Weber State Comment, Spring 1990 WSC focuses on small businesses [ ) Over 9,000 new businesses started last year in Utah and the Small Business Development Center at Weber State helped a good portion of those enterprises. According to the Utah Department of Commerce 9,112 new small businesses started in 1989 in Utah, and during that same time the WSC Small Business Development Center (SBDC) put in 4,750 hours helping over 200 businesses. Not all of the cases seen by the SBDC at the college were new businesses. Some were companies that had been around a few years, and others were enterprises that needed help to “gracefully close out,” but Dr. Gordon Jacox said all were small businesses who needed help. “Our underlying, basic philosophy is to offer help to those businesses who can’t otherwise afford it,” said Dr. Jacox, who is the director of the WSC business center. The Small Business Development Center is a state-wide, federally-funded program to encourage the small entrepreneur. The center employs three full-time business Say \ 'we-ber\ not \ 'web-ar\ Most of the nation pronounces it “Webber,” some wonder if it ought to be “Weaver,” but an amateur historian and alumnus of Weber Academy, said “Weber” is definitely the correct word and pronunciation. On Jan. 1, 1991 Weber State will The book excerpts at right come from Weber County |. Worth Knowing by Bill W. Terry advisors and hires outside consultants, students and faculty to help reduce small business failure, Dr. Jacox said. To do that they advise on financial, marketing, product control, and a host of other topics essential to the small business. “We've had a lot of downers over the years. In the early 1980’s when interest rates jumped to 21 percent in one week, we had people waiting in line to see us. They would come into my office, sit down and cry,” Dr. Jacox said. “In the last year and a half, however, things have turned around and we have more people interested in business startups than ever before,” he added. Through the years the center has helped build a cabinet maker into a million dollar business, cemented a strong future for a construction company, sped up numerous fast food enterprises, thawed out the frozen opportunities of an ice cream maker and assisted hundreds of other businesses. “It’s really been a lot of fun,” Dr. Jacox said. officially change its name to Weber State University, but though the college’s name has changed six times during the institution's life “Weber” has always been a part of the name. And for a good reason, said William W. Terry. Terry, 84, is a retired high school teacher who has spent a great deal of time proving that the school, the county and many Northern Utah landmarks are properly named after an early area fur trapper. “John Weber led trappers into the area in Hard Top Streets The first attempts to hard top the streets in Ogden were done with either bricks or with hewn stones. The first black top, called “macadamized,” was authorized for the City of Ogden in 1904. Whitewings After the streets in town had been hard topped or macadamized horse “droppings” became a hazard for pedestrians. Result: Whitewings. These men were dressed in white jackets. They would push oversized “dust pans” about 30 inches wide and mounted on two wheels. The whitewings would push the “used hay” or other litter into their carts with a large wire broom. When the “‘dust pan” was full, the whitewing would empty it in the gutter where it was collected by a member of the street department who, in the early days, would be driving a wagon. Horse Sense The following incident could only happen in the horse and buggy days. You couldn’t trust an automobile to duplicate the event. A couple living in Hooper at the time traveled by a one-horse-sleigh with sleigh bells and warm robes to Syracuse, several miles to the south, to an evening of dancing. After the dance they got into the sleigh, snuggled under the warm robes and started for home. It was late at night. Apparently, both of them went to sleep soon after heading along the country road. Several hours later they awakened. They were home, the horse standing patiently in front of their stable waiting to be unhitched. Spring Ball Grandpa would always get ready for the baseball season by making his own baseball. With a small rubber ball, one half to three quarters of an inch in diameter, and some string he made his ball by winding the string around the small ball until it was the desired size. He would then cover it with friction tape. Bats were made out of small saplings. River Rats I learned to swim in a hole about half way between the railroad tracks and the confluence of the Ogden and Weber rivers. This hole had a nice sandy bottom. The waters of the Ogden and Weber ran clear and uncontaminated in those days, but swimming in the Weber River below 24th Street was “undesirable” as the sewers from Ogden City entered the river not too far downstream. Any financially strapped business can use the development center at the college. A $15 registration fee is required, but doesn’t begin to cover the sometimes hundreds of hours spent helping a client, Dr. Jacox said. In addition, the $15 fee can be used towards any of the center’s numerous workshops. “Sometimes we show people the reality of starting a business to the point where they do not start. By helping them avert an illadvised business it saves the taxpayers some money and them all their money,” Dr. Jacox said. The center takes a special interest in assisting disadvantaged business people, such as minorities, handicapped, veterans and women. Currently they are offering an intensive training program for area veterans. “Occasionally we hire outside consultants to help— accountants, marketing experts, computer people, lawyers—but we also get a great deal of volunteer help from retired executives,” he said. “We feel the center offers a great service to the community.” 1824 and Peter Ogden led a group of trappers into the Ogden valley in 1825,” Terry said. Critics have thought the name Weber was a French derivative of an early explorer by the name of Weaver, but Terry said almost the opposite is true. Early French-Canadian trappers in the area often referred to Weber as Weaver. Indeed, the discovery of Bear Lake was originally credited to Weber and was called “Weaver Lake” by the Canadians for many years. Weber was the captain of a fur trapping expedition sent out from St. Louis, Mo. which spent a great deal of time trapping in northern Utah. He was one of the more traveled mountain men, Terry said. “Jim Bridger was among the youngest, if not the youngest, of the Weber party, being only 19 years of age,” Terry wrote in his book, Weber County Is Worth Knowing. “Brigham Young was the first one to suggest we call the county Weber, and the city Ogden to honor the first two white men in the area,” he said. Terry, who graduated from Weber Academy in 1923, first became interested in Weber County history a number of years ago. He had retired as a foreign language high school teacher, and someone requested he compile a history of the Lorrin Farr area. His research brought him in contact with Ken Farr. ‘Ken told me there are a lot of other things needing to be done. That cockeyed guy has been prodding me to do more ever since,” Terry said. From that initial effort Terry has become an authority on John Weber, on area gristmills, forts, Indian trails, and others, and is directly responsible for a number of monuments and markers in Ogden honoring - early inhabitants. He recently published a book on Weber County history which treats all of his research. “It’s been an interesting thing to dig out all this stuff. One thing just kind of led to another,” he said. And there is still plenty to do, he said. “I had two or three projects I was going to do when I retired. One of these days I may find time to start one,” Terry said. \ . | i} ;