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Saving Their School: The 1933 Transfer of Dixie College as an Indicator of Utah’s Changing Church and State Relationships
Saving Their School: The 1933 Transfer of Dixie College as an Indicator of Utah’s Changing Church and State Relationships
By SCOTT C. ESPLIN
The settling of southern Utah is a story of obedience, as men and women of faith followed a prophet’s call to populate a remote desert outpost. In a few short years they transformed the desert into a social oasis, complete with farms, businesses, churches, a temple, and, importantly, schools. Chief among them was the St. George Stake Academy (later known as Dixie College and more recently Dixie State College of Utah), obediently founded at the call of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Wilford Woodruff in 1888. Formed out of the cauldron of the anti-polygamy crusade and the quest for Utah statehood, Dixie College struggled through an on-and-off existence until it was firmly established as a church-run junior college in the 1920s. However, while the saints were transforming the desert, the church was transforming its educational policy. In the late 1920s, leaders decided to remove the LDS church from private education, turning the schools over to the state or discontinuing them altogether. Dixie College felt the effects of the decision as officials and residents scrambled to respond.
The St. George Stake Academy building, which was constructed 1909-1911, was transferred to the state of Utah in 1933.
DIXIE STATE COLLEGE LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
The citizens of St. George who, a generation earlier had obediently followed the prophet’s counsel to settle, resisted attempts to close their school. The lobbying that ensued, including negotiations between church leaders in Salt Lake City and community leaders and back-room political alliances between school officials and anti-prohibition political parties, reflects a significant change in relationships between the LDS church and its people. The eventual 1933 transfer of Dixie College to the state of Utah is a fascinating window into the character of southern Utah’s citizens and the transformations that occurred within Utah society during the early twentiethcentury. In some ways, the community voice that emerged continues today as the school fights regional rivals seeking to become southern Utah’s premier educational destination.
For nearly four decades, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints embarked on an ambitious educational policy of providing for both the spiritual and secular needs of its youth. Following a directive by church President Wilford Woodruff that “the time has arrived when the proper education of our children should be taken in hand by us as a people,” the saints followed this counsel.1 From 1888 to the late 1920s the faith operated as many as fifty-seven secondary schools stretching from Canada’s Knight Academy in the north to Mexico’s Juarez Academy in the south.2
Dixie College Gymnasium built in 1915-1916.
DIXIE STATE COLLEGE LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Known as the academy system, the schools were established in response to federal anti-polygamy legislation that removed local control over the Utah territorial superintendent of schools office, giving this federally appointed officer power to “prohibit the use in any district school of any book of a sectarian character or otherwise unsuitable.” 3 Though financial strain continually dogged their educational endeavors, the members of the St. George LDS Stake heeded the call, operating the St. George Stake Academy from 1888-1893, and its more permanent successor, what became Dixie College, beginning in 1911. Originally begun as a secondary school, Dixie College followed the path marked by sister institutions Brigham Young Academy and Weber, Snow, Ricks, and Gila Normal Colleges by adding teacher training in 1916, thereby becoming Dixie Normal College. Seven years later, it added additional post-secondary offerings, becoming Dixie Junior College.
While Dixie expanded its educational offerings, LDS church leaders examined alternatives to the expensive private school endeavor. This reexamination was spurred in large measure by a contemporaneous restructuring of Utah’s public education system. The Free Schools Acts of 1872 and 1873, long a source of conflict between LDS church leaders and those of other faiths reappeared before the Utah legislature in 1890. Opposed by previous church presidents including Brigham Young and John Taylor, the 1890 bill was ultimately supported by church leaders when U.S. Senator George F. Edmunds threatened to introduce congressional legislation granting federal control over Utah’s public school system.4 LDS Apostle Abraham H. Cannon summarized both the church position and its political power during the era,
After the law was passed, public schools flourished, as tax receipts quadrupled while attendance rose 23 percent.6 Free public schools, coupled
with a restriction against church influence in education, was formalized six years later when the Utah State Constitution required, “the Legislature shall make laws for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of the State and be free from sectarian control.”7
The Dixie College Science Building. Construction began in 1928.
DIXIE STATE COLLEGE LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
The Free Schools Act and the Utah State Constitution prepared the way for secondary school growth as public high schools burst onto the Utah education scene early in the twentieth century, quickly attracting large numbers of Latter-day Saint students from families unable or unwilling to pay for their children to attend tuition supported church academies. In 1900, the state had six public high schools (Salt Lake City, Ogden, Park City, Brigham City, Nephi, and Richfield), only two of which, Salt Lake City and Ogden, boasted student populations of more than sixty-five. Only five years later, the state reported thirty-three public high schools.8 To provide religious education for these public school students, the church created the released-time seminary program in 1912. The growth of the seminary system matched that of public high schools in Utah, quickly expanding from serving seventy students at Salt Lake’s Granite High School the first year to teaching 3,272 students in twenty high schools by 1920. A decade later, it serviced nearly 26,000 students.9 The statistical success of the seminary alternative, coupled with its financial savings for the church, spelled trouble for the academies. In 1920, church school administrators commented on the system’s failings. Because it was “manifestly impossible . . . to increase the number of academies” in spite of calls from “not a few stakes” that it be done, leaders declared, “the limit of Church finances . . . has definitely limited the number of academies.” In their place, they sought “some plan . . . that might have more general application than the present system.” 10 Dr. Joseph F. Merrill, LDS Church Commissioner of Education, summarized several of the challenges presented by the extensive academy system. “The Church Board of Education and the Church’s leading educators and thinkers in many fields had long realized that Churchoperated academies were a financial burden and were performing a limited service, geographically at least,” Merrill reported.11 Discussion began regarding alternatives.
