A History of Cache County

Early education

EARLY EDUCATION As Americans and as churchmen we did the right thing to take hold of school work in Utah. There were no public schools in the American sense among the Mormons. -EPISCOPAL BISHOP DANIEL S. TUTTLE J_/ducation is one of the most important and dynamic facets of contemporary Cache County. Public education has replaced private learning as the primary route of students; however, in early Cache County that was not ready the case. Mormon settlers throughout the West established small ward schools which were often seasonal and definitely church controlled. Although the Mormon church estab­lished the University of Deseret in Salt Lake City, its primary concern remained physically conquering the arid West. As Mormons had moved under duress from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois and on to Utah, they never totady became a part of American public education, one of the nation's grand commitments. Like many other agrarian Americans of the time, education was a luxury for families who needed hands to mdk, plant, weave, weed, sew, can, and harvest. In die territory of Utah and Cache County, permanence finady became 189 190 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY the lot of the Mormons and they could begin to assist in the devel­opment of public education at ad levels. In the meantime, the local communities and private non-Mormon church schools filled the educational gap. The story of Cache County's evolution toward a highly educated community is very significant. Early schools were an important way for some citizens to collect an income. Churches as well as some homes and public buildings served as schools, and a smad tuition was paid for each term. In a few cases the tuition was sixty cents, in others $1.50; for some, tuition was paid in produce, but it was not free. In Logan a small school and pub­lic budding was completed by January 1860 and Edward Smith was employed as a teacher. As each ward under the Logan charter of 1865 budt schools, a number of teachers came and went. Using donations of rock, lumber, paint, books, bushels of wheat, and labor, four adobe school structures existed in Logan by 1870.1 Smad schools were budt in Smithfield and Wellsville within years of the communities' found­ing. George Barber used his home as a writing school "in compliance with urgent request of a number of the brethren." Barber's statement indicates the role of the church in education to assist its people. A few months later James S. Cantwell began holding school during the win­ter in a log budding. Hyde Park residents budt a schoolhouse in 1863 and Providence citizens budt on the current grade-school site about the same time. Since there was little tax money or cash avadable, a bushel and a half of wheat per quarter was the tuition. This method of payment of tuition to teachers was common for many years. Local communities had total control of their schools; but gradually both Cache County and Logan City developed school districts, although it took a long time for this to take place. Cache County appointed a school superintendent as early as 1860, and many of the county's prominent residents such as Wdliam Hyde, Samuel Roskelley, Moses Thatcher, Wdliam Budge, and John T. Caine, Jr., rotated through the office during the first few decades after settlement. Ida I. Cook, one of the area's premier teachers, served as superintendent of county schools during the early 1880s. It was certainly a position of little pay (Widiam Budge got seventy-five dollars), essentially a committee chair who tried to coordinate the EARLY EDUCATION 191 quality of education. John Caine wrote that in the early days "it was thought that people who were not much good at anything else would do to teach school."2 The primary schools stressed reading, writing, spelling, and basic arithmetic. A little later curriculum expanded to include penman­ship, history, personal hygiene, and some science. Students were pro­vided slates and slate pencds, erasure cloths, and elementary reading material. Discipline was stern and often included spanking, slapping, and temporary expulsion. The county court, which had authority for schools, was respon­sible for the decision to create numerous school districts that corre­sponded with LDS ward or community boundaries. Consequently, by 1864 there were twenty-three districts in the county, and Wdliam B. Preston, James H. Martineau, and S. M. Blair served as a board of examiners who determined whether or not teachers met qualifica­tions. Although Logan eventuady became one school district, as late as 1886 there were stdl seventeen separate districts in the rest of the county. Territorial officials hired a superintendent who recom­mended textbooks and began approving a legitimate academic cur­riculum. The various districts' trustees and teachers slowly began to enter the territorial system. The only guaranteed financial support for schools prior to 1874 was tuition fees and local taxes. After 1874 the Utah Territorial Legislature made regular appropriations to be apportioned on a school-age per capita basis, but the total appropriation was only $15,000 a year. In order to get money, the districts were required to operate a school at least three months of each year. The teachers' pay remained very low; it usually averaged around forty dollars per month as late as 1880. The fact is that not many potential students attended school, and those who did received an uneven education.3 When Logan consolidated its LDS ward districts into one school district in 1872, the city was one of the first Utah communities to do so. The district, under the direction of trustees Charles Card, Alvin Crocket, and Robert Davidson, decided in 1872 to open a high school under the leadership of Ida I. Cook. Cook's school was really a county school located at Lindquist Hall in Logan, which "the more advanced pupils of the various settlements may attend and become . . . pre- 192 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY pared for the business of teaching." During the winter 110 pupils attended, and thirty-one of those were from adjacent settlements.4 The tuition was five dodars per quarter unless you were from Logan, where tuition was half that amount. The county non-residents paid twice as much tuition. If students could not pay fees in cash, wood, wheat, or other items in-kind would be accepted. Board records are filled with