In this Alumni Directory, our focus is on the often-forgotten BY Academy secondary senior classes between 1877 and 1903, and on the BY High School senior classes from 1904 to 1968.

In 1881 Brigham Young Academy's Scientific Department broke new ground by awarding a "collegiate diploma" to James E. Talmage, the first such BYA diploma to be issued. This raised serious questions about whether a secondary school could issue a "collegiate diploma" that would be recognized by colleges. James Talmage and others were required to take extra tests at other colleges before their collegiate credential was accepted.

BYU and the BYU Alumni Association keep records of BYA collegiate-level graduates, but have not in the past kept comprehensive lists of BYA high-school-level graduates. That is why our emphasis in this Directory is on high school graduates. Nevertheless, in this Directory we will also track the relatively small number of BYA students who received BYA collegiate degrees between 1881 to 1903, simply to avoid confusing the two groups, and because there is much overlapping. [We have also added the earliest BYU graduates, 1904 to 1935, for the same reasons.]

BY Academy Class of 1881.

According to Principal Karl G. Maeser's report published in The Territorial Enquirer newspaper, Provo, Utah on June 22, 1881, the BYA Class of 1881 included eighteen students:

High School, Commercial: 6. These six included: Thomas Adams, Oscar Berglund, George Gardner, Elias Kimball & J. Golden Kimball, and Angus Vance.

High School, Normal (Teachers): 11. These eleven included: Simon Eggertsen, Hannah Friel, Daniel Harrington, Mary John, Ida Keate, Laura Larsen, Rose Lee, Joseph Noble, Hannah Rees, Sadie Shepherd, and Elmira Wilson.

In 1881 the Academy recognized its first ever Collegiate graduate, James E. Talmage.

To indicate the diversity of students at BYA, the following quote is taken from Principal Maeser's report regarding its Normal (teaching) Department: "In the Normal dept., 35 students have been registered during the present year, of whom 3 have already been acting teachers and taken only a finishing course of one term*; 3 have given up the profession; 1 had left at the end of the third term to return next year; 11 were graduated that day, leaving 4 still in attendance." [The four still in attendance were: Isaiah M. Coombs, Flora Harvey, Nels Nelson, and Ettie Swarthout.]
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*It is entirely likely that these three acting teachers who took a "finishing course" for one term, thereafter considered themselves to be BYA alumni, though their names are not listed in the Principal's Report.

