LOCATION
Egypt is the area along the Worm Creek on the west, the foothills on the east, Glendale on the north, and Whitney on the south.  Edward Clayton appropriately named the area Egypt after the biblical Egypt which was a storehouse of grain during a time of famine.

Egypt has long been a farming area.

Egypt

SCHOOL
The first school east of the Worm Creek was built in 1879 on the farm of Anna Lundgreen, about 1700 East 200 south.  It served as a church and a school.   Two years later it was dismantled and moved one mile west to the Soren Petersen farm, 900 East and 400 South.  With additional materials, it was enlarged to a structure measuring sixteen feet by eighteen feet.  A monument marks this location as Preston’s first school.

Later a school was built 2 miles east of the State and Oneida intersection in Preston.  This school was later moved to what is now the Robert and Wendy Hanger farm east of Preston and is used for a storage shed.  

SOURCES:  The Trailblazer, a DUP Publication, edited by Newell Hart, and the Egypt Sign off 800 East and Oneida Street.

CHURCH
The first branch of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called the Worm Creek Branch, was organized in 1877 with Elisha Lawrence as the presiding elder.  In 1879 it became the Worm Creek Ward with Nahum Porter as Bishop.  May 14, 1881, a special meeting was called, and held in the school house, the name of the ward was changed to Preston.

Preston’s First School was in Egypt.

HISTORY

The fertile grass that covered the Bear River/Worm Creek delta was used by the early settlers of Franklin for the summer grazing of livestock and the cutting of grass for winter feed.  In 1869 William Head, David Jensen, Charles Spongberg, Joseph clayton, and Martin Lundgreen made a general survey of the country north of Franklin and identified this area as the most desirable for an expanded settlement.  “Under the Homestead Act David Jensen and Charles Spongberg each filed on a quarter section of land.  Others soon did the same:  Joseph Clayton, Martin Lundgreen, Alfred Alder, Ole Petterborg and his son Emil, Claus Clausen, Andrew and Christian Mortensen, Hyrum and Joseph Nielson, Soren and Charles Peterson, and in 1878 M. H. (Hans) Lund.”  They established homesteads along, and east of the Worm Creek. These first settlers utilized water out of worm Creek to irrigate their hay, grain, and gardens.  A canal was dug to divert additional water from the Cub River into Worm Creek and onto the settlers’ farms.  The first water flowed through the canal much to the delight and joy of the settlers on July 4, 1881.