Description |
Weber Stake Academy first opened its doors for instruction at the LDS Second Ward Meeting House on the corner of 26th Street and Grant Avenue on January 7, 1889. The academy's two teachers, Louis F. Moench and Edwin Cutler, welcomed nearly one hundred students on the first day, and, by the end of its first term, 195 students in all had registered for the school. This monograph depicts the role the LDS church and its leaders played in founding the school, the background of its first educators and administrators and the financial challenges they confronted in operating the school from 1889 through 1894. Letters of appreciation for Louis F. Moench and a bibliography of primary sources are also provided. |
OCR Text |
Show 48 Since the work on the Academy building was not completed and the opening of the school delayed, Professor Moench and his wife Ruthinda left on September 11, 1891 for Cincinnati to attend the American Health College. They "commenced in earnest the study of medicine and on the tenth of November received their diplomas."1 Professor Moench began immediately on his arrival in Ogden to prepare for the opening of school: engaging a faculty as far as I can find teachers so late in the school year. I succeeded in engaging Albert Tollestrop of the Morgan Stake Academy. The lower part of the building only was completed; the upper part was not yet finished. We commenced on the following Monday with upwards of 200 students. There were engaged with me at the time school opened A. N. Tollestrop, and afterwards we engaged Bro. W. H. Jones and next Marian Treseder Burton. Before spring we engaged Harry Young. School kept up well until the June vacation 1892.2 The building was completely finished and occupied and in good use by the spring of 1892. However, the grounds were in an almost unbelievable condition. The builders had left them strewn with pieces of boards, plaster and debris of all kinds. Professor Moench rallied the students into enthusiastic working squads. Some brought shovels, others rakes and others teams of horses and wagons and scrapers. The ground was raked and leveled and the debris hauled away and rich mountain soil brought from the foothills and spread around. Then a lawn was planted in front of the building and flower beds laid out. The young ladies did their part by furnishing and serving a delicious luncheon to all the young men who had labored on the project. The first year in the new building, 1891-92, was a year of great achievements. The professor organized a choir, a debating society, and a polysophical society where student talent was used and where outstanding citizens added much to the programs by their lectures. Various church groups were organized where students presided and participated. Professor Moench encouraged recreation, picnics, parties and dances, all of which helped to create a friendly and helpful attitude. 1. Historical Record of Louis F. Moench, p. 90. 2. Idem., p. 90. |