General Information Historical In the year 1888, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints established the present system of Church education; and in order to foster religious training and moral development among the young, President Wilford Woodruff, in the following letter addressed to several presidents of Stakes, urged the appointing of Stake Boards for the establishing of Church educational institutions: "We feel that the time has arrived when the proper education of our children should be taken in hand by us as a people. Religious training is practically excluded from the district schools. The perusal of books that we regard as divine is forbidden. Our children, if left to the training they receive in these schools, will grow up entirely ignorant of those principles of salvation for which the Latter-day Saints have made many sacrifices. To permit this condition of affairs to exist among us would be criminal. The desire is universally expressed by all thinking people in the Church that we should have schools wherein the bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants can be used as text books, and where the principles of our religion may form a part of the teachings of the schools." In conformity with the import of this letter, the Presidency of Weber Stake organized a Board of Education consisting of the following members: Lewis W. Shurtliff, president; Counselor Charles F. Middleton,