EMPIRE SCHOOL DISTRICT No.2414

1. Empire School, located on the SE ¼ 1-46-9 W4 was built in 1912 by Sam
2. Oxby, assisted by some of the people of the district. The first teacher
3. was Miss Bessie Borden. The original school building burned to the ground
4. November 19, 1951, and most of the records were destroyed. However, the
5. last register, dating back to June 1932, was at the Wainwright School
6. Division office. The trustees from that time until the school was closed
7. in 1957 were as follows: E. Knott, L. Oxby, G. Boyd, W. Cornfield, T.
8. McAfee, Jim and Jack Cornfield, T. McAfee, Mr. & Mrs. Paul Belik, N.
9. McAfee, C. Churchill, F. Tipler and W. Knott.
10.  
11. The following is a list of some of the teachers to the best of our
12. knowledge: B. Borden, E. Wiley, H. Fisher, T. Murray, Mr. Berry, M.
13. McKnaughton, V. Wheeler, I. Milne, P. Fieldhouse, P. Smith, B. Lynor, R.
14. Oliver, D. Lee, M. Jardine, Q. Donaldson, D. Redmond, A. Trefiak, M. Pedden,
15. Mr. M. McAfee, M. Rehill, L. Pfluger, Mr. e. Gabbert, M. Dallyn, P.
16. Hendrickson, E. Clifford and Mrs. R. Erickson. Mrs. E. Avison boarded
17. twenty-one teachers which must be a record. Others who boarded
18. teachers were: Mrs. Brislan, Mrs. J. Cornfield and Mrs. G. Boyd.
19.  
20. A rather humourous incident I heard one teacher recall was about one pupil
21. who fell in some water one spring and got soaking wet. As there was no
22. phone and it was impossible to contact the parents, she had her remove
23. her clothes in the cloakroom and hang them by the heater to dry. During
24. the drying process, the child was wrapped in the good old Union Jack.
25. Luckily the inspector did not come by! There were many instances when
26. teachers had to ‘make do’ with whatever was available.
27.  
28. Recesses were fun for the boys in Empire. In early days, Geoff and Jim
29. Miles, Mike and Walter Belik, Jim Zajic and other younger boys went on a
30. hunting spree. The boys used to round up the rabbits in a grove of trees
31. over the hill from the school. They all surrounded this bluff and all came
32. together with sticks for the final kill. What a surprise there was!
33.  
34. In 1952 Browning School was moved to the site and used until the children
35. from the area were bussed to Edgerton in 1957. Later it was sold to Cecil
36. Trigg.

Empire School District No. 2414
Submitted by Emmy Nysetvold

104-105