AN EARLY SCHOOLHOUSE IN ONTARIO
The schoolhouse was of logs about 18 x 23 feet. There was a huge fireplace and chimney at the far end of the room opposite the door. Along the side, holes had been made and pins inserted, on which were placed boards as desks. The seats were slabs from the sawmill with holes bored into them and pins inserted for legs. The children sat facing the walls. Only a few had school books. Inside of this and closer to the centre of the room there was a second row of benches, like the first but with shorter legs, for the use of the smaller children. These seats were just as they came from the sawmill in their rough state. There was one advantage, however, the erect splinters served a useful purpose in preventing the little ones from sliding off the seats! Sometime around 1850 the schools came under the control of the townships and the situation improved a little. Up to that time the parents themselves hired and paid the teacher, often in produce from the farm. Teachers were usually someone unable to do heavy work rather than with any special qualifications to teach. This would have been the school situation for John Healy and his four sisters when the family settled in Logan. Later John's children would walk over two miles to S.S. #1 on the 10th Concession of Logan. It was customary for the "big" boys to attend school only in winter when the farm work was finished for the year.
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