First School in Jensen

When pioneers settled the community originally known as Riverdale in 1877, they were building a new life in an isolated part of the Uintah Basin. Within only four years, local families had already turned their attention to one of the institutions they considered essential to a permanent community: a school. There was no purpose-built schoolhouse available. Instead, in 1881, classes began inside a three-room log house at the site now commemorated by DUP Historical Marker #585. The first teacher was Lydia Maria Chatwin, and one detail makes her story extraordinary: she was only 13 years old when she began teaching in Riverdale. Although exceptionally young, Lydia had grown up around education. Her father was an educator who taught in Heber City and later established a school in Santaquin. Lydia attended and assisted in her father's schools during the fall, winter, and spring, giving her practical classroom experience before she became a teacher herself. Her first Jensen classroom was tiny by modern standards. Lydia initially taught five children belonging to just two pioneer families—the families of Annis Blizzard and Elizabeth Rasmussen. The arrangement illustrates how education developed in many newly settled western communities. Residents did not wait for a formal school district, a large student body, or a dedicated school building. A house, a willing teacher, and a handful of children could become a school. Lydia's connection to Jensen continued long after that first class. In 1886, at age 18, she married Heber Richard Wall. The couple first lived in a dugout before later constructing a two-story home in Jensen. They eventually became the parents of ten children. Education remained important to Lydia throughout her life. Historical accounts emphasize that she strongly believed children should receive an education—a conviction that seems especially fitting for someone who had accepted responsibility for a pioneer classroom while still a child herself. Jensen continued developing after those first school sessions. Riverdale eventually became known as Jensen, and later schools replaced the informal classroom in the log house. The original three-room structure eventually disappeared. More than a century later, members of the Escalante Camp of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers began working to preserve the location and Lydia's story. The project took approximately four years and involved contributions from local volunteers, individuals, and organizations. DUP Historical Marker #585 was erected to commemorate the first school site. A public dedication was held in June 2019, with approximately 60 people attending. Many of those present were descendants of Lydia Chatwin. Today there is no nineteenth-century schoolhouse to enter, but the marker preserves the exact kind of history that can otherwise disappear from the landscape: a three-room pioneer home, five students, and a 13-year-old teacher who helped establish formal education in a newly settled Uintah Basin community.

The community now known as Jensen was originally called Riverdale and was settled by pioneers in 1877. The settlement developed near the Green River in the Uintah Basin, an area that remained comparatively isolated from Utah's larger population centers during the nineteenth century. Education was often organized informally during the earliest years of Utah's pioneer settlements. Dedicated school buildings could come later; initially, classes might be held in private homes, cabins, meetinghouses, or whatever other building residents could make available. Riverdale followed this pattern. In 1881, only four years after settlement began, its first school was organized inside a three-room log residence. Lydia Maria Chatwin's appointment also reflects the realities of small pioneer communities. Qualified adult teachers were not always readily available. Lydia's experience assisting her educator father gave her unusual preparation despite her age, and at 13 she became Riverdale's first teacher. Her initial class consisted of only five children from the Blizzard and Rasmussen families. Small classes like this could nevertheless establish the foundation from which more formal community schools eventually developed. Jensen's first school also belongs to a larger story of settlement along the Green River. During the same period, residents were establishing farms, homes, transportation links, and other institutions needed to turn a remote settlement into a permanent community.