The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-06-16

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installed himself in the heart Of every
child.
DR.. Park became interested in the
people around him and in their relig-
ious views, and in the spring of 1862
identified himself with the dominant
church. But he could not believe that
he was a Mormon; he thought that he
had become hypnotized by a Mormon
atmosphere. Fitted out with a
Shelmerdine hat, a soldiers suit, foXed
pants and a v~alley-tan pair of boots,
he set out for Oregon. After an event
full trip by way of Fort Lemhi, Deer
Lodge and Walla Walla, perhaps on
account of the high water and the In
dams, DR.. Park reached Portland with
81 in his pocket, his soldiers suit in
shreds, his valley-tan boots stretched
into any shape, but his Shelmerdine
hat as thick and stiff as ever. He
picked up the morning paper and read
the encouraging news that at the be-
ginning of winter the n-ewly-arrived
immigrants were starving and unable
to get work. 1t occurred to the doc
tor that Horace Greeley'S famous adj
vice to young men was not so sage as
it was reported to be. He went out to
the town OF Wheatland, on the Will
lamette river, and there taught school,
boarding round with the students.
During the summer of 1863 he entered
a large shipping house at Wheatland,
at first as ferry boatman, but soon
was given a place as clerk and then
thai of book-keeper, with general
supervision of the whole business.
With all his experience in teaching
school, l take it that DR.. Park was
never deemed a first-class professor of
- r,-GSD o,l HAu- hi- crYnaacrA.
Jared in making out statements from
those books will probably ever be a
subject for contemplation for many of
us.
Again DR.. Park found himself with
bright financial prospects. but dis
contented. Though he had been away
from Utah two years, the desire to
return was stronger than it was when
he first reached Portland. He there
fore closed his business affairs at
Wheatland and returned to Salt Lake
in the summer of 1864. Arriving here,
he again secured the Draper school,
and taught there for five consecutive
years. Nc higher compliment can be
paid to Dr.. Parks ability as a teacher
than to recount his success during
those years. In a little country viii
Iage, with a population of only about
800, secluded in one corner of the val
ley, he created an educational inter-
est that has given rise to Diapers
reputation of having given to Utah
more men of distinction than any
other village even OF thrice its popula-
ton. Among the many men that have
gained a victory in the battle OF life
and attended DR.. Parks school at
Draper may be mentioned John b.
Booth, of Provo: J. Z. Stewart, of
-.-- Tol- n Go-,no edition of tho
Deseret News; William NJ. Stewart, of
the university, and the Hon. Joseph
L. Rawlins. Truly was it written, ''by
their fruits We shall know them"
DR.. Parks reputation as an edu-
Gator was now we'll established in the
territory. and in March, 1869, the re-
gents of the University of Deseret in
vited him to take the position of the
president of its faculty. 1t always
sounds like a title of high honor to
be called the president of the faculty
of a university. but when DR.. Park
was called TO the place there was no
faculty. The university was without
a campus. without a library, without
a museum. without laboratories. with
out lecture halls and without stu
dents; possessed of nothing save a
name. it was what c. j. Marshall
characterized as an artificial being,
invisible. intangible and existing only
in contemplation of law. Coming into
control of nothing hat constitutes a
real university, in what direction
should DIR. Park put forth his efforts
in order to lay the foundations OF an
institution that would Immediately
benefit its supporters and in succeed
decades prove a pride and glory
TO the future state? Should he
seek for endowments and approprla-
lions to erect creditable buildings and
suitable apparatus? What
for success was there in this ter
with a population of only 93,OOO?
DR.. Park is o a utopian, a mere
theOrist but a perSplcaclouS educator
in the habit of examining well his re-
sources. He did not imagine them
through book formulate and by a pro-
of verbal reasoning conclude that
the university of which he was about
to take charge should compare in
thoroughness and comprehensiveness
with the long established universities
of the east. He sees the Univerity as
it is, with all its expected concomi-
absent. No one knew better
than DR.. Park the Importance of
apartments. apparatus and
to a university; but no one
knew better than he that magnificent
halls, libraries and laboratories and q
renowned faculty do not constitute a
great institution of learning. The one
essential feature necessary to make
4 school renowned is ambitious, in
dustrious students, prepared for q
education and determined to
one. Where these congregate
we have an institution of learn
ing. The public schools of our ter
ritory did not fit students for a col
Iege ours and DR.. Park saw that the
most important work of the Univer-
sity for many years to come vas to
send out teachers to every part of the
territory that students might be pre-
pared for college work.
1t was for this reason that DR.. Park
threw his whole soul into the work
Of the normal department. He was
especially fitted for this work. An
in all things pertaining to
be was able to teach. by eX-
the beneficent effect of a
disposition in the school
Even under all the unfavor-
able conditions that DR.. Park as
his duties he went to work
an enthusiasm that presaged
success. In the catalogue of 1869 was
announced the determination of the
officers of the institution to make it
as a central university. every
educational requirement of our pros
Jerous territory. A classical course
If four years. a normal course of two
years, a commercial course and a. pre-
)aratory course were offered in the
University curriculum and in connec-
ion with the normal department a
model school for the training of teach
The faculty consisted of DR..
John r.. Park, president and professor
If natural history; Orson Pratt. SEN.
A. M, professor Of mathematics, as