In the year 2008 our Congregational Church in Ogden, Utah, will have been in existence for 125 years. During the past century and a quarter the church has had a lively presence and a significant influence in the city of Ogden and surrounding communities in northern Utah. As one might expect, during such a long continuum, both the church and the broader Ogden community have experienced profound changes. On more than one occasion both have had to determine new directions to maintain their vitality and continuity.

Such is the case at the present moment. At a point in time when Ogden is searching for renewal so also is our church. Over the next year or more we as a church will be attempting to fathom what we are and what we should become in succeeding decades.

As part of this process of discovery it is appropriate that we determine what we have accomplished in the past. Ours is a rich history. It is worthy to be considered as a component of new directions. Therefore over the next many months Dr. Gordon Harrington, who has been collecting materials on our history will author a series of short articles which will appear as inserts in the church newsletter. Members may wish to collect these inserts for reference in considering the future of the church. Contributions from members who may have memories of their own of what has happened at the church over the last century and a quarter would be welcome.

The site where Ogden presently is located was first permanently settled in November, 1844, when Miles Goodyear, a trapper and mountain man built a cabin in the area. When the Mormons entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 they bought Goodyear out in November of that year. He was paid $1,950 for his land, improvements and livestock. Mormon settlers soon began to arrive and in 1851 a town was incorporated and named Ogden, commemorating the Hudson Bay Company trapper, who had been in the area east of Ogden in 1825.

For almost two decades Ogden remained a sleepy Mormon community. Although threatened by occasional hostile Indians, life generally was uneventful. By the late 1860s Ogden had a population of about fifteen hundred souls.

But then, at 11 :20 AM on Monday, March 8, 1869, life in this quiet Mormon town took a sudden and irrevocable turn. At that moment the first Union Pacific Railroad steam engine puffed into town behind gangs of track layers. The latter kept right on going bent on gaining as many miles as possible before completing a final connection with the Central Pacific Railroad which was building from the west. Ultimately, by act of Congress, the two railroads were officially joined at Promontory, Utah. Later the Union Pacific leased to the Central Pacific the track between Promontory and a point five miles east of Ogden, and the city became the terminus for the two railroads. Almost immediately Utah businessmen and others began to build local railroads to the north and to the south from Ogden. Both freight and passenger traffic exploded and the town took on the nickname of "Junction City."

Changes in Ogden were immediate. The population multiplied to over 6,000 by 1880. Mormons found their quiet community invaded by Gentiles (anyone who was not a Mormon). The stark difference in the life styles of the two groups caused deep bitterness. Mormon kids fought Gentile kids, Mormon adults stood aloof from Gentile adults, and the Gentile Party and the Mormon People's Party railed against one another in a constant and never ending harangue.

With the coming of the Gentiles the religious nature of Ogden changed. Catholic and Protestant churches appeared. Among the Protestants the Methodist and Episcopal churches began services in 1870, holding their first services in the Union Depot.

The first Congregational work in Ogden began in 1876, when the Rev. A. W. Safford arrived and began to hold services in a hall located over Wm. Driver's Drug Store at 2349 Washington Blvd. Services were held there for about six months, after which Mr. Safford was forced to return to the east because of ill health. During this period the church had ten members. Present records reveal the names of only three of the original number, including Mrs. Jane Taylor, Mrs. Aura Thompson and Mr. Alexander Bruckman. On the withdrawal of Safford the church died out and did not revive until 1883 .

Part of the background of Congregationalism in Ogden was the development of education by that denomination in the city as well as in the rest of Utah. To understand the Congregational educational system it is essential to examine briefly the whole of Gentile education which came into existence in Utah in the last quarter of the 19^th century.

Gentile education was begun generally for two reasons. First, Gentiles found it totally impossible to send their children to territorial schools. These schools were inadequately financed, and also, since the Mormons controlled the school boards, they were for all intents and purposes Mormon seminaries, making them unacceptable to Gentiles. Second, Gentile education was begun as a means to wean Mormons away from their church. Approaching the problem as they would in pagan lands, Gentile missionary and educational societies believed that if one could gain control of the minds of Mormon youth through good education, one might win them away from Mormonism.

