Brigham Young High School History
From 1921 to 1930 ~ The Prosperous Twenties
A surge of optimism filled Utah as World War I ended in 1918 and Utah's servicemen eventually returned home to cheering crowds, parades, enthusiastic celebrations and generous parties, although the influenza epidemic required some precautions. More than 21,000 of Utah's men had enlisted in land forces, and another 3,500 had joined the Navy and Marines. More than half were volunteers rather than draftees.
Brigham Young High School students and their families on the home front had also proved their loyalty by contributing to scrap metal drives, growing victory gardens, and oversubscribing to the Liberty Bond drives, five of which were held in Utah.
Amos N. Merrill
William H. Boyle, Jr., had begun serving as principal of Brigham Young High School in 1909, and Amos N. Merrill became principal from 1912 to 1915. It is possible that William H. Boyle Jr. again became principal at that point, because records say he served in that position until 1926.
Edgar M. Jenson
Asael C. Lambert briefly served as principal from 1926 to 1928, and the decade ended with a new principal, artist and educator Edgar M. Jensen. Jensen's term began in 1928, and continued on for seven years until 1935.
President Heber J. Grant visits the campus.
President Heber J. Grant, had become the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on November 23, 1918, and he continued to serve in this capacity until 1945. He was a frequent visitor to BYH and BYU.
In January of 1921 the presidency of Woodrow Wilson ended. He had struggled hard to keep the US out of war during his first term, but after reelection, had asked Congress to declare war on Germany in April 1917. The massive American effort had slowly tipped the balance in favor of the Allies. Germany had signed the Armistice in November 1918, but Congress subsequently refused to approve the Versailles Treaty. President Wilson, against the warnings of his doctors, had made a national tour to mobilize public sentiment for the treaty. Exhausted, he suffered a stroke and nearly died, but lived until 1924.
Warren Harding was elected as Wilson's successor in 1920 and served from 1921 to 1923. His administration slowly became embroiled in scandal, with some members of his administration seeking illegal self-enrichment. In August of 1923 he died in San Francisco of a heart attack. Calvin Coolidge, vice president, received word at 2:30 on the morning of August 3, 1923, while visiting in Vermont, that he was President. Coolidge served with dignity and few words from 1923 to 1925, when he was then elected president in his own right from 1925 to 1929. In 1928, while vacationing in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he issued the most famous of his laconic statements: "I do not choose to run for President in 1928." The decade ended with a new president, Herbert Hoover.
Utah enjoyed relative prosperity during the 1920s. Growth came in manufacturing, administration, business services, and transportation, but lagged behind in mining and farming. It was a difficult time for farm families who invested in fruit trees or in sugar beets -- both earlier considered "sure bets." Dairying, however, became more important to Utah's economy. Profitable dairy products included various cheeses and evaporated milk.
The big news in athletics at both BYH and BYU was that, by autumn of 1920, the BYU Board of Education reinstated football, lifting its 19-year ban on the sport. A search for a collegiate mascot ended in October of 1923 when BYU teams became known as the "Cougars." Not long thereafter, BYH teams became known as the "Wildcats."
A dream of the students and faculty was to build a new stadium. A western hillside on Temple Hill was chosen as the site, and on September 29, 1928, BYU played its first football game in the stadium. Nearly every BYH and BYU student contributed money or labor. This stadium became the site of BYH home football games until the new BYU stadium was completed in 1964.
BYH Graduating Class of 1921
The increasing urbanization of Utah meant that by 1921 nearly half of the population of Utah lived along the Wasatch Front. The percentage of Mormons in the total population declined to 68 percent as the state grew.
The coincidence of a major water source and the intersection of two railroad lines led to the construction in the Provo area of the Ironton steel mill in the early 1920s, and later the much larger Geneva steel plant. To people who drove by the Ironton plant for decades thereafter, it was known as "The Big Stink." Geneva became controversial over the years as a source of pollution. However, both plants provided badly needed employment and economic stability for surrounding communities. Railroads brought in the needed raw materials and transported finished steel products from Provo.
Reed Smoot
George Sutherland, a famous alumnus of Brigham Young Academy High School, was an attorney who had been elected to the US House and US Senate from Utah. He was appointed by his good friend, President Warren G. Harding, and confirmed by the Senate to be a member of the US Supreme Court on September 5, 1922. He served for sixteen years until he retired in 1938.
Senator Reed Smoot, another well known graduate of BYA High School, entered Congress in 1903 after a remarkable national debate, and during the 1920s held increasing power in the U.S. Senate.
Another of BYH's most illustrious students is Philo T. Farnsworth, the father of television. In 1923, the Farnsworth family moved from Rigby, Idaho, where high school student Philo had devised his "image dissector" idea, to Provo, hoping to increase the educational opportunities they felt a university town had to offer their children.
They purchased a large home near Brigham Young University and rented the upstairs to eight students. The rent money supplemented the income Farnsworth's father made from working on a family farm in Idaho, and in road construction.
Farnsworth attended Brigham Young High School beginning in fall of 1923 until he graduated in June of 1924. His father died of pneumonia at the age of 58 in January 1924, and Philo Farnsworth struggled to provide for his family and continue his studies at BYU. Eventually he set up a laboratory in San Francisco, and transmitted the first television image on September 7, 1927.
Philo T. Farnsworth
In 1925, both BYH and BYU celebrated their Semi-Centennial Jubilee -- fifty years since Brigham Young Academy was founded in 1875. The 50th anniversary of first classes held was celebrated in January 1926.
"I remember a jubilee celebration," wrote Dorothy O. Rea, Deseret News writer and a former student at the BYU Training School, "when we joined with all the college students and marched down Academy Avenue (father of University Avenue) to the Provo Tabernacle. All the students sang, 'Stars of Morning, Shout for Joy,' and it was one of life's biggest moments."
The comparative prosperity that Utah had enjoyed during the 1920s came to a halt when on October 29, 1929, the New York Stock Market collapsed, bringing on the Great Depression.
Historical Overview ~ 1876 to 2006
From 1869 to 1903
From 1903 to 1920
From 1921 to 1930
From 1931 to 1940
From 1941 to 1950
From 1951 to 1960
From 1961 to 1968
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