MAUGHAN, Harrison Davenport & Mary Freestone
Education had already become a high priority in the mind of this teenager. After twelve or fifteen months of employment she had saved enough money to enroll in the new Brigham Young Academy in Logan. Where had she learned what she needed to know to get admitted? How was she able to make her way in the environment of an academy? She may have attended school briefly as a small girl and perhaps for one year just after returning from Franklin Meadows.
Mary left one little school workbook, labled “Alpine City, Utah.” It is filled with evidence of studies in math, geology, grammar (including diagraming sentences) and a lot of theology from the Bible. She also left another workbook in penmanship and a series of well-written essays on a variety of subjects. These showed good spelling and extraordinary penmanship, a beautiful script worthy of a highly educated person.
Mary attended Brigham Young Academy for perhaps only three months, or maybe asmuch as two semesters. At the end of the spring term in 1882, the students exchanged messages in little autograph books, with one greeting per page in the form of a poetic sentiment. Each page is written in beautiful script – a very impressive exhibit, when compared to twenty-first century handwriting, which is often illegible at the college level!