WEBER COLLEGE 11 GENERAL INFORMATION HISTORICAL In the year 1888 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints inaugurated an extended program of Church school education. Inasmuch as religious training was practically excluded from the public schools, letters were sent to the Presidencies of the various Stakes urging them to establish academies in order to foster religious training and moral development among the young. In conformity with the import of the letter addressed to Lewis W. Shurtliff, President of the Weber Stake, the brethren of the priesthood were called together to consider the matter. They decided to organize a board of education and to establish the Weber Stake Academy. Accordingly, the Board was organized with the three members of the Stake Presidency, Lewis W. Shurtliff, Charles F. Middleton, Nils C. Flygare; one member of the High Council, Joseph Stanford; three bishops, Robert McQuarrie of the Second Ward, Thomas J. Stevens of the Fifth Ward, David McKay of the Huntsville Ward, and Prof. Louis F. Moench, who had gained considerable reputation as a teacher in Weber County and in Ogden City, and who was to become the first principal of the school. Through the efforts of this Board the Weber Stake Academy was established. Temporary quarters were secured in the Second Ward meeting house, Ogden, where the school was formally opened January 7, 1889, with Louis F. Moench as principal. The attendance, though small at first, increased so rapidly that it was found neces-