Letter from Marriner Wood Merrill, George Lionel Farrell and Jonathan Golden Kimball, 16 December 1896
Logan City, Cache County, Utah,
TO THE PRESIDENCY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.
DEAR BRETHEREN:
We your committee to whom was referred the petition of purchasers of
the B. Y. College lands beg leave to report as follows, namely:
On November 30th the said committee met with the petitioners and the former
appraisers appointed by the Trustees of the B. Y. College.
Every effort was made to secure the original plot upon which the appraisers
price of each forty (40) acres was placed in red ink, but failed to obtain it.
The appraisers Aaron F. Farr Jr., Simpson M. Molen, and James Quayle stated that
the price of said land was from $7.50 to $35.00 per acre the average being about
$18.00 per acre.
Agreeable with the minutes of the Trustees of the B. Y. College it was decided
to increase the price of all lands 15 per cent above the appraised price, to all
renters, out the Trustees were authorized to increase even that price.
We conclude by careful investigation that the appraised value was fully high
when times were good and money plenty, yet said value was greatly increased to non-
renters by the land agents Robert Sloan, and John E. Price appointed by the Trustees.
Lands that were considered the best when purchased, prove to be full of alkali
when irrigated, while some of the cheapest land proved to be the best.
The results of ^ou^r first days session was: that in as much as the lands were
covered with snow we your committee could not re-appraise it, we therefore appointed
a sub-committee consisting of President Orson Smith, as Chairman, George O. Pitkin, Bp.
George Charles Oscar Dunn, Bp. Fred Theirer, Julius Johnson and Samuel Holt, who were familiar with
all these lands and the circumstances of the people, they visited each person spend-
ing eight days, and reported at our meeting held December 15th the following suggest-
ions which we adopted and include in our report, as follows:
There are ninety four (94) purchasers of College lands and of that number it
is recommended that a reduction of Sixteen thousand seven hundred and ^eighty-eight^ and
^sev^enty nine hundredths ($167[88.7]9) be allowed upon the lands of the forty one (41)
purchasers named in the list included in this report, the above amount includes the
ten per cent previously allowed by the College Trustees the committee also approves
of the ten per cent previously allowed ^to^ all purchasers who paid up.
