Pelican Lake School District No. 3980
The Outpost
The Canadian Readers BK. V
The sweet west wind, the prairie school
a break in the yellow wheat,
The prairie trail that wanders by, to the
place where the four winds meet –
A trail with never an end at all to the
eager children’s feet.
The rain washed sky, the morning sun,
a laugh along the trail,
A call as clear as a thrush’s note, the
clink of a dinner pail –
(Hark to the army coming fast through
the future’s rending veil!)
A little patch of well-tramped earth, a
saucy gopher near,
And teacher waiting on the steps, her
kind eyes brave and clear;
A rough-cut pole where the flag flies up
to the shrill-voiced children’s cheer.
An open door where the breeze steals in
and, by-and-bye, the sun –
And one and one are two, you know,
that’s how the world is won,
And two and two make four – ah me,
how quickly school is done!
Pelican Lake School, one of the few remaining country schools, stands like
an outpost – weathered and neglected but on a well-travelled road – a
reminder of an outlying and early settlement about 11.5 miles N.E. of
Edgerton.
Families in the district had immigrated from Norway, England and the U.S.A. – some seeking homesteads as early as 1902, 1906 – 1910. Early settlers shared many common concerns, a major one of which was schooling for a growing family. The eldest daughter in one family had attended school in Ohio. In the move to Canada her school texts were carefully packed with the household effects, and Mary Thomas took over the duty of teaching her siblings the basic foundations of the three Rs. The elder daughter in another family stayed with relatives and friends who lived closer to Bloomington Valley where school was already in progress.
In August, 1921, Marc Anderson transferred land, on the NW ¼ 9-45- 3 W4, for a school to the first trustees, namely Hugh B. Thomas, E.J. Heard and Ben Hill. The contract to build a school was received by Arthur Poppelton, who commenced work April 21, 1922 and completed the structure June 8, 1922 for the sum of $1769.
Miss Bernice Schoupe from Killam was the first teacher with a yearly wage of $1,000. Her pupils were Jane Thomas, Kathleen Heard, Mary and Gray Hill, Helen and Edythe Thorp, Allan and Gordon Warrington, Raymond Sweep and Joseph Roy. A few five and six-year-olds were recruited to make up the necessary enrollment on the school register., Warm, sunny days, the drone of older students at their lessons, and the long trip to school by “Shank’s Pony” often put these little fellows to sleep for the afternoon.
A true story relates how a little girl returned home shortly after she had started off across the field to school. “Look Mommy,” she blurted out, “I found some baby kittens.” A quick look into the wiggling content of her apron revealed a family of meowing baby skunks! A hurried change of pinafore and little Mary was out the door scurrying off to school again.
Other children to attend Pelican Lake School came from the Aasen, Anderson, Belik, Belanger, Griffiths, Holland, Lacy, Leskow, Newell and Wilkinson Families. Some of the students, on leaving school, found work in various fields and distance places. There were teachers, missionaries to India and the Philippine Islands, nurses, fruit growers, councilors in local municipal government, machine agents, a veterinarian and many successful farmers and farmers’ wives.
Some of the teachers who married and lived in the district were Marjory Lee (Mrs. Dick Thomas), Valerie Kluck (Mrs. Peter Milne) and Beth Reinhart (Mrs. Mike Belik). Jeanette Heffern (Mrs. John Murray) was the last teacher.
Pelican Lake School doors were closed to instruction in 1949. By 1950, Jim McGaughey’s bus was coming to Aasen’s corner taking the students, with some from Empire, to Edgerton for schooling. By 1956, the McGaughey bus was making a complete circle, picking up the children from Saddle Hills, Empire, Pelican Lake and Bloomington Valley districts.
The frost, the snows! The prairie school,
when the wild north wind blows free,
A tiny dot on the white that lies as
wide as eye can see –
A little bit of the Always Was on the
field of the great To Be.
People of the district bought the schoolhouse for a community centre.
They look back on times when school picnics and Christmas concerts were
the highlights of the year. For many years Mr. Will Thorp was organist for
the children, and Mr. Harold Warrington, whose father was a noted
choirmaster and concert singer from Detroit, patiently trained them in
their solos and choruses for the concerts and musical festivals.
The school was the hub of community activities – church for different denominations, whist drives and dances, pie socials, famous chicken suppers and quilting bees by the Women of Unifarm, and a polling station for elections.
So stands the outpost – time and change
will crowd its widening door,
Bringing the dreams we visioned and
the hopes we battled for –
A legacy to those who came, from those
who come no more.
Isobel Edeston MacKay
Pelican Lake School District No. 3980
Submitted by Eleanor Perry
107-108-109