This article originally appeared in the Summer 2001 issue of Pioneer Magazine
Founded on January 1, 1867, Morgan Commercial College quickly became the first successful educational institution in Utah or the Intermountain West that taught subjects above the grammar grades. The first facility occupied two rooms on two floors of a downtown Salt Lake City building; the school’s curriculum that first year included bookkeeping, grammar, spelling, mental and physical arithmetic, commercial and international law; and business correspondence.
Since morgan college, which was coeducational (although male and female students were separated during their school and study periods), was the only school in the territory that offered an education above elementary school, it immediately gained popularity Within a short time, Morgan began looking for larger facilities, a search he would repeat several times in the next few years.
Morgan financed the school by selling scholarships, and a scholarship permitted the holder to attend the school. Scholarships were sold for $15 for a quarter (three months) or $35 for a lifetime scholarship.
Morgan College featured revolutionary teaching methods that were extremely practical. Most of the coursew?ork was based on individual effort and work. Two students could take the same course, and one of them could complete the course in six months, while the second one could take two years to reach the same objective.
Students were given spelling and math books and instructed to master certain sections of the book. When they felt prepared, they could take the test. Whenever they had questions or needed assistance, it was readily available front school professors.
The school offered hands-on experience; inside its walls were grocery stores, dry goods stores, brokerage houses, and a bank, all in miniature. If a student was studying business and wanted to learn how to run a grocery store, he would run the grocery store at Morgan College. He would buy and sell merchandise, conduct sales, keep the books, and learn all other aspects of the business.
The Morgan bank operated just like a real bank. It used paper money, but inside the school, that money was treated as real currency. The dry goods store operated on a small scale (small pieces of cloth represented bolts of cloth, etc.), but each facility essentially operated just as it would in real life- Another Morgan College hallmark was lectures presented by eminent businessmen in the community.
One report on the college stated that many of those who attended felt that as far as qualifying oneself for a vocation in life, a person could get more knowledge and practical experience in a few months at Morgan than students decades later received in the same number of years! That is certainly high praise.
Tests were administered every three weeks, and students could not progress without passing required examinations. Once again, one student might speed through a course in only three weeks, while another student may take months before moving on to the next section of study
After barely a year of operation, the school once again moved locations to a larger facility in January 1868, This new facility would eventually house the community’s first library and reading rooms, another milestone for both Morgan and Salt Lake City. Students from all over the territory flocked to attend the prestigious school, and student rosters included many names recognized as members of prominent community and Church families.
In the summer of 1870, John Morgan built another structure to house his ever growing college; the name of the school changed that year as well to Morgan Commercial College and Normal School. The school was universally recognized as the finest educational institution in the territory The a 1 most-instant success of Morgan College caught the attention of LDS Church leaders, who had several years earlier established the University of Deseret. That school, however, had floundered and quietly closed its doors. Later, the university was revived in December of 1867, primarily because of the success of Morgan College. Interestingly, John Morgan spent a year teaching at the University of Deseret, while still administering at Morgan College,
With John Morgan’s departure from the school in 1875 and the steady expansion of the University of Deseret (which would later become the University of Utah), Morgan Commercial College and Normal School gradually decreased in size and importance. The school closed its doors in the late 70s but not before literally making history in more ways than one.
MEMORIALIZING MORGAN
Through the years, the monument has seen a variety of mishaps, including the loss of the bust of Morgan, which was sculpted by Ortho Fairbanks and sat atop the impressive memorial. Fortunately, the bust showed up sometime later, and the monument was restored.
During recent construction, however, the monument had to be removed. Today, it is located on Main Street between 200 and 300 South in downtown Salt Lake City.
Notable Students of Morgan Commercial College