The Protestant Episcopal Church began the process in July, 1867, by opening St. Mark's School in Salt Lake City. The Presbyterians followed in 1875 by establishing the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute. By 1895 the Presbyterians were supporting thirty one day schools with nine hundred students, seventy five percent of whom were of Mormon parentage. Also in 1875 the Methodists opened a high school in Salt Lake City, and by 1889 they had built twenty one schools, with close to fourteen hundred students in attendance, half of whom were Mormon.

The Congregational Church entered the field of education when the Salt Lake Academy was opened in 1878, sponsored by the First Congregational Church in Salt Lake City. Soon, however, this institution and a few others were to come under the administration of a new national educational agency, the New West Education Commission.

The New West Education Commission came into being in 1879. In that year at a meeting of the Congregational Ministers Union in Chicago, the attendees heard about the educational needs in Utah. A committee was appointed to investigate the problem. It consulted Col. C. G. Hammond, an executive of the Union Pacific Railroad, who had lived in Utah. Col. Hammond suggested the name of the Commission and gave a thousand dollars to put it into operation. The Commission was assigned the task of building schools in the Utah Territory and in other areas of the Southwest. The Rev. Charles R. Bliss, who was associated with Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was elected the corresponding secretary.

To publicize its endeavors, the Commission published a journal called the New West Gleaner,. bi-monthly which emphasized the degradation of Mormon polygamy, and the alleged treason of Mormon leadership toward the United States. The journal was propagandistic, biased, and narrow, but it accomplished its task, which was to raise money from easterners for teachers and schools in Utah.

Many women were associated with the New West Education Commission. Miss Margaret A. Towne was in charge of the Chicago office and Miss Lucia A. Manning ran the Boston branch. By 1887 out of forty two teachers working in Utah, thirty seven were women. It was thought that highly educated Gentile women, generally unmarried, standing on their own, would serve as worthy examples to Mormon women who reportedly suffered mightily from the rigors of polygamy.

The New West Education Commission built the largest Gentile school system in Utah. By the end of the 1880s some thirty eight schools had been built, with nearly twenty five hundred children attending.

In 1883 the New West Education Commission built the Ogden Academy, a small two room school at the corner of2S^th Street and Adams Avenue, on a lot bought from a Mr. Clayton. An existing three room house, built by Mr. Clayton, was used as a kindergarten while the upper . grades were taught in the newer building.

Professor H. W. Ring was in charge. He was assisted by Miss S.Y.M. Ludden and Miss Ludden's niece, a Miss Hamlin. Professor Ring and his wife taught in the old Clayton house. The first students to graduate from the school were Albert Thorburn and Ruth E. Prout (Bullock). In a typed church history entitled Our Book of Golden Memories Ruth Bullock gives us a clear description of the Ogden Academy:

The two rooms were separated by folding doors, which when opened made a good sized room for programs and meetings. Professor Ring and Mrs. Ring were our teachers at the time. Every school day the doors were opened for morning devotions. There was a small organ in the intermediate room, and Mrs. Ring played and led us in singing Gospel Hymns, usually chosen by the students. After this we would listen to a reading by Professor Ring from the Bible or a selection from one of Dr. Talmadge's sermons. This made a good beginning for our day's lessons.

Ruth Bullock also noted that the students studied advanced algebra, geometry, chemistry, physiology, Latin, physics and civil government. She noted with amusement that "Albert Thorburn and I worked our chemistry experiments on a window sill near our desks, sometimes to the horror of the other students."

As noted before the New West Education Commission built other schools in Utah. Of particular importance for Ogden was the New West school at Lynn or what is now known as Five Points. It was also used as a Sunday school and later for a time became the Second Congregational Church in Ogden. Generally it was served by ministers and others of the Ogden First Church.

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