1900-01-08-New York Tribune-St. Georges in the Desert

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[edit] St. George's in the Desert

New York Tribune, 8 January 1900, p. 5, c. 3

Social Settlement work in Utah Modelled after Dr. Rainsford's

A talk with Dr. S. J. Elliott, the only Deaconess of the Episcopal Church living west of the Rocky Mountains.

In the little Mormon settlement of Moab. Utah, which is fifty miles from the nearest railroad, there is a well regulated and equipped Social Settlement, modelled after the work of St. George's Church, of this city.

"I call it St. George's in the Desert," says Dr. S. J. Elliott, who is the originator and promoter of the work. "It is a real desert. We have three saloons, and no trees excepting those that we have planted, and the only religious services of the place are those that I conduct in the Mormon dance hall."

Dr. Elliott is a deaconess of the Diocese of Salt Lake, and is spending the winter in this city. She is the only deaconess of the Episcopal Church west of the Rocky Mountains, and for five years was the only physician within a radius of two hun- dred and fifty miles. She was formerly a deaconess of Dr. Rainsford's church, and spent many years in work among the Polish Jews of this city. For the last seven years she has lived in Moab.

The Moab Women's Club, which is known as the Busy Women's Club, has twenty-five members and is federated. It is really a study class in literature, and is this year taking a course in English journey- ings, and by the means of books and pictures trav elling through the British Isles. The boys' club of thirty members is studying history, the object being to teach them patriotism.

A girls' club has twenty-five members and is studying literature and sewing. The free library of 150 volumes includes the best English novels and those that are most recent. A circulating library for the cow and sheep camps is composed of illus trated books, papers and magazines, and is the de- light of hundreds of miners, cowboys and herders. A men's club that is made up of the settlers of the town, miners, cowboys and any travelling men that may be passing through Moab, meets every Friday evening, and when it adjourns the members and their leaders repair to the weekly Mormon dance in the hall, that being the only Mormon social function. The dance is always opened and closed with prayer.

Dr. Elliott's lectures before the various clubs are illustrated with the microscope or stereopticon. With the latter she shows the Moabites the won- ders of the various cities and countries of the world.

It is Dr. Elliott's intention, upon her return in the spring, to start a kindergarten. Of the eighty-five children in the Sunday school all but twelve are Mormons.

Miss Elliott is staying at the Deaconess' Home of St. George's Church. No 204 East Sixteenth-st.