More light on the Magleby Chemistry Lab at BYU
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Kirk A. Magleby
Aug 15, 2009, 3:43:26 AM8/15/09
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Descendants of Hans Olsen Magleby,
We have known for some time through family sources that the Maglebys donated BYU's first chemistry lab in the late 1890's. Now we have independent verification of this interesting fact. The current issue of BYU Studies has an article by Brian Q. Cannon about Benjamin Cluff, Jr., second Principal of Brigham Young Academy (after Karl G. Maeser) and first President of Brigham Young University. The article states: "As principal, Cluff solicited funds for laboratories from prosperous families. In 1898, the Holt Laboratory of Physics and the Magleby Laboratory of Chemistry opened. Soon thereafter the Beckstead Laboratory of Mechanics and the Hinckley Laboratory of Natural Science were dedicated." The article cites an unpublished typescript from 1947 now in the BYU Library Special Collections.
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It has been well-known in the family that Heber Lorenzo Magleby was one of the 8 explorers in the ill-fated 1900 - 1902 Benjamin Cluff expedition to South America. We have also known that Heber subsequently lived in Tabasco, Mexico, helping manage the Utah-Mexican Rubber Company, and that his son, Romoldo, was born in Mexco in 1910. The BYU Studies article shows that Benjamin Cluff was Superintendent of the Utah-Mexican Rubber Company, living in Tabasco and narrowly escaping the violence of the Mexican Revolution that same year. So, Heber and Benjamin were not only fellow explorers but also business associates.
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It may also be significant that John Ephraim Magleby, who studied at Brigham Young Academy with Cluff, named his oldest daughter Fern. Fern Magleby was only 4 years younger than Fern Cluff, Benjamin's oldest daughter. John Ephraim's intense desire to learn Maori on his first mission to New Zealand in 1886 - 1889 may have been motivated in part by Cluff's successful experience as a missionary in Hawaii a few years earlier. In any event, we now know that Benjamin Cluff, Jr. was a great friend of the Magleby family.
- Kirk Magleby
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We have known for some time through family sources that the Maglebys donated BYU's first chemistry lab in the late 1890's. Now we have independent verification of this interesting fact. The current issue of BYU Studies has an article by Brian Q. Cannon about Benjamin Cluff, Jr., second Principal of Brigham Young Academy (after Karl G. Maeser) and first President of Brigham Young University. The article states: "As principal, Cluff solicited funds for laboratories from prosperous families. In 1898, the Holt Laboratory of Physics and the Magleby Laboratory of Chemistry opened. Soon thereafter the Beckstead Laboratory of Mechanics and the Hinckley Laboratory of Natural Science were dedicated." The article cites an unpublished typescript from 1947 now in the BYU Library Special Collections.
--
It has been well-known in the family that Heber Lorenzo Magleby was one of the 8 explorers in the ill-fated 1900 - 1902 Benjamin Cluff expedition to South America. We have also known that Heber subsequently lived in Tabasco, Mexico, helping manage the Utah-Mexican Rubber Company, and that his son, Romoldo, was born in Mexco in 1910. The BYU Studies article shows that Benjamin Cluff was Superintendent of the Utah-Mexican Rubber Company, living in Tabasco and narrowly escaping the violence of the Mexican Revolution that same year. So, Heber and Benjamin were not only fellow explorers but also business associates.
--
It may also be significant that John Ephraim Magleby, who studied at Brigham Young Academy with Cluff, named his oldest daughter Fern. Fern Magleby was only 4 years younger than Fern Cluff, Benjamin's oldest daughter. John Ephraim's intense desire to learn Maori on his first mission to New Zealand in 1886 - 1889 may have been motivated in part by Cluff's successful experience as a missionary in Hawaii a few years earlier. In any event, we now know that Benjamin Cluff, Jr. was a great friend of the Magleby family.
- Kirk Magleby
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