decisions on whether the board should expel a student whose family had not paid the previous month's tuition. The schools consistently suffered from poor attendance, and the statistics from the county are very revealing. Of the 1,804 school-age children in 1867, only 1,035 were enrolled in schools, and many of those did not attend. In 1875 Logan had 577 children between the ages of six and sixteen, but less than half of them were in school. By 1880 the county situation had worsened considerably. There were now 4,022 potential students under the age of eighteen, but only 2,389 were enrolled and less than 1,700 actuady attended a school. The average teacher's salary was about $250 a year and the commu­nities seemed unwiding or unable to tax for additional buddings or teachers.5 The Protestant mission schools, to be discussed later, picked up some slack, but the Logan Leader recognized the fundamental problem in a scathing 1881 editorial: And stdl the school question in this city remains unsolved. Soon the time for opening the schools will be upon us, when somebody's children, to the number of three hundred at least, will have to be DEBARRED ENTRANCE TO OUR DISTRICT SCHOOLS. What a commentary on Logan, the Queen city of the North, the Grannery of Utah. With all our wealth and prosperity, over one-third of our school population must depend on mission schools... we cannot but deprecrate [sic] the feeling that has led a minority to defeat the wishes of nearly two-thirds of our citizens on the school question." Logan responded with a 1 percent tax to budd new schools, but the schools were stdl operating at the ward level even though the dis­trict had consolidated. The voters seemed unwiding to provide equal access to all for a public education. The city of Logan had 900 chd­dren between the ages of six and eighteen, but local schools only had EARLY EDUCATION 193 seating space for 505 youngsters. Even though tuition was much higher at the private schools, they provided the only alternative for some students. Cache County school superintendent William Apperly campaigned throughout the county for increased support of education. Apperly speculated that if the communities were wdling to assess a 2 percent tax, it could solve the construction and maintenance problem. The cost in 1885 to educate a youngster was $2.71 per term, but parents were only paying $1.87. Apperly painted a very vivid pic­ture to each town. He said there were 2,638 children enrolled, but 2,022 did not attend any district school at ad. The bottom line for the aggressive superintendent was that "As only 36% of our children actually attended school, many of those enroded attended but a short time. Adding 3 per cent for number attending mission schools leaves 61 per cent of the chddren in Cache County that are growing up in ignorance."7 School property in the county was worth about $45,000; but, by 1885, general taxable property was valued at over $2 million. Apperly realized that most of the people were not even a generation away from log cabin one room schools; but he maintained that in order to compete in a modern economy, the district must respond through education. Apperly tried to convince the citizens that the "greatest boon we can transfer to posterity is the establishment of free schools." He concluded his tour by requesting that the press and the community leaders cooperate to advocate free public education. Wellsvdle and Hyrum immediately responded by voting for school taxes a year after rejecting them in an earlier election. The situation remained critical in those towns. Hyrum only had school room for 250 children, which meant 300 stayed home. Many were too far removed from the Protestant mission schools. One of the leading educators in Cache County was Ida I. Cook. A former teacher at the University of Deseret, the tall, black-haired edu­cator was impressive in appearance as wed as being a notorious dis­ciplinarian. Prior to becoming the Logan school superintendent in 1891, she served in a variety of teaching capacities, including instruc­tor and principal of Brigham Young Codege. In 1876 Cook's contract was ninety dodars a month "if the school makes it, if not eighty dol- 194 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY lars per month, if the school makes $100 a month or over, she is to receive one hundred dollars a month." This was a very high salary and was tied directly to the school's ability to attract paying students. Cook must have succeeded-most teachers were not getting ninety dodars a month as late as 1912.8 In 1892 Cook became the principal of the Logan schools at a salary of one hundred dollars a month. After some type of dispute, she resigned the next year; but the board refused to accept her resig­nation. Instead, it combined the principal's job with that of superin­tendent and offered her $1,500 per year to take the position. She accepted with the proviso that she be given a free hand in running the affairs of the district. Cook hired a number of highly trained teachers out of the University of Chicago and, utilizing Salt Lake City's district rules, she outlined behavioral regulations and duties relative to board, staff, students, and faculty. She assigned teachers to schools and also handled discipline questions. Cook, a stern discipli­narian, suspended a teacher who repeatedly hugged and kissed young students and then tried his charms on a female teacher. When his female colleague protested, Cook reviewed the case and fired the male teacher. She dismissed another teacher who frequented Logan's saloons and refused to change his ways. One of her duties was exam­ining prospective teachers' credentials, and she did most of the hir­ing. She utilized the school board's assistance through a variety of committees. The innovative administrator also professionalized jan­itorial staffs and hired workers for summer maintenance.' Ida Cook claimed that she only had physical room for half of the potential Logan students in 1893. The overcrowded conditions were extremely hard on the teachers after 1890 when a territorial public school law required compulsory attendance for those under fourteen. That law also helped the financing of the public schools; but it spelled the end of many private schools in Cache County. Accurate school records are not easily obtained, especially prior to the consolidation movement in 1908. One county superintendent, E.W. Greene, a Protestant minister, visited each