KAWARTHA LAKES-Up to the mid twentieth century, most children grew up attending the neighbourhood one-room school. Whether they lived in town or the countryside, most kids walked to school, unless their parents gave them a ride—which may only have happened on a stormy day. Each township was organized into school sections, so that practically every child would have a school within a mile or two, which was about as far as elementary students could be expected to walk. The number of students at each school varied greatly. Some had just a few students, while one town school in the nineteenth century had over 100 students, and still just one teacher! At a one room school, the teacher had to instruct all eight grades at once. Older students were expected to look out for their younger classmates and to help them with their assignments.
Mid: Kenny Patterson, Miles Martin, Jeffry Patterson, Barb Bick, Kieth Coulter, Joan Oliver, Marie Drinkwalter
Front: Sylvia Thomas, Doug Oliver, Gary Martin, Allan Junkin, Willa Martin
Matthew Ingram and Susan Donnelly were Irish born immigrants who settled on Lot 20 in the 8th Concession of Verulam—about three miles from the nascent community of Bobcaygeon. They donated part of their homestead so children from the neighbourhood could receive a rudimentary education. The original log school served until the 1870s, when a larger frame school was built across the road on the corner of the farm that belonged to James Patterson and Eliza Eyre—another Irish immigrant family. Though the school was on the Pattersons’ farm, and four generations of Pattersons received instruction there, it would continue to be called Ingram’s School.
Tom Martin remembered the experience of walking to attend Ingram’s School at the turn of the century: “I can still feel the chill of walking to and from school every day. In the morning. I had to walk up the line (now Cosh’s Road) into a north wind and I can’t remember ever taking as much abuse as I did the winters that I went to school. We weren’t outfitted in the clothes that kids wear today, we just had to make do with what we had. The girls had to wear dresses; they didn’t have any slacks and their legs turned purple in the wind.” Winters in that era were colder and snowier than they are today—and roads were not plowed.
By 1902, there were 69 students enrolled to attend Ingram’s School and on the day that a photograph was taken (which was a special occasion indeed in those days) 47 of the pupils were in attendance. In early years, school attendance was not nearly as regular as it became in the twentieth century. During the harvest season of 1911, Tom Ingram came out of his barn one day to notice a cloud of smoke in the direction of the schoolhouse. He was not alarmed since the neighbourhood threshing machine sometimes stopped at the school to fill up its boiler—perhaps it was just steam? By the time the neighbourhood realized that the school was on fire, it was too late. It was hard to know how the blaze started, but the theory at the time was that a breeze may have spread sparks from the embers in the ashes that had been taken out of the woodstove the night before.
The fire was a catastrophe for the neighbourhood—it would take time before there could be a local school again. By 1912, a brick schoolhouse had been constructed—39 feet x 34 feet, on the site of the second Ingram’s School. In keeping with the customs of the day, there were separate entrances for boys and girls, with separate cloakrooms for each gender. The school had five large windows on the east side, a separate teacher’s room on the west, and a fully cemented basement that included a wood burning furnace, and open space for winter recreation. Two indoor water closets were later added—in the days before indoor plumbing these were just holes in the ground. It was a well-built structure for its time—many of the farm families who attended the school did not enjoy the same facilities at home—like a wood furnace, cement basement floor or indoor water closets. At home, many kids grew up braving a winter trip to the outhouse. For water, the school had a hand pump, as was common on farms in that era.
Catherine Walker (Junkin) attending Lamb’s School (which was a few concessions to the west), and then Fenelon Falls Continuation School (now Secondary School), where she completed Grade 12. Then she took a six-week summer course, before walking into the Fairbairn School, by herself, to become a one room schoolteacher. She remembered the experience “you sink or you swim.” After one year there, she moved on to Ingram’s School for the 1953-54 year.
In the 1950s, polio was a significant public heath concern, and students travelled to Bobcaygeon to get their vaccination. For recess, they often played baseball (a sport where everyone, young or old could have a turn to bat), tag, road hockey, prisoner’s goal, or they would build snow forts in winter. For Arbour Day, they worked together to clean up around the school. The class looked forward to marching in the Bobcaygeon Fair Parade and especially the annual Christmas Concert. Preparations for this annual performance took weeks. The curriculum was very practical—penmanship, reading, writing, arithmetic and art. A music teacher travelled around to instruct at the various schools.
Ingram’s School would serve until the end of the era of one room schools in 1969. That year, all the remaining neighbourhood schools closed, as they were amalgamated into the village institutions. By then, students could be bussed, instead of having to walk to school. The schoolhouse was auctioned to Frank Heitz for $10,200, and by 1973 it had been converted to a private home.
The memories of Ingram’s School would live on long after the end of the era of one room schools. Miss Walker’s class would stay in touch in the decades that followed. By the 2020s, it was something special that the class of 1953-54 had stuck together through the years—including one of the last the one room schoolteachers in the area. The class helped Sam Dickie create a documentary about the experiences of attending Ingram’s School. Check out The Schoolhouse at: https://maryboro.ca/documentaries/the-schoolhouse/
This story is part of our partnership with Maryboro Lodge, The Fenelon Falls Museum.
If you want to make a donation to the museum, you can e-transfer to: [email protected] or mail a cheque to :
Maryboro Lodge Museum
Box 179
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Fenelon Falls, ON
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