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Show THE HISTORY BLAZER SEl t'S OF UTAH'S PrlST FROAl THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City. I T 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3303 A Presbyterian Minister Won the Hearts of Panguitch Residents THEY ~~ TOWNm OF CO" RIN NEU, TAH, W AS ONLY THREE MONTHS OLD in June 1869 when the Reverend Melanchton Hughes stepped off the Union Pacific train to begin his ministry there. The following Sunday, June 13, Hughes conducted the first Presbyterian service in Utah at the Corinne City Hall, and by November of the following year the Presbyterians had dedicated their own chapel in that town. From that small beginning the Presbyterian ministry spread to other locations throughout Utah, usually focusing its efforts on boom mining towns where non- Mormons tended to congregate. By 1900 the Beehive State had 23 Presbyterian churches within its borders and a membership of over 1,300. Seven years later another church was added to this list when the Reverend T. M. Keusseff dedicated a chap1 in the rural, mostly Mormon village of Panguitch in remote Garfield County. His ministry was the first and only non- Mormon mission to Panguitch and proved rewarding to both Keusseff and the tiny town. The impetus behind the mission to Panguitch was Miss Laura B. Work, a dedicated superintendent at the government Indian School located three miles north of Panguitch. After arriving in town she made repeated appeals to the Utah Presbytery to open a mission in Panguitch so that her students could enjoy a religious option. In early 1905 Reverend Keusseff was offered the Panguitch position, but he and his small family were comfortable with their work in North Dakota. The thought of pioneering the first non- Mormon ministry in Panguitch, let alone in all of Garfield County, was somewhat daunting and Keusseff declined. Over the next year, however, he seriously reconsidered his decision and in spring 1906 reversed it; he felt ready for the challenge. Keusseff and his family reached their new home on May 10, 1906, and held their first worship. sewice that Sunday in a room above the Panguitch Southern Equitable Store. The bulk of the congregation were Indian children from the government school who attended regularly and enthusiastically sang the hymns. In time the new religion in town even attracted other children and adults to occasional seNices. The first year Keusseff continued to hold worship meetings above the store, but in Novem-ber 1907 he delivered his first sermon from the pulpit of his own stately chapel. It was located on Main Street and though largely built with eastern financing also benefited from considerable local donations. Even before its dedication Keusseff had opened a school in the new building. It soon prospered and continued to attract local children until the worldwide influenza epidemic reached Panguitch in 1918 and forced the school's closure. Following the epidemic Keusseff opted not to reopen the school but instead began a series of community outreach programs. He energetically conducted Sunday School and kindergarten classes and organized neighborly senice activities, sewing classes, and a variety of clubs. His wife also became actively involved in the community ( more) and organized a popular social and educational club called the " Mothers' Meeting" in which most Panguitch :-. athers participated. The Keusseffs did manage to convert one Mormon family to Presbyterianism while in Panguitch, but their impact on the community as a whole was far greater. Many town children attended Presbyterian Sunday School and kindergarten classes, and a few underprivileged children were even sent by the minister to his church's Wasatch Academy at Mount Pleasant. In addition, the townsfolk as a whole developed a fond affinity for the Keusseffs. One resident wrote: " The Rev. T. M. Keusseff and his lovely wife were among the best citizens our town ever had. Everyone liked them and supported them in every way they could." Unfortunately, the Keusseffs' mission to Panguitch ended in 1943. Three years later the Presbyterian church was tom down and replaced by tourist cabins. See A. Wdtcm Roth, A Century of Sm* m in Utah, 1869- 1969 ( Salt Lake City, 1969); Garfield County Chapter of the DUP, GoIdcn Nuggets of Pioneer Days: A History of Ga@ eId C o u(~ Pan guitch, 1 949). THE HISTORYB LAZERi s produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533- 3500. 059503 ( PR) THE USTORY BLAZER XEI'I'S OF U7ilH'S PAST FROM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City. VT 84101 ( 801) 333- 3300 FA)( ( 801) 533- 3303 Minstrel Shows Proved Very Popular in 19th- Century Utah From the 1840s until the turn of the century blackface minstrelsy... was arguably the most popular form of entertainment in America. Traveling minstrel shows made Salt Lake City, Ogden, and other major Utah towns part of their regular circuit, and local residents formed amateur troupes. Minstrel shows, whether featuring whites in blackface or real African Americans, drew large and enthusiastic audiences of blacks and whites in Utah. The Mormon pioneers valued dramatic entertainment, and Brigharn Young promoted the establishment of the Salt Lake Theatre in 1862, requesting that only performances of high literary and moral value be presented. From the start, however, minstrel shows were a favorite feature. These shows offered a variety of songs and skits, the most characteristic of which featured an ' interlocutor" and two ' endmen"- Tambo and Bones- who provided comic commentary on the proceedings. Minstrel performances were highly ritualized and predictable; audiences sometimes knew and called out the punchlines to jokes before the performers did. The songs and skits featured and perpetuated negative stereotypes about African Americans, slavery, and the South: the lazy, slow- witted, shuffling ' Sambo" who longed for the old plantation, and the strutting, razor-wielding, outlandishly dressed, lady- killing ' Zip Coon" were common stock characters. Most of the early troupes that passed through Utah featured white wormers in blackface and generally advertised their shows as ' negro" or ' Ethiopian." In 1868 some local residents formed the Salt Lake Minstrels and put on a show of their own. The first real Afiican American performers ( who generally billed themselves as ' colored") to visit Utah were apparently the Original Georgia Minstrels in 1876. Minstrelsy remained popular through the 1890s; a traveling promoter put together a minstrel show in 1 895 that included ' 60 Salt Lake Society Ladies. " The Utah National Guard formed a blackface troupe as well. the 24th Infantry Regiment, an African American unit garrisoned at Fort Douglas from 1896 to 1900, performed a benefit show for the Semicentennial Pioneer Day Jubilee in 1897 and later formed a permanent troupe. Minstrel shows often attracted members of Salt Lake City's small African American population as performers and audiences. Despite the general popularity of minstrel shows, however, some local African Americans strongly objected to their content. Julius Taylor, the African American editor and publisher of the Broad Ax, fumed that '. . . under no consideration would we permit ourselves to witness such degrading and demoralizing performances . . . they are both degenerating and they unmistakably tend to lower every negro in the estimation of the opposite race. " ( more) |