Joseph F. Merrill, an LDS Apostle and Commissioner of Church Education who led the effort to transfer schools to the state.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
In 1920, church leaders announced their solution: the elimination of private academies in competition with the state’s public school options. By 1924, twelve church schools across the Intermountain West were closed or transferred to state control.12 The only schools remaining, aside from the Juarez Academy in Mexico, were those such as Dixie that had expanded to include some form of college work. In 1926, the church began reconsidering even the survival of these schools after it formed the first college seminary, the Institute of Religion at the University of Idaho that year. This collegiate seminary option, coupled with growing fiscal concerns, led to energetic debate within the LDS Church Board of Education regarding the fate of church schools. As a former faculty member and principal of the Weber Stake Academy, David O. McKay strongly lobbied for the preservation of church schools, eventually casting the lone vote against their closure.13 Ultimately, however, church president Heber J. Grant vocalized his concern, “I am free to confess that nothing has worried me more since I became President than the expansion of the appropriation for the Church school system.”14 Though not announced publicly at the time, the decision was made in 1926 to close church schools.
Anthony W. Ivins, a St. George resident and benefactor who, as a member of the LDS Church First Presidency, worked to preserve Dixie College.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
As the church’s financial conditions worsened in the late 1920s, the church expedited its schoolclosure policy. In spite of the situation, school leaders in St. George tried to put a positive spin on their prospects, encouraging students and community leaders to avail themselves of the opportunity, during the economic distress, of furthering education. At the beginning of the 1930-31 school year Dixie College President Joseph K. Nicholes wrote board members, optimistically outlining the school’s future. Asking officials to “lend your influence . . . amongst all your people to urge boys and girls to come to school,” Nicholes stressed, “The financial pressures of hard times only impress upon us the more the need of educational opportunities.” Praising “continued generosity of the Church,” he boasted “a bigger and better program of study than ever before.”15
That outlook changed dramatically, when, in December 1930, the school found itself in the fight of its academic life. That month, Commissioner Merrill wrote Dixie College Board of Trustees President Edward H. Snow, informing him that the Church Board of Education had decided that “all of our junior colleges—Ricks, Weber, Snow, Dixie, and Gila—shall cease to function as Church-supported institutions either in 1932 or 1933. In other words, June 1933 is the latest date at which any of these institutions shall exist as Church-supported schools.” Clarifying the time frame, Merrill explained that at least two schools would be closed in the summer of 1932, “whether the respective State Legislatures act or not.” This was “true particularly of the schools in Utah,” though the Board hoped “that there will be no closing of junior college opportunities in the communities where the above-named colleges exist, but this is a responsibility that is being passed on to the public.” Explaining the reason for the closure, Merrill tied it to the growth of the seminary system, which could provide religious instruction more economically than church schools. He called upon Snow to “support the decision of the General Board” and to “do whatever can be done to get the public to provide for a continuation of junior college facilities” in St. George.16
As expected, word about the decision quickly spread. J. William Harrison, a member of the Dixie College faculty on leave at Iowa State University, questioned President Nicholes about it just two weeks later. “I see that Brother Merrill has passed sentence again, and it looks as though they mean business this time,” Harrison observed. He praised the church for its pioneering efforts in establishing the school but felt “the State should be criticized very severely if they do not take up the work where the Church leaves it off.”17 Attempting to ease Harrison’s concerns, Nicholes responded with hope that the announcement didn’t really apply to Dixie. He indicated that when the decision was first announced, it “caused considerable consternation amongst us locally . . . but . . . we had advice to the effect that we might justly entertain hope for Dixie College. What this hope may bring to us, I can not say,” Nicholes concluded. But “do not worry. My faith is that time will take care of our just needs.”18
The decision to close required transferring the schools to their respective states. However, closing the schools was one thing, getting the states to assume the burden of financially supporting them during economically trying times was another. Convincing the legislature to act became the challenge. Keeping him advised on the situation, Nicholes again wrote Harrison in February 1931, “Our effort with the present Legislature is to have Dixie College taken over by the State School System within a definite number of years and to have the Church maintain the school in its present form until that definite timearrives. If we can succeed in this measure, we shall be very happy.”20
What gave Nicholes hope is unclear. He may have had some assurance that the church would support the school on a temporary basis, because in February 1931 he wrote, “I believe that if we can keep our schools going ten more years that by that time everything will be secure. It appeals to me that Dixie College should certainly be cared for on whatever Junior College bill that is passed. I think the Church would be willing to support us until such time as the state could take us over even if the time were lengthened out to as much as ten years.”19 Whatever assurance Nicholes may have felt he had, it was apparent that Commissioner Merrill and the church board were serious about discontinuing support for schools, regardless of the time frame, and St. George officials knew it.