school in the fall of 1891. The superintendent, under territorial law, was to coordinate school activities; but the local wards and precincts stdl chose their own teachers. Greene did have the responsibility of apportioning EARLY EDUCATION 195 monies on a per capita basis, but he could only observe what was being done in each of the district schools. It is assumed that each dis­trict board of trustees received his report; but, like any touring coor­dinator, he was undoubtedly amazed by the differences in teachers and facilities. Mostly he talked about the teachers and their capacity to perform their tasks. The following citations from his notebook idustrate the variety of teachers and circumstances: September 29,1891: Visited Mr. Lee's school at Benson. Mr. Lee is a fairly good Teacher. October 5,1891: Visited Mr. Anderson's school in Hyrum. Mr. Anderson is not a first class teacher. His use of language is not good and he is a poor disciplinarian. October 6,1891-Hyrum Miss Lucy Parkinson is a first class primary grade Teacher. October 7,1891 Visited Mr. Joshua Homer's school in Clarkston. Mr. Homer is in no way fitted for school room work. October 8, 1891 Visited Miss Josephine Turner's school, Millville. Miss Turner is a very good teacher. She keeps good order and is superior to the average teacher. October 13 Newton Mr. James keeps good order and is doing the best he can. His is not particularly bright. October 29 Visited Miss Cynthia Burnham's school at Trenton. Miss Burnham is an excellent teacher, and should be in a larger school.10 It is interesting to note that Greene had no pattern that made real sense in his visits. October in Cache County is spectacularly beautiful and he may have just enjoyed traveling through the valley. Many young teachers were only involved in the profession for a short time. One was H. J. Bullen in Richmond, whom Greene described as being "hardly fit for school work." Bullen moved onto a very successful 196 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY ranching and business career, and Greene may have simply preferred female teachers. Mormonism inspired many Protestant missionaries to come to Utah. Polygamy may have been one of the main reasons for mission­aries to come into the area, but there were also many people in Utah who had tired of Mormonism and wanted contact with another Christian religion. Either way, numerous denominations made their way into Cache County after Episcopal Bishop Daniel Tuttle and Rev. Wdliam Stoy came to Logan in the winter of 1873 on the Utah and Northern Radroad. Mission schools played a very important role in Cache County's educational history. Tuttle said that the schools were the "backbone of Episcopalian missions," and he believed education might even be more important than religion to some people. Many active Mormons as well as those who had left the church sent their children to the Protestant schools. According to Tuttle, "They said they wanted their chddren to get a good education and they declared that our schools were the best places in the territory for them to get this education."11 The St. John's parish school opened in 1873 and remained in opera­tion for twenty-three years. Bishop Tuttle used a scholarship system to assist poor students to attend St. John's. He gave 500 forty-dodar scholarships during his twenty-one years of service. The facilities were limited and very selective, yet with sister schools in Plain City and Ogden, numerous area youngsters received an excellent educa­tion. Joseph Richardson, one of the New York partners in the Utah and Northern Radroad venture, secured the site for the budding and helped significantly in its construction.12 Another school of great interest and considerable impact was the New West Education Commission's school at Trenton in northern Cache County. The New West group was organized in Chicago in 1879 by the Congregational church. Eastern philanthropists gave money for the support of its tuition-free schools until 1893. Again, the Congregationalists viewed Utah as potentially fertile ground because of religious dissent and the weakness of public education. In Utah the Congregational church had twenty-six schools with 2,500 students by 1889. Nearly three-fourths of the students came from LDS households. The New West schools also featured a circulating EARLY EDUCATION 197 library wherever they had a school. The school in Trenton and a sis­ter Cache Valley school in Oxford, Idaho, both attracted highly qual­ified and committed eastern teachers. Carrie Hunt of Worchester, Massachusetts, and Gertrude Samson of Smith College both taught there, and they taught elocution, music, and hygiene as wed as more expected topics. One Mormon graduate of the schools said, "The only religion that was taught was an invocation and scriptoral read­ing at the beginning of the day."13 The records for the New West Trenton school show that on aver­age 40 percent of the pupils were non-Mormon. The number of school-age chddren fluctuated between fifty-five and eighty, but only 20 percent of the chddren did not attend school. This was much less than the county average. In Trenton, both Mormons and non- Mormons attended the district school as wed as the New West school. The New West schools were only active for a short time, but the qual­ity of teaching was so high that their impact was very great.14 Florence S. Crosby, a Massachusetts teacher whose desire was to bring Christianity to Mormon Utah, was a teacher in the New West mission school at Cornish, which was considered part of Trenton. She wrote to the New West Gleaner in 1888 and reported to the support­ing Congregational church on a significant event in her teaching ministry. One of her students, a fourteen-year-old boy named Albert Sandberg, had died of pneumonia in February 1888. Crosby wrote that upon the death of his son, Adam Sandberg came to the school and requested that she conduct the funeral. The elder Sandberg said, "I am no Mormon and I don't want any Mormon doing over my boy. Christian friends cared for him and I want him to have a Christian burial. You may take charge of everything and have the service where you please." The depth of both religious conviction and misunder­standing is revealed by her report. She postulated that not "10 of the people had ever seen a Christian funeral" and expressed doubts about Mormon beliefs in the resurrection. Mormons were Christians and did believe in the resurrection, though