Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2022.1.16 |
Object Name |
Plate, Commemorative |
Title |
Burnhamthorpe Public School 1902-1928 |
Date |
1976 |
Creator |
Ronald Watson |
Place of Origin |
Burnhampthorpe/Mississauga/Ontario/Canada |
Description |
A white porcelain commemorative plate with a sketch of a one-room brick school house done by Ronald Watson. The bottom of the plate reads "Burnhamthorpe Public School 1902-1928". There is a gold accent running around the edge of the plate. |
History |
This commemmorative plate was created for a 1976 reunion for students from Dixie and Burnhamthorpe. Over the years four different school buildings served the children of Burnhamthorpe between 1845 and 1965. The third Burnhamthorpe schoolhouse was opened in 1883. It was originally a one-room brick schoolhouse, which was enlarged in 1894 and 1902 to have two rooms. In 1918 there were 68 students from all primary grades being taught by two teachers in the two-room schoolhouse. Countless students attended the school, including members of the Carr, Copeland, Curry, Jefferson, Markle, Moore, Savage, Siddall, Stanfield, and Tolman families, amongst many others. In 1928, a 79-year-old former student, Richard Jordan, recalled "young men with moustaches and girls in long skirts" attending the school. Another student, Ann Davidson, recalled how students "came from all around and made lifelong friends at the little school. We felt like we belonged to something special." Students are recorded as coming from Islington, Malton, Cooksville, and Dixie to attend school at Burnhamthorpe. The school was also actively involved in patriotic and remembrance programs, including a remembrance gathering in 1911 saw "a program of solos, duets, choruses, recitations, gramophone selections and dialogues." In the First World War, at least four former students of the Burnhamthorpe School, including Robert Currie, Sylvester Osborne, William Pellett and Edmund Stevenson served. Private Osborne was at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917 but was wounded in the advance on the town of Avion on June 28, 1917, where he lost his eyesight. The outbreak of communicable diseases was always a problem, as the schools reflected broader society. The school was closed in February of 1895 for chickenpox, and in January of 1901 for diphtheria. Measles came in September of 1902 and again in March 1910. The school was also closed for part of November of 1919 for influenza (Spanish Flu). Over the many years that the school was in operation, some of the more common reasons given for student absences include "parental neglect", "privation" (lack of food or clothing), "house burned down", "working on farm", "harvest" and "no shoes". The late Joan Reid documented histories of the one-room schoolhouses in Peel: "The pattern of the school year in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries is well-known. The school year began in January. Pupils had six days off for Easter and celebrated the birthday of Queen Victoria on May 24. A school picnic late in June marked the end of the term. School resumed in mid August. After the celebration of Labour Day early in September, Burnhamthorpe pupils looked forward to a day off for the fall fair and two days off while their teacher attended the Teachers’ Institute (convention) in Brampton. Thanksgiving was celebrated either in October or November. A Christmas concert marked the end of the school year. Enrolments were high but older pupils tended to come only in the winter months when they were not needed for farm work. The younger ones came in the warmer months when their little legs did not have to trudge through heavy snow. The climate of Burnhamthorpe was considered very healthy. The Toronto Fresh Air Fund chose it as one of the communities to which it sent sixty-one city children for a summer holiday in 1901." In 1928 a fourth schoolhouse building, which was a brick two-room schoolhouse with a basement, was constructed beside the previous school. |
Site |
Burnhampthorpe Public School |
Search Terms |
Burnhampthorpe |
Relation |
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