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The Presbyterian church made significant contributions in Utah, education being one of the most important. The Presbyterian church was educationally minded from the beginning and insisted that its ministers be well educated •. This philosophy extended to the missionaries in the field. Moreover, conversion of people to a particular religious ideology was not the sole purpose of the missionary system. The church was convinced that the lack of education was the cause of many religious and social problems. The educational project in Utah by the Presbyterian church was not a new or radical departure from the basic philosophy, for as they were establishing missions and schools in Utah from 1870 to 1890, the same type of work was being carried out in New Mexico and Colorado for the Mexicans and Indians who in the eyes of the church were being deprived of learning. But the situation in Utah was a rather unique one. The missionary soon realized that conversion of the adult Mormon was extremely difficult, and therefore another avenue of attack had to be used to The answer was to establish a school system, a system to provide a good education for Mormon children. The church was able to finance the project of schools for Utah by appealing to the people of the East for funds to help convert the Mormons and correct the wrongs in the civil government. The financing of school projects would not have been possible had the people of eastern United States not responded by sending generous contributions for the erection of buildings and the hiring of teachers. This study will show that the Presbyterian church expended a large sum of money in Utah for schools, practically all of it coming from the East. The Presbyteries of Utah were just not financially able to support the school system to any appreciable degree. A number of scholarly studies have been completed about the missionary movement in Utah by the evangelical churches, but they have been concerned by and large with the aspect of the religious controversy and civil government disputes rather than the impact of the various attempts at establishing schools The mission work and the school work were closely connected. The minister usually was the stimulus within his session behind the founding of a school. The teachers appointed had to be approved by the Presbytery in which they were to teach. It is the contention of the writer that the Presbyterian church made a tremendous contribution to Utah in providing schools of much better quality than the inhabitants of Utah had provided. The well-educated Presbyterians who were sent to Utah helped make it possible to establish a public school system much sooner than would have been done otherwise. The quality of education provided in the Presbyterian schools helped stimulate the public not only to provide for schools, but to improve the schools that were already in existence. The Presbyterian schools were for the most part graded schools with definite courses of study and much longer school year than the few Mormon schools then in operation. This study will deal with the Presbyterian schools from the year 1871 to the present and is not concerned with attempts to establish and maintain schools made by other faiths. The Presbyterian church was the foremost leader in the crusade which culminated in the public system of education that was finally achieved in Utah. |
