Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The John Morgan Monument in Salt Lake City


Description of the monument sent by John Hamilton and Helen Melvina Groesbeck Morgan descendant Bessie S.

My mother had an eight-page pamphlet published by the Utah State Historical Society and the John H. Morgan Memorial Library on the occasion of the unveiling of the original John Hamilton Morgan monument.

Included in the pamphlet are tributes from Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr., D.H. Christensen, given February 20, 1947, and one from President B.H. Roberts, no date given.

The pamphlet includes John H. Morgan’s “Life in Brief,” a picture of John H. Morgan in later years, a copy of an invitation to the Morgan Commercial College Young Men’s Re-Union Ball for Thursday Evening, January 26, 1871, and a picture of the monument and plaque (below).

On the cover it says:

In Memoriam
John Hamilton Morgan
Soldier, Educator, Statesman, Churchman

The monument was unveiled and presented to Salt Lake City at 7:30 p.m., May 8, 1959. It is located at 257 South Main Street.



The plaque reads: Morgan Commercial and Normal College, Organized January 1868. On this site John Morgan, noted Civil War veteran, educator, LDS missionary, and Church Leader established the first successful educational institution in the territory of Utah. Here was established in the Morgan College in 1870, Utah’s first free public library and reading room, and here many of the future pioneer merchants, bankers, educators, and church leaders received their educational training.

April 30, 2009. This is the spot where the monument stood, with its drinking fountains, outside of Kress in the 1960s.

When I first saw this insert on the side of the monument, I thought, “How nice they included Mellie as she went off to school as a young student and later became the teacher’s wife.” There is a young man (a missionary, I think) pictured on the opposite side of the monument.

Thank you for the information and photos, Bessie!

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