A 1933 parade to celebrate Dixie College becoming part of the Utah Higher Education System.
DIXIE STATE COLLEGE LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
While Dixie’s friends worked on its behalf, rivals lobbied against it. Fighting for a limited piece of the budget pie sparked infighting, particularly in southern Utah, where competing schools felt pressure to split limited regional resources amongst the small population. Fifty miles to the north, in equally rural Cedar City, the state sponsored the Branch Agricultural College (B.A.C.), a regional offshoot of the state school system. With the possibility of Dixie receiving state support, the schools faced a battle for limited financial resources. As far away as Ames, Iowa, Harrison sensed the potential for competition. “I fear if we go out,” Harrison reflected, “our Cedar friends will kill the fatted calf. If we were not competing with them for students they could possibly make a school out of the B.A.C.”21
Nicholes likewise sensed the threat. In February 1931, he expressed his fears, “I have been informed by hearsay method that the President of the Agricultural College, Dr. E. G. Peterson and the Director of the B.A.C., Mr. Henry Oberhansley are using their influence to create the impression that B.A.C. can adequately care for the educational needs of Southern Utah, and that the State would be benefited by the close of Dixie College.”22 Conflict between the two schools was complicated by the joint representation the area received in the legislature, as Iron and Washington Counties shared a state senator during the 1930s. Knowing it couldn’t argue for its own persistence at the expense of the school in Cedar City, Dixie leaders argued instead that both should be kept. Continuing his letter to Snow, Nicholes wrote about the joint educational needs of the schools in southern Utah. “I feel certain that the future well-being of both Dixie College and B.A.C. is a mutual problem,” Nicholes noted. Believing the two schools were “too far removed from college educational centers to have an experience and a future growth without each other,” he asked Snow to “press upon [their Senator] the great need of maintaining both B.A.C. and Dixie College for the ultimate good of Southern Utah.”23 With the goal of higher education opportunities in both Cedar City and St. George in mind, the political process of saving the school began.
Negotiations initially centered on getting a junior college bill passed, whereby the legislature would assume responsibility for Weber, Snow, and Dixie Colleges. Nicholes wrote local board of trustee members, as well as local ecclesiastical leaders, asking them to “use your influence with your State Representative at this time to the end that Dixie College will be recommended in whatever bill is passed for the maintenance of Junior Colleges in our State. A letter from you to your Senators and Representatives will do much to further this desired end.”24 The college’s friends complied, pressuring the legislature for support. Hurricane LDS Stake President Claudius Hirschi reported, “I am today writing our two representatives urging that they support the proposition not only with their votes but by actively sponsoring the move. We, in this section, feel keenly the need of this institution and will gladly support any effort to hold it in this vicinity.”25
Complicating the proposed junior college bill was the improbability of receiving state support for three schools. With limited statewide resources, the possibility existed for infighting between the three church schools themselves. Weber, Snow, and Dixie could either choose to fend for themselves or unite, coming in as a group. In Salt Lake City, church leaders feared the latter, worrying that asking too much might scare the legislature away from accepting responsibility for any of the schools. Influential members of the St. George community like Edward H. Snow shared the fear. “I am of the opinion,” Snow cautioned Nicholes, “that our representatives will serve us better if they will help Snow and Weber get what they want and I wish you would adroitly write them that in all probability the holding out for a Junior College for us might jeopardize Snow and Weber, which you do not want to do.”26
Obediently, school officials backed off from Dixie’s inclusion in the proposed junior college bill of 1931, confident that the school would receive church assistance if Weber and Snow became state-sponsored institutions. In fact, church board of education minutes indicate that in late March 1931, “many civic organizations, chambers of commerce, etc. from southern Utah . . . telephoned the Governor asking him to approve the bill,” in spite of its excluding Dixie.27 Nicholes noted this change in attack, writing Hurricane Stake President Hirschi that “the attitude of the Church officials” was “they would be delighted to get rid of the financial responsibility of Snow College and Weber College and Ricks College at this time.” If relieved of the other schools, “they will feel satisfied to carry Dixie College until a future legislature meets.” Nicholes reported that this attitude had been conveyed to school and government officials from Church officials themselves.28
The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints at the time the Church Academics were transferred to state ownership. From left to right: Anthony W. Ivins, Heber J. Grant, and Charles W. Nibley.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Church influence came from ardent supporter of the college Anthony W. Ivins, counselor in the church’s First Presidency and former resident of St. George. With church leaders negotiating behind the scenes, a bill narrowly passed the legislature in 1931, transferring Snow College to the state on July 1, 1932, and Weber College to the state on July 1, 1933.29 Dixie continued to receive church support, waiting for a future legislative session to solicit state aid. Though warned by Commissioner Merrill that there would be no increase in budget in the coming years, the college accepted this proposition over the closure alternative. Having saved the school, at least temporarily, President Nicholes was relieved, as were local legislators. State Representative David Hirschi summarized the tone of the battle, “I have been in almost constant contact the past two years with the representatives of wealth whose hearts seem as cold as ice and as hard as stone, when considering questions of relief for the poor and the oppressed.”30
Having escaped the scare of 1931, Dixie College was forced to face the financial realities ahead. Still, Nich oles held out hope. Keeping faculty member J. William Harrison informed of these developmentswhile studying in Iowa, he declared, “It has been noised about that the Church is not altogether satisfied with getting rid of its Church schools, its junior colleges, so that by the time the clouds clear away, and we enter this new period of Church school work, the schools may be better founded than ever in their history. At any rate, I am still hopeful, especially for the BYU and for Dixie.”31
By 1933 the church saw the benefit of the junior college transfer and decided to push for similar resolution regarding the St. George institution. Again, Commissioner Merrill, then a member of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, led the charge. Like the 1931 battle, political negotiations, both with the legislature and the church, dominated the process. The result highlights the determination of St. George residents to preserve their school and the transition that occurred within church and state relationships.
