Uintah Stake Academy

Mormon academy, in operation from 1888 to 1923, located in Vernal, Utah. This and other academies were founded under the 19th century policy of the Mormon Church Board of Education to establish schools in the various stakes of the Mormon Church.

The Uintah Stake Academy was founded September 15, 1888, pursuant to a letter of instruction from Wilford Woodruff, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was the policy of the Church Board of Education under the direction of Karl G. Maeser to establish schools in the stakes of the Church or in enough of the stakes so that all Church members could receive the benefit of these institutions.

The first Board of Education of the Uintah Academy consisted of Reuben S. Collett, Phillip Stringham, Henry A. Woodruff, C. C. Bartlett, George P. Billings, Barnabas L. Adams, and James Hacking. The school was opened during October of 1891, with Professor Henry Peterson acting as principal. He was hired for a salary of one hundred dollars per month. Professor Peterson was succeeded as principal by Nelson G. Sowards, 1892 to 1894; Andrew B. Anderson, 1895 to 1901; Don B. Colton, 1901 to 1903; Raymond Partridge, 1903 to 1905; J. William Robinson, 1905 to 1906; William J. Snow, 1906 to 1908; Hyrum Manwaring, 1908 to 1910; N. L. Nelson, 1910 to 1912; Robert H. Sainsbury, 1912 to 1919; H. Lorenzo Reid, 1919 to 1920; and Ernest A. Jacobsen, 1920 to 1923, the year of the Academy's closing.

The site for the school, an acre and fifty-eight rods of land centrally located in Vernal, Utah, was purchased from J. R. Workman for the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars. The students occupied rented quarters until 1892, when one room was erected on what became the Tabernacle block of Vernal. A second room was added in 1893, and then a third was made by partitioning the larger of the other two. Steps were taken toward the erection of a building adequate to the needs of the school, but owing to unforeseen circumstances, active building operations were not begun until the spring of 1911. The result was the building which the Uintah Academy occupied until its closing in 1923.

At first only the seventh and eighth grades were taught; ninth and tenth grades were added in 1896; an eleventh grade during 1910-1911; and the twelfth, in the year 1914, thus establishing a full four year institution. In 1922, the ninth grade was discontinued, making the Academy at its close a senior high school.

The enrollment at the Uintah Academy during the first year was only sixteen students; in 1922, 262 pupils were enrolled; and in 1923, this figure decreased to 160. There was a total of 328 graduates from this school during its history, four the first year and thirty-two, the last.

The Uintah Stake Academy closed its doors in 1923 as one of the last remaining L.D.S. Church Academies. Most academies had closed down earlier for financial reasons. The property and Academy building were sold to the Uintah School District Board of Education.

[This historical information was drawn from various sources found in the scholastic records, Box 1, (see Container List), specifically from the article, 328 Graduates from U. A. During Life of School, (page 51 of the Uintah Stake Academy Alumni Association history book, Box 1 Folder 9), and the History of the Uintah Stake Academy, 1888-1910, (Box 1 Folder 16).]

From the guide to the Uintah Stake Academy records, 1905-1920, (L. Tom Perry Special Collections)