In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week.

In commemoration of this, we remember the officers of the law who have died while serving the citizens of Cache Valley and elsewhere. The following is a list of those that I'm aware of in the Valley:

Willard R. Dahle, Logan City Police Department, died May 4, 1929.

Deputy Alma P. Sorenson, Cache County Sheriff's Office, August 27, 1959.

Officer Edwin L. Edwards, Logan City Police Department, August 27, 1959.

Lieutenant James R. Merrill, Cache County Sheriff's Office, January 5, 1974.

Deputy Charles H. Dickey, Jr., Cache County Sheriff's Office, March 18, 1984.

See the following sources:

• "Utah Law Enforcement Memorial Website". State of Utah: accessed May 2013.


• Kirby, Robert. End of Watch: Utah's Murdered Police Officers, 1858-2003. SLC, Utah: University of Utah Press, 2004.

~ Jason, Special Collections Librarian

We would like to announce our new status as an affiliate library with the Family History Library in Salt Lake. Try out this service by ordering a microfilm for use in the Virginia Hanson Special Collections.

You may also set up a private research consultation and utilize my genealogy degree and over 20 years of experience in genealogy and local history!

As always, please feel free to come in and speak to us or contact me.

~ Jason, Special Collections Librarian

The staff of the Logan Library as well as volunteers and interns of the library have been working to update our digital collections. The following ongoing projects are underway:

• Historic Newspapers Collection - Digital images of local historic newspapers.
  
  
• Historic Photo Collection- A collection of historic photographs in our collection related to Logan and Cache County.
  
  
• History Index Search - A cumulative index of many of the local history books in our collection.

If you would like to become part of this volunteer effort, please fill out the online form or contact me for more information.

~ Jason, Special Collections Librarian

Some users of our website may notice that we have a number of small digital projects going. The staff of the Virginia Hanson Special Collections will continue to add content to our digital collections. However, as we've proceeded we've realized that we really need to change the online interface.

Starting yesterday, you will begin to see some gradual changes that will make our digital content more usable. In the short term, some of the content may not be available as we make the changes. Please be patient with us!

As always, please feel free to come in and speak to us or contact me.

~ Jason, Special Collections Librarian

As I was recently sharing our collection of local history books with a patron of the library, she made me aware of a new history of Mendon and Petersboro. I then began to hunt for a copy of this book for our special collections.

Written by Rodney Sorensen, perhaps the finest historian of that corner of Cache Valley, the book is extremely well done. It's filled with wonderful history, including photographs and personal tidbits for various past residents of Mendon. The book is well written and crafted and should be a useful to researchers well into the future.

If you would like to see the book, come on into the Logan Library! The materials in the Virginia Hanson Special Collections are available for anyone to use here in the library, regardless of residency.

~ Jason, Special Collections Librarian

This week I received several questions about the Sego Milk Products Company, a company of tremendous local significance during the early twentieth century. Finding answers to these questions has led me to better understand how the dairy industry impacted Cache Valley.

Dairy manufacturing business ventures in Cache Valley go back to 1870's. However, as dairy productions and marketing became more specialized and the market grew, companies created solely for these purposes were created. By the 1890 creameries were common throughout Cache Valley, but many were trying to discover a use for the rising surplus of milk production in the valley. One solution was found by the Utah Condensed Milk Company when in 1903 they build the first condensed milk factory in Utah, producing what they called "Sego Milk".

By 1925 the Sego Milk Products Company had become the largest dairy processor in the intermountain territory and was acquired by Pet Milk Company. Over time Sego Milk became part of what has become Pet Incorporated, a major international food producing company with a variety of products it produces.

Sources of interest:

• Bell, Martin L. "A Portrait of Progress: A buisiness history of Pet Milk Company from 1885 to 1960". St. Louis, Missouri: Pet Milk Co., 1962.
  
  
• Peterson, F. Ross. "A history of Cache County". Salt Lake City, Utah: Utah State Historical Society, 1997.
  
  
• Ricks, Joel E. "The History of a Valley: Cache Valley, Utah-Idaho". Logan, Utah: Cache Valley Centennial Commission, 1956

~ Jason, Special Collections Librarian

The Logan Library Special Collections has begun collecting annuals for Brigham Young College: the Crimson which was in publication from 1904-1926. A short explanation of the history of this institution will place the publication in the context of local history.

Brigham Young College operated from 1877 to 1926. "At first a normal school primarily preparing elementary teachers (1877-1894), it then inaugurated college courses and for fifteen years granted bachelors' degrees (1894-1909). During its final period (1910-1926), the school operated as a high school and junior college." Although highly successful and educating over 40,000 students during the forty-nine years of its operation, the school succumbed to changes in the educational climate and the growth of public schools throughout Utah.(Garr)

The library has long been collecting Logan High School's Amphion and now has a collection only missing a few volumes. A natural extension of this collection is to collect the annual for it's near relative, Brigham Young College. The library has been acquiring the annuals through donation and online auctions.

See the following sources:

• "Guide to Brigham Young College Records, 1877-1926". Utah State University: accessed July 2012.


• Ludlow, Daniel H.. Encylopedia of Mormonism. Macmillan, 1992. pp. 219-220.

~ Jason, Special Collections Librarian

Thanks to tremendous volunteer effort, the library has now launched our Logan History Index. This is an effort to create a single, searchable index to our library of Cache Valley histories. To date, we have entered a total of 42,791 index entries!

Many local histories contain information unknown to researchers. There are also several important local histories that do not have an index in the book. Our indexing effort will allow users to search a variety of books at once, instantly pointing out previously unknown sources of important information.

Come and try out the new index to find previously unknown bits of information on the history of the area!

~ Jason, Special Collections Librarian

Nolan P. Olsen was likely the finest historian of the Logan LDS Temple. For many years patrons of the Logan Library have enjoyed listening to a talk by Mr. Olsen on the Logan Temple. However, the recording was circulated on cassette and slowly became worn out over time.

Not long ago library staff tried to purchase new copies of this recording on compact disc but found that it had not been released in this format. We were able to track down members of Mr. Olsen's family and received permission to copy the recording onto compact disk.

We now have, as far we can tell, the only copies of this recording in a digital format. Check our catalog to find the recording and check it out to listen to it in your homes.

~ Jason, Special Collections Librarian

This week a Logan City employee showed me an antique bond she had purchased. Printed in January 1913 for the Logan Rapid Transit Company, this is a beautiful piece of pre-World War I locomotive and local history.

Founded in January of 1910 by several prominent business men including David Eccles, the Logan Rapid Transit Company established a trolley car that went from the train depot (now Cafe Sabor) east to Main Street, north to 4th North and from there up to College Hill. By 1912 the route had been extended to stretch north to Smithfield and south to Providence. In 1914 a additional track was laid westward to Box Elder County where it connected with other tracks that had already been laid. In the days of slow and tedious horse and buggy travel, one could travel to Salt Lake in only 5 hours!

By the mid-1920's the train system began to suffer when it came into competition with automobiles. By 1926, some of electric rail lines had already been discontinued. Although it hung on for a couple of more decades, the last of the electric rail lines was abandoned in March of 1947.

[Select Bond 1, Bond 2, and Bond 3 to see scanned images of the Rapid Transit Company bond.]

Jason, Special Collections Librarian