The first indication that Dixie College was going to be discontinued came in a March 4, 1932, letter from Commissioner Merrill. Dixie College board minutes indicate that the letter “called attention to next year’s being the last year in which our school would function.”32 This surprised board members who noted that “last year the papers announced that the Church schools would close in 1933 but no disposition of Dixie College, specifically, had ever been announced and all the notice we had had was the general announcement through the papers.” 33 Apparently, Merrill was moving forward with his plan to close all schools by June 1933.34 This came in spite of Dixie’s removing itself from the junior college transfer bill in exchange for an understanding that it would continue as a church school.
College representatives sought church input concerning the situation. In early January 1933, Nicholes met with Commissioner Merrill about the proposed closure. Merrill reiterated “his determination to see the Dixie College close,” noting that he had been “brought into his position as Commissioner of LDS Education for the express purpose of closing the LDS Junior colleges and of furthering the LDS Seminary work.” Nicholes countered, reminding Merrill that two years previous Dixie College would have been written into the junior college bill with Snow and Weber, had not the First Presidency intervened, asking Dixie to “cease to have herself included with Snow and Weber colleges.” In exchange, the church agreed to “carry Dixie College under her own leadership.” 35 Commissioner Merrill disagreed.
Not finding a sympathetic ear in Merrill, Nicholes went above him to First Presidency member Anthony W. Ivins. He reported that Ivins “did not entertain the same interpretation as Dr. Merrill neither with respect to actions by the Church Board of Education nor did he sympathize with Dr. Merrill’s determination to close Dixie College.”36 Later the same day, Nicholes wrote Ivins a summary of his arguments, which were read at the next Church Board of Education meeting. They included emphasis on the importance of church schools for rural communities as well as a reminder about the perceived previous agreement. “Two years ago, when Snow and Weber colleges were made State schools,” Nicholes reminded church officials, “Dixie College was agreeably left out of the bill only after our lobbying committee and President Snow had received assurance that Dixie College’s future would be cared for by the Church. This cooperation seemed necessary to the success of the bill, and was in harmony with advice from the First Presidency.”37
Henry H. Blood, Governor of Utah from 1933 to 1941, when Dixie College was acquired by the state.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
In spite of their efforts, church opposition to continuing Dixie College was firm. Following the board meeting where Ivins presented Dixie’s case, Commissioner Merrill wrote Nicholes again, reiterating his position that “Dixie College will not be continued next year as a Church institution.”38 As an alternative, Merrill proposed turning the school into a “first-class union high school.” He promised five thousand dollars in church aid for each of the next two years which, in addition to state-provided equalization funds, would more than adequately finance a public high school lacking in the region. He also offered the entire physical plant to the college board which he proposed they rent to local school officials for one dollar a year. 39 College leaders opposed the idea. Having experienced junior college status for over a decade, few were anxious to see the option removed. Appealing again to the First Presidency, Ivins responded, “It seemed impossible to put a ‘dent’ in Dr. Merrill’s ‘armor.’” He expressed little hope to save the school, but encouraged Nicholes and others to approach the state legislature “and to do all that [they] could” to get Dixie accepted as a state junior college.40
Nicholes immediately turned to the political process, putting all the college’s efforts behind lobbying the legislature. Though initially optimistic, the process quickly became discouraging. By the end of January 1933, Nicholes reported that members of the county board of education “made several contacts with legislators while at the State Capitol and have returned full of depression. . . . They believe that our efforts to retain the college are practically useless.”41 Undaunted, Nicholes turned to community leaders. Trying to unite friendly members from neighboring communities in the cause, he solicited the Cedar City Chamber of Commerce, the Cedar City Rotary Club, and southern Utah chapters of the American Legion, asking that they support the transfer.42 In addition, he polled friends on the State Board of Education, hoping to ascertain Dixie’s chances for state-supported status. Friend and board member John C. Swenson wrote, “I think perhaps that some members of the State Board are not in favor of Junior Colleges at all, but certainly I have heard nothing against the Dixie College.”43
Like the 1931 closure crisis, the proximity of the Branch Agricultural College in Cedar City worked against Dixie’s hope for state support. Dr. M. J. Macfarlane, a physician in the neighboring town and ardent supporter of the Cedar City school, informed Nicholes that his efforts “would only do harm to your prospects as well as the future of this institution which, after all, is the institution to which Southern Utah will have to look for its college work in the future.” Though pessimistic about the region sustaining two junior colleges, Macfarlane did express “hope that the State can come to the rescue in the form of a subsidy for your institution,” especially if it preserved Dixie College as a high school.44
In addition to seeking regional backing and attempting to influence the legislature, Dixie College representatives lobbied the other state junior colleges for support. Seeking to solidify the temporary state support accorded them by the 1931 legislature; Weber and Snow were negotiating in 1933 for permanent status. Dixie College approached their sister institutionswith similar desires. Promising the support of southern Utah representatives, arrangements were made to include Dixie in any bill involving Weber and Snow. The senator from Washington County “made it plain . . . that any effort to leave Dixie College out of a State Junior College program would be considered unfriendly towards Dixie College interests and would meet with opposition both in the House and in the Senate.”45 Dixie was adamant about their inclusion because they feared that junior college legislation “would be closed for years.”46
