Latter Day Saints Business College - S Book Yearbook (Salt Lake City, UT)

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THE KNOCKING AT THE DOOR. Beyond all controversy the very, very hrst scene in the life of our school occurred in the fertile brain of our Patron SaintaWilliam B. Dougall. So it seems from all the rec- ords 0f the institution. He had sent some of his children to the Brigham Young Academy, at Provo. Other men had done the same thing. And he had observed the good effects in both cases. So he said to himself: ttWhy cant we have a Church school in this city'V That moment the gate was opened, and the eager Blue Bird flew out and into the boat Which was to sail earthward. Meeting Dr. Karl G. Maeser one day, he put the question to him. ttCertaihly, Brother Dougall, replied the sympathetic Superintendent. ttThat is? he added, w1th a worldly wisdom not of the school room, uif you can raise the necessary means? He promised, moreover, to send up from the Provo school a capable teacher. And our Patron Saint went away to ask himselfeand otherSesome more questions. y WM. B. DOUGALL EAGLE GATE SCHOOL HOUSE, 1886 THE SEVEN WISE MEN. The question, Can we have a Church school here? was therefore partly answered. Or, rather, it took on another form: How can we raise the money to start one? Mr. Dougall put this question to Angus M. Cannon, then president of the Salt Lake Stake. And his answer was- ttDraft a subscription list, and take it around to your friendsft A good idea! But flI'St Mr. Dougall wished to sound some possible subscribers. So he called a meeting in the James Dwyer Book Store, on Upper Main street. Now, the night before the day on Which the meeting was to be held, a fire visited the book store, as if on purpose to undo the work of Mr. Dougall. But all the men met anyway. And there they sat on boxes, in a burnt-out store, with the water dripping

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Gregg Shorthand Gregg Shorthand tman Shorthand tman Shorthand i i Machine Shorthand P P , Gregg Shorthand S. B. N O S W A D N 0 T L W mV n K E C I L A LILLIAN R. SMITH IELEN WRIGHT MRS. F. M. STEWART 1, GLEN ALLEMAN, NAOMI C

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down on them, discussing the advisability of establishing a Church school in Salt Lake City! The discussionf says one of the seven, fftook on a very animated form in favor of a Church school here? It seems that the subscription was started on the spot; for, although a call was made there for another meeting, one of the men set his name down for seventy-five dollars. The names of these seven men are: William B. Dougail, William A. Rossiter, Wilr liam H. Rowe, Nelson A. Empey, Francis Cope, John Nicholson, and James Dwyer. THE SCHOOL IS BORN. That subscription list would be an inestimable treasure now if we had it. Doubtless there were many names on it. But we know of onEy the following: Angus M. Cannon, William B. Dougall, A. E. Hyde, Spencer Clawson, Francis Cope, William A. Rossiter, John Nicholson, Nelson A. Empey, and James Dwyer. The money being thus assured, the next thing was to get a place to hold the school. Mr. Dougall obtained the permission of President John Taylor to hold it in Social Hall. The committee chosen to look after the welfare of the new institution consisted of the first eight men named above. M SOCIAL HALL, 1886 LION HOUSE Social Hall was therefore titted up as our first home. The opening day saw a timid young man of twenty-one years at the desk to receive the two or three score timid boys and girls who came to begin their Church school education . Exercises, too, were held that day in the basement of the building, at which ad- dresses were made by President Angus M. Cannon and others. The dedicatory prayer was offered by Joseph E. Taylor, counselor to President Cannon. The first principal of the new school was no less a person than Dr. Karl G. Maeser, organizer of the Church school system among the Latter-day Saints, though his office seems to have been merely nominal. The first teacher, and the real principal, was Willard Done. The birthday of the L. D. S. is the Fifteenth of November, eighteen hundred eighty- SIX. HOW WE GOT OUR FIRST REAL HOME. For the first five years, nearly, the school had been confined, not only in the figura- tive, but also in the literal sense of the word, to the narrow walls of Social Hall. But not without yearnings on the part of the teachers for better quarters and improved facilities, and regrets on the part of the trustees that those yearnings even more than Page Twenty 7..ij