BY Academy High School Class of 1880. ~ ~ BYA Collegiate Class of 1881. Source: The Territorial Enquirer of Provo, Utah, June 22, 1881, "Principal's Report." ~ ~ Faculty & Staff, Training School & Chemistry, 1879-1891. Board of Trustees, 1886 to 1891. ~ ~ ~ ~ Elder Talmage obtained his early schooling in the National and Board schools of his home district in England, and was an Oxford diocesan prize scholar in 1874. He entered the Brigham Young Academy at Provo, Utah in 1876, and followed to completion the high school Normal courses in 1879, graduating in the Class of 1880. At the age of 17 he was a teacher of Elementary Science and English in the institution named. In 1881 James E. Talmage received a collegiate diploma from the BYA Scientific Department, the first such diploma to be issued. His early predilection was for the sciences, and in 1882-1883 he took a selected course, mainly in chemistry and geology, at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennysylvania. Though a special student and not a candidate for a degree, he passed during his single year of residence nearly all the examinations in the four-year course and was later graduated; and in 1883-1884 he was engaged in advanced work at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. He returned to Utah in the fall of 1884, in response to a summons from Brigham Young Academy, and served as professor of Geology and Chemistry, with varied activities in other departments, in the Brigham Young Academy from 1884 to 1888. ~ ~ ~ ~ While still a member of the faculty, he was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the Brigham Young Academy. During his residence in Provo, he served successively as city councilman, alderman and justice of the peace. ~ ~ ~ ~ James Edward Talmage was a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, and a resident of Salt Lake City, Utah. He was born Sunday Sept. 21, 1862, at Hungerford, Berkshire, England, the son of James Joyce Talmage and his wife, Susannah Preater. He is the first son and second child in a family of eight. He was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the place of his birth, June 15, 1873, and on the 18th of the following August was ordained a Deacon in the Ramsbury branch of the London conference. The entire family left England May 24, 1876, landed in New York June 5th, and arrived in Salt Lake City on June 14, 1876. In Provo, Utah, where the family had established a home, he was ordained a Teacher on December 17, 1877, and an Elder on June 28, 1880. Elder Talmage obtained his early schooling in the National and Board schools of his home district in England, and was an Oxford diocesan prize scholar in 1874. He entered the Brigham Young Academy high school at Provo, Utah, in 1876. He followed to completion the high school courses and graduated, taking the "normal" courses in preparation for becoming a teacher. At the age of 17 he became a teacher of elementary science and English at Brigham Young Academy. On September 29, 1884, he was ordained a High Priest, and was set apart as an alternate High Councilor in the Utah Stake of Zion. On June 14, 1888 he married Mary May Booth, daughter of Richard Thornton Booth and Elsie Edge Booth, at the Manti Temple, and from this union there came the following children: Sterling B. Talmage, born May 21, 1889; Paul B. Talmage, born Dec. 21, 1891; Zella Talmage, born Aug. 3, 1894, died of pneumonia April 27, 1895; Elsie Talmage, born Aug. 16, 1896; James Karl Talmage, born Aug. 29, 1898; Lucile Talmage, born May 29, 1900; Helen May Talmage, born Oct. 24, 1902, and John Russell Talmage, born Feb. 1, 1911. His early preference was for the sciences, and in 1882-1883 he took a selected course, mainly in Chemistry and Geology, at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Though a special student and not a candidate for a degree, he passed during his single year of residence nearly all the examinations in the four-year course and was later graduated; and in 1883-84 he was engaged in advanced work at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. He returned to Utah in the fall of 1884, in response to a summons from Brigham Young Academy, and served as professor of Geology and Chemistry, with varied activities in other departments, in the Brigham Young Academy from 1884 to 1888. While still a member of the faculty, he was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the Brigham Young Academy. During his residence in Provo, he served successively as city councilman, alderman and justice of the peace. In 1888 he was called to Salt Lake City to take the presidency of the Latter-day Saints College, which position he held until 1893. ~ ~ ~ ~ He became President of and Professor of Geology in the University of Utah, 1894-1897. In 1897 he resigned the presidency, but retained the chair of geology, which had been specially endowed; and ten years later (1907) he resigned the professorship to follow the practical work of mining geology, for which his services were in great demand. In 1891 he received the Bachelor of Science degree, and in 1912 the honorary degree of Doctor of Science, from his old alma mater, Lehigh University. In 1890 he was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Science and Didactics by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in 1896 was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree by Illinois Wesleyan University for nonresident work. Dr. Talmage was elected to life membership in several learned societies, and for many years was a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society (London), Fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (Edinburgh), Fellow of the Geological Society (London), Fellow of the Geological Society of America, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Associate of the Philosophical Society of Great Britain, or Victoria Institute, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Talmage traveled extensively, having traversed most of this country and of Europe many times in the course of scientific pursuits. He was a delegate from the Royal Society of