In the year 1872 a segment of the citizenary composed of a majority of families residing in the lower part of Slaterville left the LDS Church and thereafter ceased to participate to any extent in ward activities. Education up until this time affected our settlement as a united community, but after the ward was divided in religious matters, principal attendants at the district school until 1893 were children of church families. Students of the "New-West" or Congregational School in Slaterville. Courtesy Judy De Vries A short time after severing connections with the LDS Church, their families more or less became isolated from the rest of the settlement. In 1876, as near as can be ascertained, they erected a small building which was designated the "New-West Church." Services held there were under the supervision of clergy of the Congregational Church. Personal contact with Mrs. May Cowan, who at the time was eighty-five years of age and lived almost her entire life in the lower part of Slaterville, revealed that she remembered vividly the ministers and teachers that served. Qualifications required to teach at the new school were determined largely by clergy officiating at the church who were influential in employing instructors of Congregational faith. Consequently, under such an arrangement of this kind, church and school activities became so interwoven and church influence became so effective that the name of the church was changed from "New West" to "Congregational". Mrs. Shrimley was the first person to teach in the New West building while her husband served there in a ministerial capacity. Regardless of efforts of civic leaders and fine contributions made by clergy of the church to make the independent school as successful as possible, history of education in that locality is not impressive. The close of an epoch in the history of education in Slaterville arrived in the spring of 1894. Changes of a system that served the needs of a growing commonwealth through a long, drawn-out period of development were made to approach a more modern trend to education. Use of the old building that became inadequate and outdated to serve longer for school purposes was discontinued, and the school district organized in 1861 which included the entire area covered by Slaterville was divided. 56 398