Little Schools in the Parkland

 Reminiscences

by Miss McAfee“Miss McAfee Writes About McCafferty”

“When I read the advertisement in the Edmonton Journal for a teacher needed in McCafferty School, Edgerton, I decided that 36 pupils (Grades 1 to 8 in a one-room school) were too much of a handful for one used to city schools, with one grade to a room and with four months’ experience in a country school.

“However, my mother, with an Irish “hunch,” had cut out the item. She asked me to apply and she said her feeling was that the name of the school being so much like my own, boded good luck in an application. To please her, I applied. I learned later there had been fifty-three applications. The school board, consisting of George Trotter, Jack Cram and Bud Lees, secretary, had reduced the applications to three. To decide on a teacher, Bud Lees suggested they choose by picking the best letter of application. Thus does one’s fate hinge on small details.

“I was offered the position at $1000 a year. I accepted. I came and taught for one year, then married Walter Taylor of the Browning District in 1928. We raised our family in the area and still remain within the larger community. I still retain a warm sport in my heart for Edgerton and the people there.”

Miss McAfee Writes About McCafferty
Miss McAfee

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