Wolfe Island School: S.S.#4

Does anyone have a photo of this school???

Also refered to as Bolton Farm School
(In 1850 two schools in operation)
Built: 1838 (rented)
Built: in 1860 one built 1842 in use
Location: Con 8 Lot 4
Closed: 1953
At present: Still standing??

Click on photo for larger version.
The inside of the Continuation classroom. S.S.#4.
From Theresa Broeders

Annual Reports 1850-1870

Image of page: Public School teachers 1911 & info on their schools

Local settlers wrote plea to council 11 March 1850 for money to repair the school house.

There were a number of years when there was no school house (see Annual Report)
In 1897 an addition was built.
Junior room facing the highway held grades 1-6; senior room grades 7-10.

School closed in 1953 [Marysville was built in 1953] replaced #4 [ 4 rooms]

From Women’s Institute- Theresa Broeders:
S.S.# 4 Wolfe Island was most rapidly settled in the 1820's and 30's, by men who came to quarry stone for Rideau and Welland Canals.

Click on photo for larger version.
LaRush house- at one time also the school in this district, it was moved from the foot of Lamberts Hill.
The first school was opened in a house at the foot of Lambert's Hill; later in a house owned by Mrs. Dora LaRush, the oldest house on Wolfe Island and built at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Miss Eunice Hinkley, the first teacher, boarded with families in turns, and was paid twenty- five dollars per pupil, by the parents.
In 1850 the Wolfe Island Council held it's first meeting in S.S.#4 in this same building, the oldest school house still in use on Wolfe Island [when this was written].

Public School Section number Four took in the fifth to the ninth concession north of the base line and was established in 1850. John Strachan was the first District Superintendent of Education. The majority of the early settlers were Scotch stock; names of some prominent ones being Hiram Hitchcock, Angus Cameran, John Horne, Michael Baker, John Grant, James McRae, and Ronald MacDonnell.

1st building was a frame structure 26x32 feet[ approximately]
About 1897 an addition increased attendance 22x28 feet in which junior classes taught. In 1912 senior room became a Continuation School for the teaching of Lower School subjects.
A decrease in attendance made it possible to accommodate all those of public school standing in the junior room.

Click on photos for larger versions.
The inside of the Continuation classroom. S.S.#4.
From Theresa Broeders

While Grant Grimshaw was Reeve in 1912, classes to study two years of high school work were organized for one room of S.S.#4. The attendance in W.I.C.I. ranged from 6 pupils to 29, through the years. In 1919 this class discontinued and the room unused until Sept. 1922, when the high school work was again taught to a class of 11 pupils by Miss Ray E. Morrison, who spent three years at this school.

Some former attendants who made names for themselves in Medicine are: Dr. Austin Friend, Dr. William Friend, Dr. William Spankie Jr. of Calgary, Dr. Arthur Spankie, now in a children's Hospital of New York, and DR. Sidney Horne, Superintendant of Mental Hospital, Orillia. Others of interest are Herbert Spankie, now a lawyer of Calgary, Alberta, and Ralph Spankie, Clerk of the Exchequer Court, Ottawa.

On the occasion of the visit of King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth to Kingston on Sunday, May 21, 1939, Their Majesties were viewed by the following pupils of this school: Mildred Tarent, Lillian Marlow, Evelyn Hough, Barbara Boyd, Jacky McFadden, Eleanor Hough, June Ryan, Bruce Woodman, Ralph Marlow, Lois Tarent, Buddy McFadden, Ronald Marlow, Ronald Hough, James Ryan, Winfield Woodman, Lillian Stevenson, Jessie Stevenson, Leath Davis, Stuart Virtue.

From the Log Book S.S.#4 is one of the very old buildings on the Island and in 1948 the original building is still in use with much of the same surroundings of small rocky playground, as when erected about 1850.

Hydro power came to the Island in 1938 and lights and radio were added to #4 equipment. A piano was donated to the school in 1944, while Mr. Aubrey Bates was in charge of music as well as the Continuation Classes.

Teachers:

From Annual Reports:
James Ross-1856 &57
S.A. Dodge-1858
Elizabeth Duncan-1859
T. Burrows-1860
Robt Williams-1861&62
Emily Godwin- 1863
Wm Godwin-1864
John R. Smeaton-1865-67
Cynthia E. Bush-1868-70

Eva M. Pyke-1912
I have a newspaper article dated Dec.26 1905 which mentions that Frederick Witmarsh has resigned as teacher in the village school,no. 4 as he intends to take an electric engineering course at Queen's. Miss Eva Pyke will teach in his place. Herbert Spankie has been engaged as teacher on Garden Island
Theresa

From Tweedmuir History books-Theresa Broeders:
Teachers of S.S.#4:
1922-25 - Miss Ray E. Morrison
1922- Mrs. Ray E. Morrison taught in the reopened Continuation School & Miss Helen Brown taught the Junior Class that year.
1925-28 - Wilfred Monney
1925 - Victor Coxford [junior room]
1923-24 - Miss Jessie Seen
1928-30 - Mr. Aubrey Bates
1930-33 - John Willock
1933 - 36 - Miss Marion Patterson McLean
1936- Feb.37 - Miss Florence Knight
Feb. 37- 40 - Allen C. Proust
1940-45 A. Bates
1945 - 47 - Ruby Scherer
1947- 48- R.E. McLaren.
Other teachers:
Lawson Orser [ junior room]
1953-Gerty (Henderson) Clancy [junior room]
Mr Darling[junior room]
Jean (Horne) Black [junior room]

Click on photo for larger version. On the left Wilfred Monney - Continuation School teacher and on the right Victor Croxford - Public School teacher both at S.S.#4 in 1925. From Theresa Broeders.

Click on photo for larger version. Mr. Aubrey Clayton[Bob] Bates about 1929 taken in front of Mrs. Allinson's house [George Pyke's Great Grandmother] He was a Continuation School teacher at S.S.#4. From Theresa Broeders.

Click on photo for larger version. This is John Wilcox, Continuation School teacher 1930.From Theresa Broeders.

Also see: Teachers

Class Photos

Class Photos
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The Islands:Wolfe Island School: S.S.#4