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Saturday, July 30, 2005

Thomas E. Ricks Grave (Founder of Ricks College)



  • Rexburg, Idaho
  • Rexburg cemetery
  • GPS Coord: ?

  • A group of young Mormon men from Cache Valley, Utah, was organized to form a settlement in the area. Among these men was Thomas E. Ricks, founder of both Rexburg, and Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho). In February 1883, they cut logs for building a community in the spring. In March the men met at the present town site of Rexburg and constructed the first log house. The settlers first decided to call their town Ricksburg after their settlement leader, Thomas E. Ricks. However, since the German ancestral name of Ricks is Rex the town's name was changed to Rexburg.
    While the settlers worked on their log houses most of them lived out of dugouts or tents pitched on the banks of the Teton River. Many settlers called it "Mosquito Flats" because of the hordes of mosquitoes from the nearby sloughs.Thomas E. Ricks began the first mercantile located just across the street from the courthouse and in 1884 Thomas E. Ricks and Company Flour Mill began operations just four months after he publicly stated they needed one. The original mill burned down and another was built to replace it.

    This is the grave of Thomas E. Ricks who was the founder of Ricks College. Now known as BYU-Idaho.

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