make it larger, and then save it to your computer. If you just save the photo without enlarging it you will not get the best quality.)

 

William married Mary Maria Rees, the daughter of a Welsh immigrant, in 1884. Mary was nineteen and William was twenty-seven. Mary became one of the lead instructors at Brigham Young College in Logan. Over the first eleven years of their marriage, Mary gave birth to five children; then, in 1898, she contracted a virulent pneumonia and died three days later.  

After Mary died, William hired a young Danish immigrant, Karen Andrea Andersen (called “Carrie”), to watch his children. A little more than a year after Mary died, William married Carrie. She was twenty-three years old and William was forty-two. In addition to raising his first family, Carrie bore him nine more children, making thirteen in all. She outlived William by twenty years, passing away in 1958.

In my presentations to Reese relatives, I sought to show William’s mission as he would have seen it. For example, I played audio files of the songs that were performed at William’s farewell by his brother, Charles. Apparently Charles was quite the performer; according to the newspaper report, “had you heard him play ‘Annie Laurie,’ ‘The Irish Washerwoman,’ ‘Fisher’s hornpipe,’ and other old timers, I fear you would be dancing yet.”

I also showed a lot of photos—some were in the book, others were not. I tried to mix vintage black and white photos with full color “present day” photos to give the group an idea of how some of those places had changed over time. I read segments from William’s letters that I felt gave an insight into his personality.

The meeting in West Valley City was at the home of Linda and Perry Gillette, who were fabulous hosts. They had turned their large family room into a comfortable theater for the program. Afterwards we all sat down to a wonderful pot luck dinner. It was nice to re-connect with my Reese cousins.

Linda Reese Gillette at the BYU Education Week presentation given by Dawn

Those who gathered at the Gillette home included William’s grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. They descended from four of William’s children (five, if you include me). Here is my best recollection of who was there:

Four of the children of Arvil Reese: Merilyn Reese Parkin, Mona Reese Bunting (and her husband, Shirl), Louise Reese Peterson (and her husband, Martin), and Linda Reese Gillette (and her husband, Perry). Other members of Arvil’s family included David and Elizabeth Bunting (Mona’s son and daughter-in-law) and their son, Cameron Bunting. Merilyn’s daughter, Paige Parkin Adams was there, as was Linda’s daughter, Nikki Thorp and several of Linda’s grandchildren.

Joan Munk Gunn (daughter of Ione Reese Munk) was in attendance, joined later by her husband, Tom.

Gordon Reese’s family was represented by his daughters Sally Reese Marston and Janet Reese Johnson.

Norma Reese Reeder’s family was represented by her daughters Karen Reeder Peterson (and her husband Joe and daughter Jolene) and Elaine Reeder Thompson (and her husband, Leon).

My apologies to anyone I may have forgotten.

The meeting in Cache Valley, two days later, was at the North Logan home of Vern and Nancy Ashcroft, my uncle and aunt. Vern is the son of William’s child, Sarah Wanda Reese Ashcroft. It was wonderful to see them again, and their daughter, Janet Ashcroft Summit. We were pleased that Arvil’s son, Kenton Reese also attended, along with Kenton’s son Chad and grandson William.

Afterwards Nancy and Vern treated Dawn and me to a wonderful home-cooked meal of chicken, rice, homemade bread and jam, fresh corn on the cob (picked minutes before from their backyard vegetable garden), and homemade strawberry rhubarb pie. The weather was perfect for al fresco dining; clear, blue skies and mild temperatures.

My wife, Dawn, with Vern and Nancy Ashcroft

The following Monday, Dawn presented at BYU Campus Education Week—her subject was how to breathe life into a family history. The presentation was very well attended and Dawn was spectacular, as usual.

 Dawn Parrett Thurston responding to a question from the audience

Although Dawn has given presentations about how to write a family history many times, and she has co-authored a book called Breathe Life into Your Life Story, this was a special presentation for her. She had just published her own multi-generational family history titled The Parrett Migration: Their Story is America’s Story, so she was able to talk about the challenges and rewards of such a project from first-hand experience.

This is one of Dawn’s slides from her presentation. She has posted all of her PowerPoint slides on her own website and they can be accessed at this link.

Whenever I am in Utah I enjoy visiting Temple Square and taking photographs. So in closing, I would like to share just a few with you. I hope you enjoy them.

The flower gardens around Temple Square and the Church Office Building are always colorful and picturesque.

The Lion House was built in 1856 to accommodate some of Brigham Young’s large family.

Today it contains a popular restaurant in the basement.

The Salt Lake Temple site was dedicated in 1853 and ground was broken for construction that year. It was not completed, however, until 1893, forty years later. By that time, three other Utah temples had been built (St. George, Logan and Manti). The Salt Lake Temple contains 253,000 square feet of floor area, the largest of any LDS temple.