Empire School District No. 2414
Empire School, located on the SE ¼ 1-46-9 W4 was built in 1912 by Sam
Oxby, assisted by some of the people of the district. The first teacher
was Miss Bessie Borden. The original school building burned to the ground
November 19, 1951, and most of the records were destroyed. However, the
last register, dating back to June 1932, was at the Wainwright School
Division office. The trustees from that time until the school was closed
in 1957 were as follows: E. Knott, L. Oxby, G. Boyd, W. Cornfield,
T. McAfee, Jim and Jack Cornfield, T. McAfee, Mr. & Mrs. Paul Belik,
N. McAfee, C. Churchill, F. Tipler and W. Knott.
The following is a list of some of the teachers to the best of our knowledge: B. Borden, E. Wiley, H. Fisher, T. Murray, Mr. Berry, M. McKnaughton, V. Wheeler, I. Milne, P. Fieldhouse, P. Smith, B. Lynor, R. Oliver, D. Lee, M. Jardine, Q. Donaldson, D. Redmond, A. Trefiak, M. Pedden, Mr. M. McAfee, M. Rehill, L. Pfluger, Mr. E. Gabbert, M. Dallyn, P. Hendrickson, E. Clifford and Mrs. R. Erickson. Mrs. E. Avison boarded twenty-one teachers which must be a record. Others who boarded teachers were: Mrs. Brislan, Mrs. J. Cornfield and Mrs. G. Boyd.
A rather humourous incident I heard one teacher recall was about one pupil who fell in some water one spring and got soaking wet. As there was no phone and it was impossible to contact the parents, she had her remove her clothes in the cloakroom and hang them by the heater to dry. During the drying process, the child was wrapped in the good old Union Jack. Luckily the inspector did not come by! There were many instances when teachers had to ‘make do’ with whatever was available.
Recesses were fun for the boys in Empire. In early days, Geoff and Jim
Miles, Mike and Walter Belik, Jim Zajic and other younger boys went on a
hunting spree. The boys used to round up the rabbits in a grove of trees
over the hill from the school. They all surrounded this bluff and all came
together with sticks for the final kill. What a surprise there was!
In 1952 Browning School was moved to the site and used until the children from the area were bussed to Edgerton in 1957. Later it was sold to Cecil Trigg.
Empire School District No. 2414
Submitted by Emmy Nysetvold
104-105