has provided the community with cultural events, athletic contests, a forum for the discussion of challenging ideas, and most importantly, an institution for the education of students. One of the hallmarks of the past century has been the dedication of the faculty to both the students and the institution. Representative of that faculty that has grown from an initial three members in 1889 to over four hundred in 1988 are John Lind, Wilma Grose, Reed Swenson, Clarisse Hall, Orson Whitney Young, Dello Dayton, Leola Davidson, Leland Monson, and Helen James. From the beginning, faculty members have set high educational standards, have introduced their students to new and challenging ideas, and have taught both in the classroom and out. Students have left Weber with new knowledge and skills and an appreciation of having been taught by dedicated professors. This volume was planned to capture both the history of Webers first century and the emotions, feelings, and events which have moved Weber from a small school of 100 academy students to an institution of 12,000 college students. Records of the past century including diaries, letters, tape recorded interviews, minutes of meetings, and photographs have been used to weave together the story of Webers past. With an eye to Webers one hundredth birthday, Clarisse Hall, William Miller, Harold Bateman, and Robert Clarke gathered and compiled material about Weber. This present volume owes much to the contributions of Dean Hurst, Richard Roberts, John Sillito, Thomas Burton, Levi Peterson, L.C. Evans, Craige Hall, Robb Alexander, Van Summerill, Gary Hidden, Allan Davis, JoAnn Reynolds, Marilee Sack-olwitz, Susan Larson, and Mike Orenduff. This volume of history, like all of Webers history, has been a team effort. It goes to press one hundred years from the Fall of 1888 when Lewis Shurtliff and his colleagues first met and breathed life into the Weber Academy. It is dedicated to Webers students past, present, and future. Richard W. Sadler September 1, 1988 Chapter 1 The Weber Stake Academy, The Early Years 1889-1902 Although founded as a trading post for overland travelers and fur traders, Ogden spent its first two decades like many other new Mormon villages in the middle of the 19th century. Education was an area of concern for these villages. Charilla Abbott was Ogdens first school teacher beginning in the Fall of 1849. Chicken feathers were used for pens, and reading and writing were the most important subjects taught the Mormon children of Weber County. Ogdens schools and teachers were supported by both a property tax (3.00 per year per child ages 4 to 21 in 1850) and a tuition system usually paid in produce. Although the taxation was legislated, it never proved to be effective in providing assistance for Ogdens early schools. After 1852, the idea of free schools was abandoned and tuition schools became widespread throughout Weber County. Schools were most often housed in the same buildings that were used for Mormon religious meetings during Ogdens first two decades (1850-1870). Often the basic subjects taught the students included a liberal sprinkling of Mormon teachings. Secular and religious studies had been taught together since the earliest days of Mormon education in Kirtland, Ohio where Joseph Smith had organized the School of the Prophets. Smith had underlined secular as well as religious learning and emphasized the two being intertwined. His successors continued to emphasize the same educational principles. In a speech in Ogden in 1878, Mormon prophet and leader John Taylor said, We have committed to our care pearls of great price; we have become the fathers and mothers of lives, and the Gods and the Holy Priesthood in the eternal worlds have been watching us and our movements in relation to these things. We do not want a posterity to grow up that will be ignorant, depraved, corrupt, and fallen, that will depart from every principle of right; but one that will be intelligent and wise, possessing literary and scientific attainments, and a knowledge of everything that is good, praiseworthy, intellectual and beneficial in the world, and become acquainted with the earth on which we stand, and the elements of which it is composed, and by which we are surrounded, and know how to control them and manage them, and how to put to the best use everything that comes within our reach. And above all other things, teach our children the fear of God. Let our teachers