Ricks College/Ricks Academy Connections with the Trost Family

When I stepped foot on the Ricks College campus during the summer of 1999, little did I know that I was retracing my own ancestors’ steps. While it was only my home for four years during college, Rexburg, Idaho, will always have a special place in my heart.

One of my favorite memories of my grandparents is when they came to Rexburg for my Grandpa Bert Trost’s Madison High School reunion. They picked me up from my Royalcrest college apartment and took me on a tour of my Grandpa’s Rexburg. I scribbled notes in my reporter’s notebook (boy do I wish I remembered which box that was in now!) and I thoroughly enjoyed the one-on-one time with my grandparents.

Driving to the outskirts of town, he guessed where their family farm might have been. We even located their house in town which now has an easy-to-remember name! But that’s a story for another post! I remember driving past the Jacob Spori Building and Grandpa talking about how he and his brothers would deliver newspapers there. My Grandpa never attended Ricks, but he mentioned that his brothers did.

I knew I had Rexburg roots, but lacked many of the details then. During this past year, I have discovered detail after precious detail to fill in many of the blanks. From quotes to photos to journals – it has truly been wonderful!

My 2xs Great Grandfather Christian Trost, the Farmer & Builder

Through Relatives at Rootstech, I was able to connect with other descendants of my 2xs Great Grandfather Christian Trost. Christian, his wife Caroline, and their small family immigrated to Rexburg, Idaho, from Oberstenfeld, Germany in the late 1800s.

He later divorced my 2xs Great-Grandmother Caroline and married a third wife. Lucky for me, his stepdaughter was a prolific journal writer. Her descendants were kind enough to share excerpts with me.

According to his stepdaughter Hildegard, Christian helped “to build the first 2 buildings for Ricks Academy, the LDS Tabernacle, and the 3rd Ward Church. He also assisted in building the Burton Ward Chapel. He also put in every day he could get away from crop & farm duties, besides contributing generously his finances.”

As far as I know, the first two buildings for Ricks Academy included the Jacob Spori Building – a building that I was very familiar with! It housed the Communication Department at Ricks College/BYU-Idaho. As a journalism student, I toured almost every inch of that building from the basement to the attic. I spent many hours doing homework in window seats and hanging out in the art gallery as a freshman. Our newspaper office was on the first floor and was my second home. I was lucky enough to be able to buy original tiles from the building – who knew they were actually family history relics from a building my ancestor helped build?!?!

My Great-Grandfather William Trost, the Valedictorian

While my great-grandmother Eda wasn’t able to attend Ricks College, her husband William Trost did! He was the valedictorian of his class and graduated in 1918 just before leaving to fight in World War I. As luck would have it, I discovered this page from the Student Rays, the student newspaper for Ricks Academy. It also served as a yearbook of sorts, it appears.

My Great-Grandaunt Caroline Trost, the Journalist

Another fun discovery was that William’s sister Caroline also attended Ricks Academy. Even better, she was a reporter for the school newspaper! This is so fun to me as the student newspaper is what brought me to Ricks College! Again, digging through the online digital archives, I was able to find this yearbook photo of Caroline! The very first photo of her that I had seen – what a treat to share it and upload it to Family Search for others. That dark curly hair definitely was passed down through the generations!

My Great-Uncle Arlo, the Journalist and Family Historian

Important to note, there was an additional newspaperman in the family. My Great-Uncle Arlo also worked on the student newspaper, The Scroll, as I recently discovered. Who knew I came from generations of Scrollies, a term we used to describe ourselves. Arlo also had a love of family history and was responsible for much of the research done for the Trost family. Who knew I was following in his footsteps?

Much of this information I was able to discover through digitalized student newspapers and student yearbooks. I can’t believe it took me until this year to search them online! In my defense, they may have only recently become available. Thank goodness for technology.

While I know general stories before, these details have made all the difference to me. I’ve been able to put faces to names. Places to memories. My own memories of Rexburg feel a little richer now with the deeper family history context beneath them.

I feel there is still so much to discover! I am a member of several Rexburg historical Facebook groups. It’s fun to see old photos and others’ memories pop up in my Facebook feed. Perhaps social media will be part of my next Rexburg discovery!

Tell me – are there places that are special to you from your family history? I would love to hear what discoveries you have made!

This post is part of #NaGenWriMo! Don’t forget to link up your genealogy posts/stories this month!