This public and private posturing for state college status did not sit well with Commissioner Merrill. Hearing of proposed legislation making Dixie a state junior college, Merrill expressed concern to the St. George leaders. In particular, he worried that their efforts would “jeopardize favorable action on the proposition to continue Snow and Weber as State junior college[s].” He expressed concern that conditions were not right for a state school in St. George, believing rival communities like Richfield, Price, or Vernal merited one first. Merrill called upon “the friends of Dixie College [to] desist from an effort to get the college at St. George continued under public auspices,” lend their support to Snow and Weber in their bid for state junior college status, and accept his previous offer that the school be transformed into a public high school.47
J. Bracken Lee, Governor of Utah from 1949 to 1957, sought to close Dixie College or return it to the LDS Church.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
After meeting with St. George leaders about these concerns, Merrill was informed of Dixie’s threat to undermine junior college legislation if not included. He followed up, strongly warning the southern Utah contingency about their efforts. “We told you very frankly our fears were that while there was no chance of the State taking Dixie over, your application might have a detrimental effect on the efforts that were being made in behalf of Snow and Weber.” Concerned that “this thing is getting out of your control,” Merrill cautioned that Snow and Weber would be receiving no additional church aid and, if “failure results” in their effort to receive state support, he was “not at all sure but that the Church will withdraw the generous offers it has already made in behalf of a school at St. George.” This included the free use of the physical plant for a Washington County public high school and the additional five thousand dollars a year for two years from the church to defray costs. Clearly bothered that school officials had gone to the legislaturein opposition to the other church schools, Merrill again asked Dixie to support Snow and Weber “independent of whether the friends of these institutions promise you support or not.” Calling, “the time . . . wholly inopportune” for St. George to have a state junior college, he pled with school officials to “look at this proposition from a state-wide point of view rather than a narrow local one.”48
In spite of Merrill’s appeals, Dixie College leaders went ahead seeking state sponsorship. Opposing publicly stated church interests, they went so far as to negotiate support from groups lobbying to end the national prohibition of alcohol, a major issue facing the state legislature in 1933. Statewide, opinion was strongly divided on prohibition, with LDS Church President Heber J. Grant openly lobbying to preserve the ban while delegates from communities seeking to benefit from the sale of alcohol sought to overturn it. In particular, representatives from Price, a town struggling like many others because of the national economic depression, were anxious to repeal the ban. “Horsetrading” reportedly occurred, as Washington County representatives agreed to support Carbon County delegates in repealing prohibition and in a future bid for its own junior college in exchange for support of Dixie’s inclusion in the proposed junior college bill.49
For its part, Weber College accepted a third institution in the school transfer legislation. Bothered by aspects of the 1931 legislation that granted it state status, Weber hoped that reopening discussion of the junior college bill to include Dixie might allow them to revise the arrangement. Snow College, on the other hand, appears to have been less supportive, though eventually they, too, acquiesced.50 As expected, the strongest opposition came from representatives of neighboring Iron County, which felt that state support for Dixie might jeopardize Cedar City’s own Branch Agricultural College (B.A.C.). Supporting the B.A.C., Wilford Day, state senator from Parowan, vociferously lobbied that the two schools in southern Utah were unnecessary.51
In spite of the opposition, the actual transition went smoother than many had feared. Though Utah Governor Henry H. Blood, a fiscal conservative especially troubled by increased expenditures during difficult economic times, vetoed the original legislation because it appropriated twelve thousand dollars to Dixie, community officials successfully lobbied the legislature to have House Bill 58 reconsidered. Receiving a pledge of temporary community support for the college, funding was struck from a bill that the Governor hesitatingly approved. 52 The school successfully negotiated the transfer, giving the entire physical plant, valued at more than two hundred thousand dollars, to the state. In exchange, the state accepted
David O. McKay, opposed the transfer of church schools to the state and considered reassuming responsibility for Dixie College during his tenure as Church President.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Dixie together with Weber and Snow Colleges on the condition they provide no financial support for the St. George school for the next two years. In March 1933, the Miles Bill passed the Utah legislature, making Dixie College a state junior college. Working out the legal intricacies of the transfer, the state accepted the deed on July 1, 1933, leasing it back to the community of St. George for two years so as not to incur operating costs.53
The school survived without two years of dedicated state college funding through sacrifice, careful budgeting, and generous church assistance. The Dixie Education Association, a non-profit community action group, sprung into action, soliciting community donations, often given in-kind, to offset costs.54 Nearly twenty-two thousand dollars in Washington County school funds went to the school because, as both a junior college and a high school, the institution served secondary school students. Finally, in spite of its opposition to Dixie’s seeking state college status, the church kept its promise of financial support, giving nearly $7,500 annually until the state would reconsider appropriations in 1935. 55 First Presidency member Anthony W. Ivins, a former St. George resident and long-time community benefactor, was likely the key in keeping church funding flowing.56
While the transfer of Dixie College to the State of Utah seems like “much ado about nothing,” the story highlights important transitions in Utah’s educational tradition. Significantly, it marks the philosophy that guides Latter-day Saint Church education, a policy recently summarized by Church Commissioner of Education Elder Paul V. Johnson, “It is the policy and practice of the Church to discontinue operation of such schools when local school systems are able to provide quality education.”57 Instead of providing separate systems aimed at protecting the youth from state influence, the church augments public systems with religious instruction. This policy and practice was established by the church in the 1920s and 1930s and has been implemented, as it was in St. George, ever since.
