John Morgan's Commercial College, The Pioneer College of Utah. March 1869.

                                                               

On Saturday The Ancestor Files posted this pamphlet for Morgan’s Commercial College. Seeing it in its entirety answers and poses a variety of questions.

All eight pages appear in The Life and Ministry of John Morgan, “For a Wise and Glorious Purpose,” by Arthur Richardson, copyright 1965, Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr., pgs 51-58. Thanks to modern technology, internet access, and Amy’s discovery anyone can study and enjoy this little pamphlet, as it appeared in 1869.

The following is my list of questions and answers triggered by reading The Pioneer College of the Rocky Mountains pamphlet.

1-- After the lengthy vacation students have been treated to, caused indirectly by the illness of the Principal, the work is taken up with renewed interest; and during the time of the vacation arrangements have been made perfect for the more complete control of the school, and an entire reorganization of the management coupled with the experience of the past, satisfy that the college will excel its previous success---unparalleled as that has been in the territory. What illness did John Morgan suffer from that caused his school’s lengthy vacation?

2—"Change of Base to the Music Hall."  J. Morgan, M. A., Principal, Music Hall, First South Street, Salt Lake City, Utah.   Was the “Music Hall” John Morgan moved his school into on First South Street the site of the future Morgan Hotel?

3— Great Grandmother Mellie Groesbeck is listed in the “Ladies Class” and as a teacher in the Music Department after she became Mrs. Mellie Morgan, Teacher, Piano-Fortes because the students listed on pages 3-4 are a “List of Students who have attended the College between Feb. 1, 1868, and Jan. 31, 1869.” Mellie Groesbeck married John Morgan October 24, 1868. 

4—In an earlier time this pamphlet was considered “Very Rare,” which is penciled on the top of the cover, perhaps because Samuel Auerbach is listed as a student on page 3.  It looks as though a “book dealer” was hoping to get $25.00 for it.

5—I would have liked to audit Grandfather John Morgan’s Commercial Course on “Railway.”  I wonder if he could have imagined at that point in his life, the expert on railways he would become in the remaining twenty-five years of his life.

Picture of John Morgan from Richardson, pg. 45.