#52ANCESTORS - EDUCATION

Last May we visited Capitol Reef National Park.  Sad to say after living my whole life in Utah this was my first visit there (still have never been to Arches and Canyonlands).  Before we left for the trip my father, Ray Burt, mentioned to my son that he remembers, while spending time in the area with his grandparents, when he was about 8 or 9 (so around 1938) driving into Capitol Reef on a road that wasn't paved.  On the left he could see a schoolhouse that he was told was still in use and on the right were the orchards.  Fruita Schoolhouse.  I thought about that schoolhouse as we drove through the Park. As we listen many nights to the news reports of school shootings, we often wish we could go back to the "good ol' days".  

Following is a very incomplete list of four generations of my family and the schools or best guess of schools that they attended.

Scott - Bellview Elementary 

Bobbi - Edgemont Elementary (just up the street from Bellview) All three of our boys went to at least one year at Edgemont, Bryce and Brad then went to Alta View Elementary for the ALPS program. Brock tried the ALPS program, not a good fit, and was back at Edgemont until we moved to Vernal in 2000 and went to 4th at Ashley Elementary, 5th at Discovery, that was the only grade that was there, and then 6th began middle school. 

Ray Burt - Forest Elementary, Salt Lake

Maida Webb Burt - Highland Park, Jefferson and Forest (not at the same time as Ray, they were 5 years apart), all in Salt Lake 

Roger Gessell - West Jordan Elementary where he states that his Aunt Eva was his teacher for three years. 

Doris Lindsay Gessell - Altamont? I need to find out about this one from her sister. I believe there was only one school for all grades and I don't know if it was in Altamont or Mountain Home. (I tried to call Janet (Doris' sister) today on her birthday.  She is in an assisted living home.  I was excited to ask her about her elementary school days and find out the elementary she and her sister attended.  She couldn't hear me and I was unable to find out the information.)  

Ray Burt, Sr. - Census of 1920 has him in Salt Lake City Ward 1 at a home on Lincoln Street (runs from 1300 S to 1500 South between 900 E and 1000 E. Forest Elementary was built in 1906 at 900 E 2100 S Wanda Peterson - In the 1920 census was in Sevier County.  

Henry Hudson Webb - I don't know where he went to school.  He has done a few histories but none of them mention a specific school.  This picture was included in a group of photos that I obtained from him.  Looks like a schoolyard.  

Maida Cottrell Webb - 1910 Census has her in Salt Lake City Ward 2, on Mead Street (between 9th So. and 13th So. and 2nd West runs for just a couple blocks East).  Maybe Whittier Elementary?? It was at 120 West 5th South and built in 1885.  

Earl Gessell - the 1920 census has him at West Malvern Avenue in Salt Lake, maybe Highland Park Elementary School.

Mildred Haun - near Winchester Street in Murray in the 1920 census, maybe Liberty Elementary or Bonnyview. 

George Geddes Lindsay - residence in Park City in 1910.  The Lincoln School is a possibility, but a history of Park City states it was one of three schools built to meet the demands of a growing school population as mining in the area increased.

Thelma Andersen Lindsay - 1910 census has her family living in Castle Dale, Emery County, Utah.  The LDS Church had built a school known as a Stake Academy.  It functioned as a high school (7th - 12th) for LDS residents from anywhere in the county.  Thelma was in the Uintah Basin by 1920 and I'm not sure when her family left Emery County.\

So what I learned by this post - unless there are stories told and shared, histories written or facts known, the information, even seemingly basic information such as what elementary school did you attend, is lost to posterity.