Rich County (Utah). County Clerk Death reports, 1898-1901; 1903-1904.

This series contains a bound folder of reports submitted by physicians recording deaths from 1898 to 1901. Each entry includes such information as decedent's name, date and place of death, length of residence in the county, sex, color, race or nativity, age, occupation, cause of death, marital status, last place of residence, and name of the informant making the report. This series also includes two loose reports that were found within the official death register. These documents record deaths from the years 1903 and 1904.

Beginning in 1898, "physicians who attend deceased persons in their last sickness, clergymen who officiate at funerals, justices of the peace who hold inquests, and sextons and undertakers who bury deceased persons" were required to "keep a registry of the name, age, residence, and time of death of such person." Each person registering deaths filed quarterly with the county clerk or the local board of health in the case of incorporated cities. (Revised Statutes of Utah 1898, Title 57, p. 474-475) Despite these requirements, not all deaths were recorded.

In 1905, the state passed a law requiring each county to file uniform death certificates with the State Bureau of Vital Statistics and that reporting system superseded the maintenance of the death register.