this may not always have been clear to other people.15 Crosby gathered her students on Saturday and they cleaned the school for the funeral, "doing ad that loving hands could do as our last tribute to the dead." Using a student choir, with herself as accom- *M 198 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY panist on the organ, the students sang, she prayed, they sang again, and then Florence Crosby delivered a thirty-minute sermon. The school was filled to capacity, including many local Mormon leaders; she recalled: "At first my voice trembled, but soon grew strong and ... I seemed to hold every eye." They then took the body to the ceme­tery three miles away through deep snow and laid young Albert to rest with his teacher officiating. Many young people died in early Cache County, but the Sandberg death can stand for all because it illustrates the role of school, schoolmates, and teachers in the lives of young people. The mission schools, LDS schools, and later public schools played an important role in bringing a democratic spirit to the communities.16 Other private religious schools of significance included the Methodist church schools, which tried to focus on Scandinavians in Utah. A number of Danish and Swedish people converted to Mormonism and immigrated to Utah. For a variety of reasons, some became disaffected with Mormonism, and Methodist missionaries responded by giving the Utah Scandinavians a religious and educa­tional alternative. The Rev. Martinus Nelson, a native of Norway, led the Logan school and mission during the late 1880s. Nelson brought women missionaries with him and organized a Women's Home Missionary Society with two teachers identified simply as Miss Sweet and Miss Dryden. Their school stood at the site of the southeast cor­ner of Main and Center streets, but this school did not last long. The Methodist missionaries moved on and the church eventuady merged with the Presbyterian church.17 The Presbyterian mission schools came to Utah shortly after Rev. Daniel Tuttle established St. Johns Episcopal School in Logan. Presbyterians had eleven schools with 800 day pupds by 1879. Their original intent was to have an academy in every major town and smaller primary schools in other small communities. The lead dis­trict missionary, Duncan J. McMdlan, envisioned as many as six large academies fed by thirty-six smaller schools in the Mormon-domi­nated area. Cache County came the closest to fulfilling McMillan's dream. Under the direction of Rev. Calvin Parks, schools were estab­lished in Millville, Hyrum, Wellsville, Mendon, Smithfield, Richmond, and Logan, as well as five others in southeastern Idaho. EARLY EDUCATION 199 Hyde Park Schoolhouse, 1910. (Special CoUections Merrill Library, USU) Reverend Parks's 1883 report indicated the success of the mission as well as his optimism for the future: "Land to be occupied and we can give them the right hand of fellowship and bid them God speed. We can labor side by side."18 As with other missions, the Presbyterians hired numerous young female teachers from the east. By 1884 there were a number of students in each of the county Presbyterian schools, with an average total attendance of over 1,100. Tuition was minimal-fifteen cents a week for the older students and five cents for the younger-and there was not enough room for all of the potential students. Parks reported that older students had to leave the school "because there was no one to hear them recite."19 Parks and his wife, Susan, also opened the Logan Academy, a Presbyterian school for girls, in 1878. Originally called the Cache Vadey Seminary, it lasted until 1934, when improved public educa­tion facilities and the Great Depression combined to force its closure. This academy was both a day- and boarding school and emphasized education for high-school-age women. In the early days first through twelfth grades were taught; but it evolved into a combined junior and senior high school. The school was built on the corner of Second West and Center Street. When the Women's Synodical Society of New Jersey donated $11,000 to the school in 1890, the name was changed 200 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY to the New Jersey Academy of Logan. The teachers, who were paid an average of $300 a year, were college trained and emphasized a classi­cal curriculum that included Greek, Latin, philosophy, and biblical studies. Since the new Logan High School did not open untd 1917, South Cache in 1916, and North Cache High School after 1920, pri­vate education, including the Mormon Brigham Young College, was the only consistent alternative for many students interested in pur­suing an academic course of study beyond the eighth grade.20 There is no doubt that the mission schools advanced education in Utah dramatically. In Cache County education was enhanced because of the determination of mission-school supporters as well as the intense desire on the part of parents and students, regardless of religion, to obtain a good education. The Presbyterian effort was very widespread and accompanied missionary work of local pastors, who came to preach as wed as teach. The costs of operating the schools relied to a great extent on eastern phdanthropy and the dedication of many of the underpaid young women teachers, many of whom only came for a short time. The Women's Board of Home Missions was the largest contributor to private education in the county. Annual teacher's institutes were held as a primary feature of the codective effort, and various reports indicated that each school had a Webster's Dictionary and other library reference books. On the eve of state­hood, the summer workshops emphasized working with public schools to consolidate their joint efforts.21 Public education law was made part of the state's 1896 constitu­tion, and, as the state public education system developed, mission schools declined. Of course, the system had a simdar impact on LDS secondary boarding and day schools, such as the Brigham Young College in Logan, the Oneida Academy in Preston, and the Fielding Academy in Paris, Idaho. Dr. D.J. McMillan believed that it never was the purpose of the Presbyterian church schools to compete with other schools that met the requirements for a proper education; yet almost everyone agreed that the educational system in Utah, and in Cache County in particular, was enhanced by the mission schools. At times in Cache County, the Mormon-Protestant competition