EXHIBITS
St. John's Episcopal Church: 150 Years of Service: First Members
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First Members
The first members of the congregation at St. John's Episcopal Church were all Cache Valley residents who, in 1873, were all dissatisfied with the direction their community was heading. They came together to find a new group of people who would accept them the way they were. As a result, from 1873 to 1885, 34 households joined the congregation and shaped the first
Below is a copy of the first register, with a written history that has been added to by several hands.
Aaron Dewitt
Aaron Dewitt is widely recognized as the first Gentile in Cache Valley, even though he was a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He became dissatisfied with the way that the church was being run in Logan and had witnessed too many episodes of "frontier justice" by the governing body of Mormons for his taste.
The Dewitt family is the first group to be added to the register of St. John's in February of 1874, adding an adopted daughter in 1875, showing the desire to adapt the religious beliefs that Dewitt had when presented with a friendlier society for his family.
Aaron Dewitt was instrumental in the development of the mission in Cache Valley. He provided Bishop Tuttle and Rev. Stoy a place to stay when they first arrived, his bakery was the first location for a school and chapel, and he supported having a more diverse religious and political environment in Cache Valley. (1)
1. "St. John’s Church Has Long History in Cache Valley,” Logan Herald Journal,” July 23, 1951. https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6cw01p8.
Sarah Godwin Brown Goodwin (1840–1912)
Sarah Godwin Brown Goodwin was hired as a teacher at St. Mark’s school, one of the first official schools in the state of Utah, in Salt Lake City after graduating from the same school. Sarah was later hired as principal of St. John’s Mission School in 1877, where she worked until moving back to Salt Lake City as principal of St. Mark’s. In 1887, Sarah married Charles Isaac Goodwin, one of five brothers who owned a general store and several other important businesses that were direct competition with the Logan Cooperative Mercantile Institution. (2)
2. A. J. Simmonds,In God’s Lap: Cache Valley History as Told in the Newspaper Columns of A.J. Simmonds(Logan, Utah: Herald Journal, 2004). 115-117.
Kenneth W. Godfrey, Logan, Utah: A One Hundred Fifty Year History (Logan, Utah: Exemplar Press : Printed by Watkins Printing, 2010). 27.
She went on to be one of the first two women in the Utah Agricultural College’s first faculty, where she served as the whole music department due to the fact that she could play and teach lessons in piano, violin, guitar, and the organ. In addition to her music teaching career, Sarah was the first librarian for the UAC, holding that position from 1888–1892 and 1896–1904. (3) Local historian A. J. Simmonds notes in his Herald Journal column of history that “she was the first woman to be appointed to office after statehood, when Gov. Wells nominated her as a member of the Board of Trustees of Utah State University”. (4)
3. Utah State University, “Women of USU: Then and Now, Sarah Godwin Brown Goodwin and Jennifer Duncan,” Utah State Today, September 16, 2019, https://www.usu.edu/today/story/women-of-usu-then-and-now-sarah-godwin-brown-goodwin-and-jennifer-duncan.
4. A. J. Simmonds, In God’s Lap: Cache Valley History as Told in the Newspaper Columns of A.J. Simmonds (Logan, Utah: Herald Journal, 2004). 190–191.
