2015 – Rexburg, Idaho

65^th Annual William Cazier Family Reunion

June 26, 2015 through June 27, 2015

Our family reunion this year was very well attended. Many were our regular faithfuls, and there
were also several who came that were previously ‘unknown’ family members. We were able to
add many new addresses to our email list so that we can keep in contact better. If anyone else
has moved or changed their email or mailing address please let us know so we can keep you
informed of future news. You will find our contact information at the end of this newsletter. New
on the agenda were some changes in some of the officers. These are also listed at the end of
the newsletter.

On Friday (June 26th) from 3-5 pm, we met at the Rexburg FamilySearch Center and helped
several with their family history research questions and problems. There were also
missionaries from the Center that gave a lot of one-on-one help, and we appreciate their
service. Some individuals went through the nearby Teton Flood Museum which is located in
the LDS Tabernacle nearby. They saw the displays there about the devastating flood
the area had in 1976. It took out the communities of Wilford and Sugar City and also destroyed
much of Rexburg, with the flood waters reaching as far away as Idaho Falls and significantly
raising the water level in the Snake River from there south and as far away as Twin Falls.
At noon Friday we met at the Porter Park South Pavilion for a cowboy dinner, and in general
just getting reacquainted with each other. Many ‘new’ friendships were made and we had a
wonderful time. Some came from as far away as Oregon and Utah but there were also several
locals who were drawn to the reunion due to the nearness of its location, especially because
many of them were of the older generations (in their 80’s). Thanks to Mike and Patty Hoffman
for all of the work they did to prepare such a nice dinner and several activities.

On Saturday (June 27th) from 9-11 am, we met at the Fremont County Golf Course in Twin
Groves for horse drawn wagon hay rides and a tour of local family home sites and cemeteries.
Gail Cazier guided the tour and told many of the stories of the Benjamin Cazier, Jr. family who
located in this area. Gail was raised in this area and knew his grandparents and aunts and
uncles well. The Fremont County Golf Course was actually built on the old Cazier family home
place right where the original house used to stand. The Cazier family came to the community
when it was little more than sage brush and farmed the land and raised animals that provided
a living for the family. For more complete histories of this family go their individual pages under
‘Memories’ in Family Tree and you will find them posted there.

At noon we all met for lunch at the Henry’s Fork Stake Center northwest of Rexburg. We had
sack lunches to eat and games for the youth, again much thanks to Mike and Patty Hoffman.
We visited until 2 pm when we met for our Genealogy Meeting. Gail Cazier, our lead
genealogist, gave a presentation on his grandparents, the Benjamin Cazier, Jr. family. In
particular, the histories and stories were told of his father and uncles who were Benjamin’s &
Emily’s sons. There was much more personal history told than could be shown on the wagon
ride tour, and details of life during these early pioneer’s lives was given. Because of time
restraints, part of the presentation was not able to be shown during the meeting. However, Gail
will be posting it in its entirety on cazier.org at a near future date so that everyone who couldn’t
attend can benefit.

Beginning at 4 pm, the Executive Committee held its meeting. It was attended by Dee Cazier,
President; Mike Hoffman, Vice-President; Andy Cazier, retired Secretary/Treasurer; Gail
Cazier, retired Genealogist; Carol Reynolds, Genealogist; and Marilyn Manwill,
Secretary/Treasurer. Plans were made for next year’s reunion and it was voted to accept an
invitation by Claire Averett to sponsor the 2016 reunion and hold it in (or near) LaGrande,
Oregon. Claire is the Cazier Family Historian and has been doing research to find the
descendants of William & Pleasant Drake Cazier’s youngest child and daughter Rosanna
Cazier.

Rosanna, the last child of William and Pleasant Drake Cazier, was born when her family lived
in Brownsboro, Kentucky. She came across the plains with her father and step-mother and
siblings at the age of 10 years old. They traveled in the Morris Phelps Company in 1851 and
endured the hardships of the travel as did the rest of the Company. When they came into the
Salt Lake Valley they stayed a short time there before being called by Brigham Young to help
settle the Salt Creek (Nephi) area in southern Utah. Here she eventually met and married Edcil
Elmer in May 1857 – she was nearly 17 years old. They had eight of their eleven children while
living in Salt Creek and then they moved to Farland, Kansas where they had three more; later
to Nebraska; and San Bernadino, California; back to Nephi for a time; then to Union County,
Oregon. Edcil and Rosanna, as well as many of their children, are buried in the Wallowa and
Union County Cemeteries.

Also, necessary changes within the organization were made, and many other discussions and
plans made for the family organization.

Among the changes were that of Marilyn Manwill being voted as the new Secretary/Treasurer.
She immediately went to work taking minutes of the meetings, and also set up a new bank
account for organization dues. She is updating our mailing database so that we can keep in
touch with family members so if you have any changes in your contact information, or if you
know of anyone within your family who has, please let her know. Her contact information is
listed at the end of this newsletter. She will continue working with Andy until everything is
coordinated, but continued communications and payment of dues need to be directed to her.
Again her contact information can be found here.

Change was made too as Gail Cazier resigned his position as lead genealogist and Carol
Reynolds was voted in as his replacement. Gail has given her the Books of Remembrance that
Mattie Eager and Fern Rutledge compiled of their research. Included in Fern’s books is the
research that Jean-Claude Cazier did for the family in 1970 in France, Belgium, and The
Netherlands.

It was discussed that we need to find a repository for these invaluable and irreplaceable
collections. Also, the copies of them that Gail scanned which contain 1000’s of images of our
family’s history and genealogies. The scanned images were all previously posted on cazier.org
where they could be readily accessed, however, with the advent of personal privacy and
security issues that now prevail in the world, these genealogies will need to be sorted and only
the ones with death dates posted. The pages with living individuals can be posted too, but in a
secure folder not open to the public – in an archived portion. It was discussed that we look into
FamilySearch (or someone else) who has image recognition software that can sort the pages
more quickly and accurately that we can by hand.

At 6 pm we met in the Stake Center Pavilion for a wonderful dinner. It was great to be outside,
until the wind made a scene. But we quickly weighted down the plates and table cloths and
laughed at the children playing and had a wonderful time. A talent show was had with many
sharing their talents with us. There were those who gave readings, those who told jokes, and
those who sang or played their fiddle. What a talented family we have.

Awards of service were given to Gail and Andy for their many selfless hours and years of
sacrifice in our behalf. Andy was given a nice plaque worded with our appreciation and Gail
was given a book and a wall hanging for a family pedigree.

For some time, it has been considered within the family that it would be nice to have a
memorial plaque placed in Council Bluffs, approximately where Pleasant Drake Cazier is
buried. Since the exact place of her burial is not known, her son David’s journal is the main
source of our information on her burial. In it he states that they arrived at Council Bluffs
(Winter Quarters) and moved into a grove of timber. “Now at this time my brother Benjamin,
mother and myself took sick [with scurvy]. I was not very ill, but my mother died in a hay
shed crying out for vegetables. There were none to be had . . . . There being no coffins to
be had, my father and neighbor cut one out of a solid log. There was no funeral service and
there wasn’t any flowers. Oh! How forlorn! Mother died a martyr for the truth.”
We do have access in Idaho Falls for stone from the quarry that the new Nauvoo Temple
took stone from when it was built. If the family is still interested we can start a fund for the
purpose of placing a small plaque or stone in the nearby Council Bluffs Cemetery. If you
would support this project please let Dee Cazier know and he can set this up.