Holladay's First Church and School Building

Holladay's First Church and School Building. . , Not many feet from here, Holladay settlers built in 1849 their first church, used not only for Church meetings on Sunday and other days, but also as a school, town hall, and for community socials, such as a dance where the ticket could be corn, flour, or a potato., The building, about 14 ft. square and with a fireplace on one side, was said by some to be a log structure and by others as having adobe sides and a roof of logs, brush, and dirt. For school needs, a wood slab stretched along one entire inside wall. Students took turns sitting along the slab for writing assignments if there were more students than slab space. Parents paid the teacher 1 dollar monthly per child; sometimes the pay was in food, building rocks, or whatever the teacher needed., Young people helped make adobe bricks, or "dobies" as they were called. A hole was dug about 2 ft. deep and 4 ft. in diameter. Clay and water were put in, stomped and mixed by bare feet until the clay was moist and pliable. The mud was rolled into balls, slapped into wet wooden molds, then put in the sunlight to dry by slipping the molds away from the adobe. When one side was dry, bricks were turned for the other side to dry, then stacked to season.