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

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now, when money could not be had for the asking. Nevertheless, out of those very yearnings and regrets, as always, came better things. It was at a board meeting in March, eighteen hundred ninety-one, that the general feeling over the situation reached a climax. Dr. James E. Talmage, who had been president since the second year told the board that he felt humiliated at finding himself visited by Eastern professors uin such miserable quarters. He wanted a good, first class building propeily titted up, and then one thousand dollars for scientific apparatus. This roused the spirit and local patriotism of the trustees. The discussion is not recorded, but we may judge of its nature by the abrupt and lively record of the secre- tarye v ttMoved by Elias Morris that we have a new building for next year. Carried! After that, motions trod on one anothefs heels; committees were appointed; money was distributed in prospective with lavish expenditure. All this, however, was more easily said than done. One wishes there had been a secretray to record the feelings of those homeegoing trustees when their ardor had had time to cool. But they were men who never went back on their word. For them to TEMPLETON BUILDING, 1898-1900 ttmoven that a new building be obtained, meant that it certainly should be obtained. However, there lay much of worry and labor and planning between the conception and the execution of such a1 task. And so they went resolutely to work. The entire board was made a committee ttto solicit subscriptions for endowments and maintev nancef, The first thought of the board seems to have been to erect a new building, but something presently changed the direction of this intention. Most likely, it was the difficulty of obtaining means to do so. At all events it was not long till negotiations were on foot to purchase the Ellerbeck property, on First North street. The price paid for the building and- grounds was ten thousand dollars in cash and a note for fifteen thousand dollars. The ten thousand dollars was borrowed at the bank, and drew interest at ten per cent, and the fifteen thousand dollar note called for interest at the rate of eight per cent. Meantime, President Talmage went to England, at the instance of the board, and purchased one thousand dollars worth of scientific apparatus. And so part of the next school year was spent by the College in its new quarters. Page Twenty-six

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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

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Thus far everything proved clear sailing. But there were breakers ahead. Hitherto the board had found their hands full in merely making the good ship go. Now they discovered their necks to be weighted down with the fatal albatros. That note to the bank and that note to the Ellerbecks proved a veritable nightmare to these public spirited men. Scarcely a meeting was held but the. interest centered chiefly in some- thing growing out of the new possessions, till one would have thought who knew no better that this was some tender morsel of educational gossip the board had met to roll under the tongue! Now they were notified that unless the interest on the Ellerbeck note were paid the mortgage would be foreclosed; now they were informed that unless the interest on the note at the bank were paid, suit would be entered against the institution; and now bills, long past due, were presented by Eastern supply houses for furniture and equipment purchased. In the end, however, the property was sold for twenty-five thousand dollars, and the albatross fell into the sea. And the school lived once more in a rented house! HOW THE SCHOOL CAME NEAR DYING. It is June, 1899, the thirteenth commencementethe thirteenth! Students and teach- ers with their friends are standing in front of the assembly hall, where the exercises are to be held, hesitating to go in, gathered in little knots here and there, greeting one an- OLD SEVENTEENTH WARD, 1895-97 other sad-faced, speaking whisperingly as at a funeralenot because it is the thirteenth, nor because the sun refuses to look from behind the thick, black clouds. Word has reached them that the Latter-day Saints College is dead! The president has resigned, most of the teachers have engaged elsewhere, no money for another years maintenance is in sight, the trustees are fagged out, so to speak, with the load they have had to carry, an inventory of the school property has been ordered, and the doors of the institution have been closed, it is thought, forever. Presently-half an hour after the exercises should have begun-the people muster up courage to enter the building. There was some music. There was a valedictory. There were graduation certificates to be givenethree. Some one explained why the school had to die. Everything was perfunctory till Dr. Maeser rose to speak. The Latter-day Saints, College is not dead! he cried in his earnest way. Nor is it going to die. On the contrary, its future will be more glorious than its past. That moment these prophetic words began to be fulfilled. The air was surcharged with hope. Faces immediately gladdened. Shouts rent the air. The very sun beamed in gracious benediction. And everybody went home to think and work. Perhaps no one felt more keenly the precarious situation of the College than Presi- dent Joseph E. Taylor. For one thing, his long paternal connection with the school, in one capacity or another, had won his affection. And for another, his own family, most of whom had been educated here, urged him not to let the school die. So he busied himself trying to save it. Between the close of school and the end of June, of this 'Nentyx