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CHAPTER 11
EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS Barely five weeks passed in newly settled Parowan before a school was started. On 20 February 1851 George A. Smith began building a wickiup for a school. The next day, he wrote that he had commenced a grammar school, and a week later he wrote that his "scholars assembled round the campfire, freezing on one side and roasting on the other, listened earnestly to my lecture on English grammar."l Support for education has not diminished in the many decades since its humble beginnings around Smith's campfire.
Pioneer Schools School moved inside as soon as homes were built, and then into the new log council house, where Martin Slack, Esiah Coombs, William Hammond, and a Mr. Hoyt were teachers. On 23 December 1851 an eighteen-by-twenty-four-foot adobe schoolhouse was dedicated. Children and adults attended early schools, studying with a few slates and reading the only two books available, a copy of Robinson Crusoe and The Book of Mormon. In 1852 the territorial legislature gave county courts responsibil190