Edinburgh to the International Geological Congress held at St. Petersburg (Petrograd) in 1897, and was a member of the party that crossed the Urals into Siberia. Throughout the period of his professional career as teacher and professor, Dr. Talmage was particularly active and efficient in encouraging scientific study by popular lectures and writings, and for this labor his deep love for science and his exceptional command of language and ability as a public speaker particularly fitted him. Impelled by the same spirit, he took charge of the little Deseret Museum in 1891, and had the satisfaction of seeing the institution become large and influential. He retained the directorship until 1919, when the Deseret Museum ceased to exist as a unified institution, its collections being segregated to form the LDS University Museum, and the LDS Church Museum, respectively. In his teaching work Dr. Talmage was the first to establish courses in Domestic Science and Agricultural Chemistry in the intermountain West. ~ ~ ~ ~ On December 7, 1911, he was appointed and sustained to be one of the Apostles, to fill the vacancy caused by the appointment of Elder Charles W. Penrose as second counselor in the First Presidency, and on the following day (Dec. 8th) was ordained an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and was set apart as one of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, under the hands of President Joseph F. Smith, assisted by his counselors and members of the Council of the Twelve. When called to special ministry in the Church he promptly relinquished his profession as a mining geologist and engineer, the practice of which had grown to be extensive and lucrative, and from that time he devoted himself entirely to ecclesiastical service. Dr. Talmage was the author of many scientific and theological works, among which are: "First Book of Nature" (1888); "Domestic Science" (1891); "Tables for Blowpipe Determination of Minerals" (1899); "The Great Salt Lake, Present and Past" (1900); "The Articles of Faith" (1899), a comprehensive exposition of the doctrines of the Church; "The Great Apostasy" (1909); "The House of the Lord" (1912), a discussion of holy sanctuaries, ancient and modern; "The Story of Mormonism" (1907); lectures delivered at Michigan, Cornell and other universities; "The Philosophical Basis of Mormonism" (1915); "Jesus the Christ" (1915); "The Vitality of Mormonism" (1919), and numerous pamphlets and contributions to periodicals. Bishop Orson F. Whitney, author of the "History of Utah", said of him: "Professionally a scientist and a preceptor, with gifts and powers equalled by few, Dr. Talmage is also a writer and speaker of great ability and skill. He is an absolute master of English, both by pen and tongue, and possesses a musical eloquence of marvelous fluency and precision. His style of oratory, though not stentorian, is wonderfully impressive, and his well stored mind, capacious memory, quick recollection and remarkable readiness of speech render him a beau-ideal instructor, in public or in private." Elder Talmage served in the Quorum of the Twelve until his death July 27, 1933 at Salt Lake City, Utah at the age of seventy. [Adapted from the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia.] ~ ~ ~ ~ In 1888 Professor Karl G. Maeser was called as the first Superintendent of Church Schools, although he was not immediately relieved of his duties as Principal of Brigham Young Academy. The following year the Board of Education conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Letters and Didactics at a time when he was busy establishing academies throughout the Church. He was away much of the time, and the B.Y. Academy Board selected James E. Talmage to replace Dr. Maeser as Principal. Talmage, an immigrant from England in 1876, entered the Academy soon after his arrival in Utah and later was employed as a teacher. In 1882 he was given a leave of absence to obtain a bachelor's degree from Lehigh University. Later he studied an additional year at Johns Hopkins University and returned to the B.Y. Academy as teacher of chemistry and geology. Professor Talmage accepted the principalship but never served. He had done little more than outline plans for the ensuing year when he was called by the presiding authorities of the Church to the principalship of the Salt Lake Academy, afterwards the Latter-day Saints College and still later the LDS University. Dr. Karl G. Maeser stayed on as BYA Principal. In 1890 when Benjamin Cluff, Jr., returned from the University of Michigan with his bachelor's degree, he was made Assistant Principal, a position he held until January 4, 1892, when he became Principal. Dr. James E. Talmage went on to become President of the University of Deseret (University of Utah) and an apostle in the Church. Brigham Young University named the James E. Talmage Mathematical Sciences and Computer Building in his honor in 1974. ~ ~ ~ ~ James Edward Talmage was born on September 21, 1862 in Hungerford, England. His parents were Gabriel James Joyce Talmage and Susanna Preator Talmage. He first married Merry May Booth on June 14, 1888 in Manti, Utah. Merry May Booth was his only wife in this life. He was sealed to five other women after their deaths, Zella Lee Webb being the first of such sealings. Zella Lee Webb, a friend, was very seriously burned in September 1886 and was probably bedfast thereafter. Although she and Talmage had a special relationship during the year after her accident, they were not married prior to her death in September 1887. During the months of her illness, she expressed a desire to be sealed to him after her death. He received approval from the First Presidency and was sealed to her after his marriage to Merry Mae Booth. He was sealed after their deaths to Grace Mayhew, Loretta Ann Whitby, Elizabeth ______, and Harriet Doolan. Apostle James E. Talmage died on July 27, 1933 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His interment, Salt Lake City. ~ ~ ~ ~ If The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has ever produced a child prodigy, it is James Edward Talmage.