for the minds and souls of youngsters was very keen. Statehood certainly helped bring about specific educational gains because it deempha- EARLY EDUCATION 201 sized internal conflict. Polygamy was gone, free public education was in place, and the decline of the Protestant mission schools was a result of the achievement of statehood.22 Utah's statehood and the development of a unified statewide school system had a dramatic impact on Cache County. Although some school districts were doing very wed-for example, new brick school structures had been built in Providence in 1905 and Newton in 1908-consolidation of the districts was inevitable. A 1905 state law specified that where there were more than 3,000 chddren between the ages of six and eighteen, a school district of the first class should be established, and the local district trustees could then turn over the school property to the county board of commissioners. The 1905 law was optional; but ten years later it was made mandatory. By 1915 Logan had already established school consolidation, but the series of laws dramatically affected other county schools. In March 1908 the Cache County Commission abolished the smad districts by a unani­mous vote and twenty smader districts were combined to become the Cache County School District. There were great inequities in the var­ious mdl levies, and it was hoped that the county school tax burden would be equalized and that the quality of education would be enhanced by the consolidation move.23 Ironically, both the Cache County Attorney and the Utah Attorney General agreed that prior to the 1915 law the commission had a right to create but not to dissolve. Opposition to the consoli­dation decision was raised in Hyrum, Trenton, Cornish, Petersboro, and Mendon. Residents there did not want to give up local control, and smaller communities feared further consolidation would elimi­nate their local town school. At the time there were five small high schools in the county, and when the new Cache school board tried to consolidate them into two schools in 1913, it failed to get support. However, a 1911 bond had passed for new high schools in Richmond and Hyrum. Residents of the towns that did not get new buddings were angry. The Cache County School Board achieved high school consolidation when the two new schools, North Cache and South Cache, were opened by 1920. Consolidation became possible due to transportation changes during the period. The Ogden, Logan, and Idaho interurban radroad 202 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY provided reduced student fares and trains were run to schools. Also, the development of paved roads made access easier. In 1913 all pupils living six or more miles away from a high school were given 40 cents a day for transportation. Special wagon boxes were built and teams of horses employed to gather the students and distribute them. Horse sheds were maintained along the routes; but by the 1920s automo­bile and bus traffic had greatly increased. Winter roads could be impossible to traverse, so teams and wagons were stdl used into the 1930s.24 One church-owned high school, Brigham Young College (BYC), thrived wed into the 1920s. The school had an amazing history both before and after statehood. From the time it opened its doors in September 1878 until its final commencement ceremonies in May 1926, it brought education to thousands of students. Despite its name, Brigham Young College was not a traditional institution of post-high-school education. The term codege was used more in the British sense of a high school. However, before it closed, the curricu­lum had expanded and many BYC courses were accepted as codegiate level. In the spring of 1874 Brigham Young visited Cache Vadey and inspected the land between Logan and Wedsvdle. In the spirit of sac­rifice and commitment that was sweeping through Utah's Mormons, he announced to a smad group with him that the nearly 10,000 acres owned in his name would be used to establish a free educational institution to accommodate up to 1,000 young people, where they could spend from "four to six years in acquiring a liberal and scien­tific education as complete as can be found in any part of the world."25 According to the clerk of the Logan Tithing Office, Young then told the gathering that he also wanted a very practical aspect to the education. He wanted every young person to learn a trade and also to understand scientific farming and stock-raising methods. He wanted every young women to learn to spin, weave, and sew as wed as learn dairying, poultry raising, and flower gardening. He felt that one-third of all the students' time should be spend in labor on a dairy, in the fields, or in maintenance shops.26 Many who knew Young felt he was influenced by Oberlin College in Ohio, which not only EARLY EDUCATION 203 Nibley Hall, Brigham Young College campus, 1926. (Special Collections Merrill Library, USU) was the first coeducational codege in America but also required that its students clear land, raise crops, build buildings, and make the school self-supporting through a student labor program. Young may also have been aware of the land-grant movement, which through its sponsor, U.S. Representative Justin Morrill, also offered a simdar type of practical education. Obviously, Young had no way of knowing that the territorial land-grant college would be awarded to Logan four­teen years later after he established Brigham Young College. Of course, Young also advocated the intensive teaching at the college of theology as well as of liberal and practical arts. According to the trustees, any young men or women of good moral character should be admitted, whether members of the Mormon church or not; but while attending they were required to live the lives of good Latter-day Saints: "They must keep the Word of Wisdom, no intoxicating liquor or tobacco wid be kept, sold or used in the institution."27 These standards were a common requirement for any church-administered institution. Young also wanted to commit die school to supply each graduate with a "free set of tools for his par­ticular trade, a team and wagon, farming implements made at the institution worth about $500 so he could start right out producing 204 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY results." This private wish proved most difficult to articulate into the eventual charter; but it showed Brigham Young's idealism and prac­ticality at their