This is the first published version of the Quiver. It was donated by James E. Stewart to Preston High's History Department. Mr. Edwards found our High School Web Site and e-mailed the webmaster requesting the opportunity to donate the 1917 quiver to the school. We would like to thank him for this memorable and valuable book. The Preston High History Department appreciated his wiliness to preserve this piece of work.
| The Oneida Stake Academy was built in 1895, the little schoolhouse helped shape the lives of two LDS Church presidents and gave shape to the Church Education System. The church architect Don Carlos Young drew up the plans for the building. The cornerstone was laid on July 2, 1891 and President George C. Parkinson offered the dedicatory prayer. The building was finally completed in 1894; it was dedicated by Moses Thatcher who was in the council of the twelve apostles. Built from 1890-94 by German immigrant John Nuffer at a cost of between $46,000. |
The academy was one of the premiere primary and secondary schools in the northern Utah-southern Idaho area for several decades. It was the center of education for the region between Franklin and Pocatello at one time.
It is on the National Historical Register. One of very few academies left standing from the period in which the church was involved in public education.
The academy is believed to be the oldest of 35 such academies built between 1888 and 1909 at scattered locations around Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, Mexico and Canada. The academies were forerunners to the LDS Church Educational System and seminary program. It was first dedicated 109 years ago by LDS apostle Moses Thatcher. Other academies built at the time were the Bannock Stake Academy, Sanpete, St. George and Brigham Young. Those schools went on to become Brigham Young-Idaho, Snow College, Dixie State and BYU respectively after the church abandoned the academy system in 1922.
The Academy helped educate several LDS Church leaders, including Harold B. Lee and Ezra Taft Benson, were educated there, along with two Medal of Honor recipients.
Another notable name to emerge from the academy was Samuel P. Cowley. Now known as a famous FBI agent, he was killed while trying to arrest notorious mobster "Baby Face" Nelson.
By 1922 students returned to public education. The church decided not to duplicate the efforts of the public school system, said Woods. The building was then sold to the Preston School District.
In 1922 the academy was changed to Preston High School. The academy was still used until the new high school was built, and then a few classes were still held there. One tradition that was started in the first years of the academy was (The Quiver). It is still the yearbook at PHS.
The Academy has been moved to the Benson Park, there it will be restored. Contractors cut the building off its original foundation and shifted it onto huge rollers, which inched their way two blocks north and a block west to Benson Park. Leaders of the LDS Church donated part of the park — named after former LDS Church President Ezra Taft Benson — as a place for relocation of the academy.
Preservationists raised the $1.2 million that was needed to move the building from its present location — including a $250,000 donation from Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller and his wife, Gail, who has ties to the Franklin County area. Other major donations came in at the last minute from unnamed sources, even as the local school board was negotiating with contractors for demolition.
The academy has meant a lot to our community. It has set high standards and taught many great people.