OCR Text |
Show Educational Facilities j Any one doubting the advancement of Utah in educational facilities need only to look into our past history of seventy-five years ago and then visit the University of Utah and the church-school church-school system to be convinced. The old pioneers arrivjj in Utah in July of '-J7 and by October of the same ' year the first sc.iool was established, : and although it was quaint yet it mani- fested the educational spirit that has al- ways characterized the people of Utah. "It was conducted in an old military ! tent, shaped like an ordinary Indian wigwam, which hud but one .opening. There were but a fe.v ro-j ; i logs for seats, anj the teacher's desk was an : oil camp stool, which had been brought j across the pi tins," says Maria Dilworth Nebekei- in her journal, "I attended the first school in Ut m, taught by my sister I Mary Dil.vorth l i a smal. round tent, seated with pieces of logs. The school j was open :d iust threj weeks after our j arrival in the Valley. After the calling of the school to order every morning, one of tiie boy's always offered prayer. There were seven pupils enrolled the first day, among whjm was William V. Riter, the present chairman of the Board of Regents of the University of Utah. The only text books were a copy or two of the Bible, some of the old Webster spelling books and some copies of arithmetics, used in the schools of i Nauvoo. The pupils ' used charcoal at I times'for pencils, and did much of their i writing upon the smooth surface of logs. ' Daily sessions were continued until the 1 cold weather set in, and then tbeyoung-1 tbeyoung-1 er people were taught in tneir own home apartments of the fort. It was a be-! be-! ginning forbidding and drear, but it was the humble inception of Utah's splendid achool system .of today." |