More importantly, the story highlights a transformation within Latterday Saint society itself. In the 1890s, St. George and other rural Utah communities obediently implemented programs like stake academies, even when they may have been fiscally burdensome or even unnecessary. Central control and obedience to authority were hallmarks of nineteenth-century Mormonism and, ironically, the source of its greatest conflict. 58 This integration of religion, politics, society, and economy into a single non-pluralistic community, as historian Thomas G. Alexander put it, “was simply unacceptable to Victorian America.”59
By the 1930s, a new phase in Mormonism was evident. Leaders in communities like St. George worked for local interests to preserve their school, even opposing efforts and counsel from the church generally, all without personal repercussion. 60 Furthermore, while highlighting the church’s reduced regional control, the story also demonstrates reduced church political influence, as Dixie College successfully brokered an arrangement with other interests in the state to accomplish its goal, opposite that of central church leadership.
Dixie College’s transfer from church to state sponsorship reveals much about the citizens of St. George and their relationship with their faith. It indicates the importance they placed on education and the sacrifices they were willing to make to preserve it. Importantly, the story also highlights a significant aspect of Utah culture. As one of the public’s largest and most influential programs, education strongly reflects societal values. Frederick Buchanan summarized the role education plays as social indicator, “Public schools mirror the societies that maintain them, however much we would wish otherwise. Although reformers have over the years tried to make schools shape the ‘good society,’ their efforts have been frustrated by the inescapable fact that schools tend to follow, rather than precede, social and cultural change.”61 For the community of St. George individually and the church generally, the 1933 transfer of Dixie College to the State of Utah reflects a transformation in the priorities of twentieth century Utahns.
NOTES
Scott C. Esplin is Assistant Professor, Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University.
1 Wilford Woodruff, Letter to the Presidency of St. George Stake, June 8, 1888, in James R. Clark, ed., Messages of the First Presidency (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966), 3:168.
2 Enumerating the church academies is problematic because some were short lived, with little formal organization. However, as many as fifty-seven schools operated within formally erected school buildings and dozens of others operated for several years, meeting in borrowed accommodations. Researchers at Brigham Young University preparing a university exhibit on church education have recently identified as many as fifty-two schools operated by the church following President Woodruff’s 1888 directive. Thirty-five of these schools were called stake academies. In addition, twenty-two other secondary schools existed, often called seminaries because a corresponding academy already existed in the stake. These are not to be confused with the present church education endeavor known by the same name. Finally, a series of ten elementary schools, also known as seminaries, existed in the Mormon colonies of northern Mexico during the time period.
3 Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, cited in C. Merrill Hough, “Two Schools in Conflict: 1867-1890,” Utah Historical Quarterly 28 (April 1960): 127. The article provides a discussion of the conflicts that led to the formation of the church academy system.
4 Frederick S. Buchanan, Culture Clash and Accommodation: Public Schooling in Salt Lake City, 1890-1994 (San Francisco: Smith Research Associates, 1996), 22. For an extensive analysis of LDS church opposition to free public schools. See Stanley S. Ivins, “Free Schools Come to Utah,” Utah Historical Quarterly 22 (October 1954): 321-42.
5 Abraham H. Cannon cited in Buchanan, Culture Clash and Accommodation: Public Schooling in Salt Lake City, 1890-1994 (San Francisco: Smith Research Associates, 1996), 22.
6 Ivins, “Free Schools Come to Utah,” 341-42.
7 Utah State Constitution, Article III, cited in Richard W. Young, Grant H. Smith, and William A. Lee, eds., The Revised Statutes of the State of Utah, in force Jan. 1, 1898: Revised, Annotated, and Published by Authority of the Legislature (Lincoln, NE: State Journal Company, 1897). See also Stanley S. Ivins, “A Constitution for Utah,” Utah Historical Quarterly 25 (April 1957): 95-116.
8 E. J. McVicker, Third Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Utah (Salt Lake City: State of Utah, Department of Public Instruction, 1900), 25-26.
9 Historical Resource File, 1891-1989, Church History Library, Family and Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church History Library, Salt Lake City, hereinafter cited as LDS Church History Library.
10 Church Board of Education minutes, cited in Kenneth G. Bell, “Adam Samuel Bennion, Superintendent of L.D.S. Education, 1919-1928,” (Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University,1969), 52.