inconsistent best. Then Young reflected for a moment, turned to his companions, and said, "I shad not live in the flesh to see this accomplished but you are younger than I and I shad expect you to hew this line and live to see it ad accomplished."28 In order to assure his vision, Young appointed his son Brigham Jr., as trustee along with Mdton D. Hammond, CO. Card, Wdliam B. Preston, and brothers Moses and G. W. Thatcher. Young wanted the college to be located on the farm; but for practical reasons the trustees decided to have the school physically located in Logan. On 24 July 1877 Brigham Young deeded the Elkhorn Ranch to the trustees of Brigham Young College. In order to guarantee his vision of the college's future, the deed specifically stated that none of the property could be sold without the written consent of Young or his successors as president of the Mormon church. Ad rents, profits, or increase from the farm land was designated for the college's benefit. Young, never shy about changing the name of a town or having towns or institutions named after him, demanded a tight deed. Thirteen days later Young died in Salt Lake City. On 7 August 1877, the day after Young's death, the Logan-based trustees met and selected Brigham Young, Jr., as their board president, Milton D. Hammond as treasurer, and Ida Cook as secretary. Miss Cook was also added to the board of trustees.29 The original classes were taught at the old Lindquist Hall on the corner of First East and Second North. The three-story budding had been rented by Logan City and had a jail cell in the basement; but once the college moved in, students boarded on the third floor and the second floor was used exclusively for classrooms. Classes began in September 1878 with seventy-eight students, and Ida Cook taught them spelling, writing, reading, and mathematics. The student body soon nearly doubled, so Widiam Apperly, a local teacher, joined the faculty for one year. Then, in 1880, William Smart and Horace H. Cummings were hired. With the increased number of students, fac­ulty, and courses, the school's reputation grew rapidly. Ida Cook left to become the superintendent of Logan city schools in 1881, but by then the BYC was established. The next year, 1882, the EARLY EDUCATION 205 school was moved a block to the basement of the unfinished Logan LDS tabernacle. With over 200 students, the college needed a perma­nent home and the trustees responded by obtaining land on the southwest corner of First West and First South. The Thatcher famdy, with two brothers and a brother-in-law, William Preston, on the board of trustees, granted title to thirty-three acres as well as the home of Hezekiah Thatcher. Gradually, a campus emerged. At the December 1882 trustee meeting, Don Carlos Young, a church archi­tect and son of Brigham Young, was hired to prepare plans for a col­lege building. Don Carlos Young, who also designed the LDS tabernacle in Paris, Idaho, designed a beautiful structure soon to be called the East Budding. It is amazing that the money for the campus additions came from local donations at a time when both the Logan LDS temple and LDS tabernacle were still under construction, as were the Salt Lake City and Manti temples. A ceremony on New Years Day 1885 dedicated the college for teaching as Brigham Young had outiined eleven years earlier. Moses Thatcher, one of the many speak­ers, made it clear that the East Building would become a dormitory, because they planned a new building west of the current structure. With the Thatcher homes and orchards, a new budding, and a wdl-ing student body, it appeared that the school's future was very bright.30 As the students enrolled in 1884, they were met by a new presi­dent, J. Z. Stewart, as well as a new campus and a new "Rules and Regulations" card that all students and Stewart signed. The students agreed on the fodowing ten principles: 1.1 will not use tobacco. 2.1 will not mark or deface in any way, any college furniture, building, fence, or tree. 3.1 will not visit places of amusement nor leave school with­out permission. 4.1 will not play nor be noisy in any of the school rooms between school hours, nor be disorderly in school. 5.1 will not visit saloons or places of bad reputation whde I am a pupil of the college. 6.1 will faithfully try to prepare my lessons, and to set a good example at all times. 206 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY 7.1 will be clean and tidy in person and dress, and kind and courteous to my teachers and fellow students. 8.1 will take good care of my health. 9.1 will try to be obedient to my Parents and Teachers. 10.1 will try to do to others as I would like to be done by at all times, and mind my own business.3' Stewart had a reputation as an enthusiastic teacher of religion and was also very tolerant and understanding. The new budding had an assembly hall, and devotionals there became part of the curriculum. Stewart also instituted religious instruction, establishing classes on the New and Old Testaments plus Mormon scriptures and history. Cook and Apperly, well-known educators, taught there along with Smart and a musician and artist, Dr. G. Hessell. BYC graduates filled a significant niche as teachers in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. The demand for good public-school teachers was great and neither the University of Deseret nor Brigham Young Academy in Provo were fully filling that need. It is clear from the cur­riculum that many Logan students did want a teaching credential. For the most part, BYC was essentially a three-year secondary school, yet its graduates were held in very high esteem. By the time of statehood, the college had completed the new West Budding with its gymnasium, administrative offices, library, and museum. A mechanical arts building also was completed as was Nibley Had with its fine large lecture had. The Woodruff School was acquired as a teacher-training school, and the institution seemed des­tined for longevity. In 1888, however, the territorial legislature granted Logan the land-grant school, and when the Utah Agricultural College opened in 1890, BYC's role and fate were questioned.32 However, the school continued another thirty-six years. Very capable leaders and administrators came through the college. A succession of presidents including the brilliant Joseph M. Tanner, Joshua H. Paul, and Wdliam J. Kerr headed the codege before moving east to the president's home at Utah State