DOLCY SCHOOL DISTRICT No.2465

1. The Dolcy School District 2465 was organized by the first school board,
2. the members of which were: Mr. George Davy, Mr. J.B. Scott and Mr. Jack
3. Stanyer. The school house was built on the NW ¼ 29-42-4 W4 and ready
4. for occupation by the fall of 1911: but since classes were held only
5. during the summer months, actual teaching did not start until 1912. The
6. name “Dolcy” was derived from “Dolly” the name of Mr. Scott’s favorite
7. saddle horse.
8.  
9. Some of the teachers who served in the Dolcy School (not necessarily in
10. this order) were: Mrs. W. McPherson, Miss Armstrog, Miss Pierce, Miss E.
11. Caldwell, Mr. Alex Huff, Mr. Pat Perry, Miss I McLeod (Mrs. J. Deyell), Miss
12. L. McLeod, Miss M. Olson, Miss Findlay, Miss Fuglum, Mrs. Franklin, Mr.
13. Rosco Morton, Miss H. Kerr, Miss A. Spilde, Miss Carrington, Mr. Ken Sparks,
14. Miss M. Borden, Miss D. Sume, Miss Anna Murray, Miss V. Dallyn, Mrs. Biggs,
15. Mr. Cosman, Mrs. S. Jackson, Miss B. Barrington.
16.  
17. The largest enrolment was 44 pupils, the last attendance – 13 pupils.
18. Teachers’ salaries in the very early days ranged from $600 per year to
19. $700 per ear. The students rode horseback, walked or drove in buggies to
20. get to school. Janitors were either the teacher, who usually got rent for a
21. teacherage for the work, or $5 per month. In many cases older children
22. were paid $.50 a week for their labour.
23.  
24. The school was in operation until 1951 when pupils were vanned to
25. McCafferty, a two-roomed school. In 1955 the school was closed and the
26. children bussed to Edgerton. The school is now situated on the property of
27. Mr. F. Maull, two miles south of its original site.
28.  
29. Trustees who served during this time were: Kerr, Belton, Mrs. Scott,
30. Smith, Mrs. Nelson, Deyell, Mrs. Hoehn, Stanyer, Peterson, Blackstone,
31. Stewart Scott, Nelson, Keller, Sarginson.
32.  
33. Some of the business conducted by the “board” during those years:
34.  
35. Moved: That Tangen be paid five dollars - $5.00 for fixing well, moving
36. gate, fixing fence and barn door.
37. Moved: That Mrs. Nelson be paid four dollars - $4.00 for scrubbing school
38. floor.
39. Moved: That Miss Dempsey be paid one dollar and fifty cents - $1.50 for
40. curtains, providing curtains are there.
41. Moved: That secretary write the Dept. of Education to have explained
42. (fully) how teacher is to be paid.
43. Moved: That fifteen dollars $15.00 be paid to the secretary of the School
44. Fair – Edgerton.
45. Moved: That we get two tons of coal for school.
46. Moved: That Dr. Melling be paid $20.00 for services at the school when
47. pupils had the itch.
48. Moved: That the incoming school board do their utmost to make the school
49. warmer. Moved: That request for Polio Vaccine be made.
50. Moved: That smoking is going on in the school and that the teacher should stop
51. it immediately.
52.  

53. Submitted by Mary (Taylor) Whitby

54.  
55. Lyle Atwood tells of one day at Dolcy School.
56.  
57. “In the spring of 1936, I was one of forty-one pupils ranging in age from
58. six to sixteen enrolled at Dolcy School. Our teacher was Miss Dorothy
59. Syme. Serving on the school board was Theodore Smith, John Deyell and
60. Alex Stanyer. Bob Mills was janitor – three dollars a month in winter and
61. $1.50 in summer. How I envied Bob. He could afford denim pants with
62. brass rivets on the pockets and crotch. You could get them right out of
63. Eatons’ catalogue for $1.49. My denims at $1.29 had no rivets.
64.  
65. “We had just survived a very severe winter in which many of us who had
66. some distance to walk would arrive at school with frost-bitten faces.
67. After more than six weeks of sub-zero temperatures, I can remember one
68. afternoon in late February, the snow on the school roof started to melt and
69. form icicles in front of the windows. Miss Syme stopped all studies so
70. that we could marvel at the first hint that spring was coming.
71.  
72. “We welcomed the warm balmy days of April and May with eagerness. At
73. noon, we boys would take our lunches out and sit at the sunny side of the
74. huge wood pile. The talk would usually be about what we could do to make
75. life miserable for the teacher. Trading sandwiches was a popular custom.
76. On this day I made a trade with Jason Smith and on the first bite I couldn’t
77. get my breath. It was made with horseradish, mustard and pepper – a
78. “trading sandwich” he had made himself.
79.  
80. “Gosh, I look back and remember how bad we were! On this particular day,
81. right after lunch we snared enough gophers to make up a twelve-gopher
82. team in binder twine harness, and then tried to get them to pull a block of
83. wood, but they wouldn’t go in the same direction. When we tired of this
84. we killed the gophers, divided the tails and put them in our pockets. You
85. could get a penny each for gopher tails from Artie Nelson, who was then
86. councillor. We learned that if you kept the tails in a lard pail with the lid
87. tightly on you could deliver the pail to Artie who would then remove the
88. lid and wouldn’t bother to count them. He would always take your word for
89. the number of tails.
90.  
91. “This period of time has often recently been referred to as lost years, and
92. indeed, perhaps they were to many of our parents who lived in hopes, after
93. repeated crop failures, that next year would be better, but to me at the
94. age of thirteen this day at Dolcy School was filled with happy and
95. treasured memories.”

Dolcy School District No. 2465
Submitted by Mary (Taylor) Whitby and Lyle Atwood

98-99-100-101