11 Joseph F. Merrill, “A New Institution in Religious Education,” Improvement Era, January 1938: 12.
12 The first three schools transferred to their respective states were Idaho’s Cassia Academy, Arizona’s St. Johns Academy, and Alberta, Canada’s Knight Academy in 1921. Three Utah schools, Castle Dale’s Emery Stake Academy, Fillmore’s Millard Stake Academy, and Beaver’s Murdock Stake Academy, were transferred to the state of Utah the following year. Seminary and Institute Statistical Reports, 1919-1953, LDS Church History Library.
13 David O. McKay, Church Board of Education Minutes, March 23, 1926, cited in Centennial History Project Papers, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. McKay’s opposition was centered in his belief that church junior colleges could train teachers for the newly formed seminary program and also in concern that the success of the seminary and institute programs had not yet been “clearly demonstrated.” He recommended that “the local people involved in the junior colleges should be consulted and won over to any proposed eliminations before definite decisions are made.” See Church Board of Education minutes, February 20, 1929, cited in William Peter Miller, Weber College – 1888 to 1933 Collection, LDS Church History Library. See also Church Board of Education minutes, February 20, 1929, cited in the William E. Berrett Research Files, Church History Library, Salt Lake City. See also Gregory A. Prince and William Robert Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2005), 183.
14 Heber J. Grant, Church Board of Education minutes, February 23, 1926, cited in Miller, Weber College – 1888 to 1933 Collection, LDS Church History Library.
15 Joseph K. Nicholes to Members of the Board of Trustees of Dixie College, August 5, 1930, Dixie College Records, 1888-1932, LDS Church History Library.
16 Joseph F. Merrill to Edward H. Snow, December 27, 1930, Dixie College Records, 1888-1932, LDS Church History Library.
17 J. William Harrison to Joseph K. Nicholes, January 10, 1931, Dixie College Records, 1888-1932, LDS Church History Library.
18 Joseph K. Nicholes to J. William Harrison, January 12, 1931, Dixie College Records, 1888-1932, LDS Church History Library.
19 Joseph K. Nicholes to Edward H. Snow, February 14, 1931, Dixie College Archives, Dixie State College of Utah, St. George, hereinafter cited as Dixie College Archives.
20 Joseph K. Nicholes to J. William Harrison, February 12, 1931, Dixie College Records, 1888-1932, LDS Church History Library.
21 J. William Harrison to Joseph K. Nicholes, January 10, 1931, Dixie College Archives.
22 Joseph K. Nicholes to Edward H. Snow, February 14, 1931, Dixie College Archives.
23 Ibid.
24 Joseph K. Nicholes to Board of Trustees members, February 12, 1931, Dixie College Records, 18881932, LDS Church History Library.
25 Claudius Hirschi to Joseph K. Nicholes, February 20, 1931, Dixie College Records, 1888-1932, LDS Church History Library.
26 Edward H. Snow to Joseph K. Nicholes, February 17, 1931, Dixie College Archives.
27 Church Board of Education minutes, March 31, 1931, William Peter Miller, Weber College – 1888 to 1933 Collection, LDS Church History Library.
28 Joseph K. Nicholes to Claudius Hirschi, February 25, 1931, Dixie College Records, 1888-1932, CHL. The survival of Ricks College during this era is an interesting story as well, as attempts to transfer the school to the state of Idaho were repeatedly rebuffed by the Idaho legislature. Eventually, the school remained under church control through the sacrifice of local residents and the support of David O. McKay, who joined the church’s First Presidency in 1934. See Jerry C. Roundy, Ricks College: A Struggle for Survival (Rexburg: Ricks College Press, 1976).
29 M. Lynn Bennion, Mormonism and Education (Salt Lake City: The Department of Education of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1939), 195. General Church Board of Education minutes emphasize active participation by the First Presidency and members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles regarding the transfer of church schools to the state. Anthony W. Ivins championed the cause for St. George while David O. McKay, former teacher at Weber College, lobbied on behalf of the school in Ogden. Records report frequent discussion of the issue during the early months of 1931, including an assignment that Joseph F. Merrill was sent to the governor by the First Presidency to report that “the First Presidency would be very pleased if he would sign the junior college bill.” This apparently came because of rumored division amongst church board members regarding the legislation. See Church Board of Education minutes, March 31, 1931, William Peter Miller, Weber College – 1888 to 1933 Collection, LDS Church History Library. At the local level, supporters of Snow College reported resorting to bribing fellow legislators with legs of lamb in exchange for support for their school. See Albert C. T. Antrei and Allen D. Roberts, A History of Sanpete County (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society and Sanpete County Comission, 1999), 206.
30 David Hirschi to Joseph K. Nicholes, March 1931, Dixie College Records, 1888-1932, LDS Church History Library.
31 Joseph K. Nicholes to J. William Harrison, April 15, 1931, Dixie College Records, 1888-1932, LDS Church History Library.