Agricultural College. Tanner, an orator of some repute; Paul, a classical philosopher; and Kerr, a mathematician and classicist, expanded the faculty and student body and worked very hard to improve the college's quality. Tanner, who resigned and went on to Harvard Law School, EARLY EDUCATION 207 m- May McCarrey, Brigham Young College graduate, 1907. (Special Collections Merrill Library, USU) 208 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY persuaded many of the school's best students to go east and achieve advanced degrees. Among those who followed his advice were George Thomas, John A. Widtsoe, George C. Jensen, Henry Peterson, Roy Bullen, and George Hendricks. Tanner's successors at Utah State then hired them and they made renowned contributions. Since 1888 the administration of a local board of trustees had been replaced by a churchwide education system. This meant that the Mormon church took over funding of the school because the farm in what was College-Young Ward had never brought enough funds to establish solvency. The school attracted teachers and scholars who were able to fur­ther general education considerably. In 1909 the Mormon church decided to restrict the codege offerings to junior-college status and to stop making any pretense of having a bachelor's degree. High school classes were still offered, but the faculty felt somewhat dimin­ished. The graduates of the codege-oriented component of the school had no problem having their academic credits accepted at major uni­versities when they transferred; however, the church board moved in the direction of eliminating all codege-level courses. The school could stdl prepare teachers, but the church board of education announce­ment was devastating to many of the students and faculty. Students asked to voice their concerns to the board and a spokesman made the points that the college cost was nominal, the board had always assured that there would be a permanent school, being an alumnus of a terminated institution was hurtful, and their faith was somewhat shaken. However, the decision stood. The codege's future remained uncertain. The school stdl attracted serious scholars such as William H. Chamberlin. As a professor of Geology at BYU, Chamberlin refused to dismiss Darwinian theory and consequently was himself dismissed in a purge at the Provo school. Ironically, BYC hired him, and he received a contract even though both schools had the same supervisors.33 Brigham Young Codege offered a wide spectrum of extracurric­ular activities that included operas, plays, musicals, debate, and ath­letics. The Thatcher Opera House was used untd it burned in 1912 and then Nibley Hall housed many of the events. Brigham Young's desire for a practical education that bequeathed tradesman's tools EARLY EDUCATION 209 Joseph A. Geddes, Brigham Young College graduate, 1907. (Special Collections Merrill Library, USU) and a team of horses to graduates was replaced by a strong liberal education curriculum combined with the doses of religion he desired. There still was considerable industrial education, which 210 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY Brigham Young College basketball team, 1901. (Special Collections Merrill Library, USU) included nurse training and domestic science, but BYC took its gen­eral education role very seriously. For the most part, teaching excel­lence continued and student attendance and participation remained very high-usuady between 650 and 800 students were enrolled. It should also be pointed out that many of the students were older than normal high school students, especially those who were in fifth and sixth year teacher-education programs. Maturity increased their leadership skids and commitment to school newspapers, maga­zines, and social clubs. But the fact remained that the Cache County School District had consolidated and was building two new high schools and junior high schools were also being budt. Logan had also opened a high school before 1920. Although academically superior, BYC had to struggle to maintain its student numbers. As this move­ment of consolidation of public-school districts took place through­out Utah and Idaho, the LDS church began to question the future of its private schools, as did the Presbyterians and other denominations that supported mission schools.34 EARLY EDUCATION 211 Nevertheless, in 1920 Mormon church president Heber J. Grant told the BYC faculty that "We will support you. Your tenure, if you deserve it, is secure. Your salaries will equal the average of the best college teachers in Utah." Grant also challenged the faculty and alumni to raise a $100,000 endowment to guarantee the college's future. In a dramatic gesture, he gave donations to the school in both his and his wife's name. Within a few years, over $70,000 had been raised. Despite Grant's verbal and economic gestures, the church board of education eliminated the first college year in 1920 and then die second year in 1923. Brigham Young Codege was now exclusively a high school, with the earlier grades and then the college courses eliminated. The school maintained a vital and concerned faculty, many with doctorates. In fact, the final president of the school, W. W. Henderson, encouraged faculty to pursue doctorates in order to maintain the high standard. By 1926 the faculty size had dropped to twenty-eight, from forty-five in 1909.35 Almost the entire BYC curriculum was now offered by Utah State Agricultural Codege, which grew rapidly during the 1920s. The agri­cultural college had even begun to prepare teachers and offered courses in agriculture, domestic arts, and industrial education. By 1926 Professor Joseph Geddes, later a renowned Utah State University sociologist, said, "Brigham Young did not know as President Grant does know that another large college wdl grow up in Logan. Those who are alive perceived duplication and unnecessary expense in the maintenance of two codeges." Yet many stdl were sur­prised when Apostle John A. Widtsoe, a former student and agricul­tural college president, announced the church's decision to close all of its schools-including Brigham Young Codege-in 1926. Widtsoe refused to invite the faculty but did adow administrators to come to the meeting announcing the closure; however, he conducted a church-type meeting with no discussion. Some of the students, faculty, and alumni were outraged. Educator Edith Bowen wrote: Can this great institution go with a simple nod