Little Schools in the Parkland

NORTHERN CROWN SCHOOL DISTRICT No.2940

  1. Northern Crown School was situated on land owned by Archie Burke, SW
  2. ¼ 3-45-1 W 4th. This high land was always known as Northern Crown
  3. for it was the top of the hills on the south side of the Battle River.
  4.  
  5. The school was built in 1913 with Mr. S.P. Lien as contractor and P.
  6. Sorken, H. Nysetvold, Mr. Solberg and Carl Tufte as carpenters. The school
  7. was ready for classes to begin in June 1914 with Miss Mary Dolmage as
  8. teacher. Most of the children were of Scandinavian descent as the names
  9. Johnson, Goldberg and Voxland suggest. The enrollment was small – the
  10. reason perhaps because the children on the west side of the school had
  11. been attending Roros School. Enrollment fluctuated between thirteen and
  12. twenty-four and became as low as eight in the later years before the
  13. school closed in 1943. For a number of years, schooling was sparse as the
  14. students did not attend regularly. The local school board arranged to hold
  15. school during the warm weather in May to November. People experienced
  16. dire hardships and there was little money to warm clothing for the
  17. children.
  18.  
  19. The school was heated by an old pot-bellied stove that belched out more
  20. smoke than heat. Every morning the students and teacher had to stand
  21. outside in all kinds of weather until the smoke cleared. Mrs. Flora Perry
  22. told of the children sitting up on the cloakroom partitions to study until
  23. the room warmed up. Imagine the disruptions for anyone who tried to
  24. work. Mrs. Perry drove a team and cutter in the winter, fortified for the
  25. drive with a footwarmer and a heavy horsehide robe. Across country
  26. through the sandhills, her trip was seven or eight miles. One clear cold
  27. morning she made the trip and found a very cold school and only a very few
  28. students. It was 60 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit.
  29.  
  30. Northern Crown was not a socially active community. Christmas concerts
  31. and an annual picnic held at Battle Hill picnic site with students from
  32. nearby schools of Fram and Sherlock in Saskatchewan were the highlights
  33. of the year. Ice cream and more ice cream! Six or seven six-quart freezers
  34. of homemade ice cream!
  35.  
  36. Northern Crown School was moved on to the Chauvin School grounds and
  37. used for storage. Later, it was bought by Edwin Johnson and became a
  38. workshop.
  39.  
  40. Some of the local teachers were: Mrs. Olive (Folkins) MacKenzie, Miss
  41. Dorothy (Redmond) Atkins Anderson, Mrs. Heather (Richardson) Bradley,
  42. Mrs. Flora Perry and Mr. Pratt Perry. In the early years one of the teachers
  43. was a Mr. Winston Churchill.
  44.  
  45. A former pupil tells of one of the teachers who had a craving for
  46. mushrooms. This bachelor instructor, who lived in a little shack near the
  47. school, was often seen out searching for them. One morning, the children
  48. arrived for school but at 9:00 a.m. no teacher was on hand. As the hours
  49. slipped by, one of the older boys went to the teacherage to verify a hunch
  50. that something was wrong. Yes, teacher was very ill! The doctor’s
  51. diagnosis was too many mushrooms and their additive – toadstools.
  52.  
  53. The large gravel pile, owned by the Department of Highways, located just
  54. over a mile west of the junction of Highways 14 and 17, is on the site of
  55. Northern Crown School.

Northern Crown School District No. 2940
Submitted by Eleanor Perry

127-128-129