32 Minutes of the St. George Stake Board of Education, 71, Dixie College Archives.
33 Ibid, 72,
34 Joseph F. Merrill to Edward H. Snow, December 27, 1930, Dixie College Records, 1888-1932, LDS Church History Library.
35 Personal notes of Joseph K. Nicholes, Dixie College Archives.
36 Ibid.
37 Joseph K. Nicholes to Anthony W. Ivins, January 3, 1933, Dixie College Archives.
38 Joseph F. Merrill to Joseph K. Nicholes, January 6, 1933, Dixie College Archives.
39 Ibid.
40 Personal notes of Joseph K. Nicholes, DSC; see also Douglas D. Alder, A Century of Dixie State College of Utah (St. George: Dixie State College, 2010), 57.
41 Joseph K. Nicholes to William O. Bentley, January 31, 1933, Dixie College Archives.
42 Ibid.
43 John C. Swenson to Joseph K. Nicholes, February 13, 1933, Dixie College Archives.
44 M. J. MacFarlane to Joseph K. Nichols [sic], February 6, 1933, Dixie College Archives.
45 Personal notes of Joseph K. Nicholes, Dixie College Archives.
46 Minutes of the St. George Stake Board of Education, 79, Dixie College Archives.
47 Joseph F. Merrill to William O. Bentley, February 3, 1933, Dixie College Archives.
48 Ibid., February 9, 1933.
49 Douglas D. Alder and Karl F. Brooks, A History of Washington County: From Isolation to Destination (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society and Washington County Commission, 1996), 249.
50 Alder, A Century of Dixie State College of Utah, 59. See also Alder and Brooks, A History of Washington County, 248.
51 Alder and Brooks, A History of Washington County, 248.
52 Alder, A Century of Dixie State College of Utah, 59-60. Governor Blood is an interesting study in contrasts. A faithful Latter-day Saint, he was familiar with the church academy system having attended Provo’s Brigham Young Academy. Prior to his election as governor, he served as stake president in the North Davis Stake and later as an LDS mission president in California. Politically, Blood lobbied for federal New Deal funding while opposing expansion of some state programs in Utah. Educationally, he approved legislation transferring Snow, Weber, and Dixie Colleges to the state and oversaw the creation of a junior college in Price but vetoed legislation for similar schools in Richfield and Roosevelt. See Miriam B. Murphy, “Henry H. Blood,” in Utah History Encyclopedia, ed. Allan Kent Powell (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994), 45-46.
53 “State Takes Deeds to Normal Colleges,” The Salt Lake Tribune, June 18, 1933. Agreeing to provide future financial support, the state benefited greatly from the transfer. The value of the physical plant and real estate in 1933 was estimated at two hundred thousand dollars,“Dixie College Plant,” Dixie College Archives. Furthermore, it kept secondary and post-secondary schooling available in St. George, a program that, during its last year of church support, served 222 junior high students (9th and 10th grades), 153 senior high students (11th and 12th grades), and 172 junior college students. See “Dixie College Enrollment Budget for 1932-33,” Dixie College Archives, The transfer of Weber, Snow, and Dixie to the State of Utah included a provision that, should the state choose to cease operation of the schools as educational institutions, ownership would revert back to the church. Interestingly, this possibility nearly became a reality when, in December 1953, Governor J. Bracken Lee signed legislation transferring the three schools back to the church. This came after indication from Church President David O. McKay and his counselor, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., that “if they were turned over to the Church, we should be pleased to operate them.” While Dixie residents enthusiastically supported the idea, supporters of McKay’s former institution, Weber College, strongly opposed the action. Joining with supporters of Carbon College, who also faced closure, they succeeded in getting a referendum placed on the November 1954 ballot, where voters blocked the transfer by a 3-2 margin. See Prince and Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, 183-87. In Weber County, 22,879 votes were cast in favor of retaining state status and 6,042 against. See Richard C. Roberts and Richard W. Sadler, A History of Weber County (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society and Weber County Commission, 1997), 303. In St. George, the results were overwhelmingly the opposite, with 2,649 citizens voting to block the referendum and move forward with the transfer of state schools back to the church. In Dixie, only 427 people voted to maintaint state support for the schools. See Alder, A Century of Dixie State College of Utah, 114.
54 Alder, A Century of Dixie State College of Utah, 63.
55“State Leases Dixie College to St. George,” Salt Lake Tribune, June 20, 1933; “State to Acquire Two Colleges at Saturday Meeting,” Deseret News, June 16, 1933.
56 Alder, A Century of Dixie State College of Utah, 65.
57 Quoted in Leann J. Walton, “New Zealand Church College to Close,” Church News, July 8, 2006, 11, emphasis added.
58 Territorial Chief Justice Elliot F. Sanford summarized the opposition to church influence in Utah, “We care nothing for your polygamy. It’s a good war-cry and serves our purpose by enlisting sympathy for our cause; but it’s a mere bagatelle compared with other issues in the irrepressible conflict between our parties. What we most object to is your unity; your political and commercial solidarity; the obedience you render to your spiritual leaders in temporal affairs. We want you to throw off the yoke of the Priesthood, to do as we do, and be Americans in deed as well as name.” Cited in Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Experience (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992), 182-83.
59 Thomas G. Alexander, Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986), 14.
60 In fact, in spite of the strong differences of opinion, the church kept its promise of financial support while Joseph K. Nicholes, Dixie College president who successfully led the charge to transfer the school to the state, transferred to Brigham Young University where he continued a prominent teaching career.
61 Buchanan, Culture, Class, and Accommodation, 286.