of the head or a ges­ture of the hand? We would despise you if your loyalty were not 212 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY Closing exercises for Brigham Young College, 22 May 1926, in Logan Tabernacle. Inset: Margaret Anderson who furled crimson banner. (Special Collections Merrill Library, USU) deeper rooted. Those who criticize have never yet come even close to the spirit of B. Y., never had felt its force. Do not feel censured because your emotions are stirred-sor­row until time softens the blow.36 The $70,000 was returned to the donors. The faculty and students completed the year and tried to prepare for the future. Brigham Young College's final gathering was the 22 May 1926 commencement. Alumni and emotional supporters filled the Logan tabernacle to bid farewed to the institution after its forty-eight years of proud existence. The school had survived depressions and panics; but it was owned by the LDS church, and its decision was irrevoca­ble. The financial stress suffered by the LDS church during the 1920s contributed to the difficult decision to close the fifty-year-old school. Scott Nelson, the college's last valedictorian, told the assembled throng that "they who have stood by her in this last crisis and have borne gladly a share of the burden, we bow in sorrow.... We regret the passing of this great fountain of inspiration.... To close our school makes this a day of mourning." The Logan Journal reported that at the conclusion of the program two young women lowered a veil over the Crimson Banner, a large flag, obscuring it from sight as the entire audience stood at attention. Beneath the tabernacle plat- EARLY EDUCATION 213_ form, three young trumpeters-Karl and Lyle Wood and Gilbert Thorpe-played the strains of Tost's "Goodbye." According to the newspaper, "tears of sorrow ftiled the eyes of the girls of the college choir" and those of hundreds in the audience.37 The Logan city school board bought the campus and eventuady moved Logan High School to the site. The colors of the school also were eventually adopted, but graduates could never view it as the same. The school really symbolized the rapid development of educa­tion within the region. Had Utah been granted statehood earlier and complied with provisions of the Land Ordinance of 1785, private LDS church schools may not have been necessary. The local ward and community schools lacked proper funding, quality, and coordination, so Brigham Young's desire for a school like the one that bore his name was natural and is to be respected. However, once a public-edu­cation system gained a strong foothold through compulsory atten­dance and a secure tax base, most private schools in a struggling economic environment were doomed. With the location of the land-grant codege in Cache County, the final nad was driven in the coffin of BYC and its sister institutions. In ad probability, the subsequent Great Depression would have forced closure of the church schools anyway. The teachers and stu­dents who viewed education as a key to a successful and secure life of service deserve historical respect. Whether it was Florence Crosby in Cornish, Calvin Parks in Logan, or Ida lone Cook, almost everywhere they contributed to the quality of Cache County life. They established a solid foundation and a positive environment for higher education, which came to be typified by Utah State Agricultural Codege. ENDNOTES 1. Among the best sources for the history of community and ward schools are the community histories of most Cache County towns, whose authors have always felt inclined to include a very long section on early edu­cation. Many of the private journals and family histories also discuss the educational experience. Local nineteenth-century school minute books are now at Utah State University Special Collections, and the more recent rec­ords are held at the respective district offices. See also Clifton D. Box, "Development of Public Education in Logan, Utah, 1871-1915," M.S. report, Utah State Agricultural Codege, 1946. 214 HISTORY OF CACHE COUNTY 2. John R. Caine, Autobiography, typescript, USUSC. 3. John C. Moffitt, The History of Public Education in Utah (Salt Lake City: Utah State Department of Education, 1946). 4. Box, "Development of Public Education in Utah," 7. 5. Cache School District, Minute Books, 1880, USUSC. 6. Logan Leader, 16 August 1881. 7. Logan Journal, 6 October 1885. 8. J. Duncan Brite, "The Public Schools," in The History of a Valley, ed. Joel E. Ricks (Logan: Cache County Centennial Commission, 1956), 338. 9. Ibid., 339. 10. Cache School District, Records, 1891, USUSC. 11. A.J. Simmonds, The Gentile Comes to Cache Valley (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1974), 58. 12. J. Duncan Brite, "Non-Mormon Schools and Churches," The History of a Valley, 304-6. See also Simmonds, The Gentile Comes to Cache Valley. 13. Brite, "Non-Mormon Schools and Churches," 306-7. 14. Ibid., 310. 15. A.J. Simmonds, "Looking Back," Herald Journal, 13 May 1989. 16. Ibid. 17. Brite, "Non-Mormon Schools and Churches," 308. 18. The best sources for the Presbyterian school effort are located in the archives at Westminster College, Salt Lake City. The William M. Paden Collection includes material from Rev. Calvin Parks's tenure in Logan. They also have numerous scrapbooks as well as a variety of reports. 19. Calvin Parks Papers, Paden Collection, Westminster College Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah. 20. Harold Y.S. Loo, "History of the New Jersey-Logan Academy, 1878-1934," M.A., Utah State University, 1952. 21. A Walton Roth, A Century of Service in Utah, 1869-1969 (Salt Lake City: Presbyterian Church, 1969), 13-14. 22. Brite, "Non-Mormon Schools and Churches," 330 23. Ibid., 332. 24. Ibid. 25.1.C. Thorsen, "History of the Founding of Brigham Young College," 1919, Cache Valley Historical Society, USUSC. 26. Ibid. See also A.N. Sorensen, "Brigham Young College," in The History of a Valley. 27. Thorsen, "History of the Founding of Brigham Young College." EARLY EDUCATION 215_ 28. Brigham Young College Deed of Trust, Brigham Young College (BYC) Records, USUSC. 29. Sorensen, "Brigham Young College," 352. 30. Ibid., 351. 31. BYC Records, 2 December 1887. 32. Sorensen, "Brigham Young College," 353. 33. Ibid., 363-64. 34. Ibid., 366. 35. Brigham Young College 1926 Bulletin, BYC Records, USUSC. 36. Edith Bowen to BYC Alumni, Edith Bowen Papers, USUSC. 37. Sorensen, "Brigham Young College," 369.