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The Huron Expositor, 1961-03-23, Page 10r , 11111 'rTIMM =Num, SEAFORTH, ONT., MARCH 23, 1961 CONGRATULATIONS TO SEAFORTH DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL It was our privilege to have been responsible for providing the furnishings for the modern Cafeteria. BOX FURNITURE Furniture -- Appliances -- Floor Covering Phone 43 •Seaforth St. Columban CWL Packs -Clothing The March meeting of the Cath- olic Women's League was held at the home of Mrs. Albert Cronin, with the president, Mrs. Angus Kennedy, in charge. The recording secretary, Mrs. Frank Muxray, read the mingtes of. the previous meeting. Mrs. J. McIver reported 98 members, and 114 pounds of used clothing were sent to the Missions, as reported by Mrs, Martin Murray. The fi- nancial report was given by Mrs. Frank Bowman. Cancelled stamps are to be col- lected and given to Mrs. James O'Connor, All per capita fees were ordered paid. A Mass in honor of Our Lady of Good Counsel will be offered on April 26. Mrs. James O'Connor and Mrs. Albert Cronin were appointed auditors. Plans were discussed for the an- nuaI home-made baking sale, with Mrs. Joseph Eckert, Mrs. Frank Murray and Mrs. Martin Murray appointed as conveners. A nominating committee consist- ing of Mrs. Joseph Kale, Mrs. Michael Murray and Mrs: Nora Maloney, was named. The annual meeting was set for April 11. A prize, donated by Mrs. Hubert Johnson, was won by Mrs. Tom Morris. It is more blessed to give than to receive, and what's more, it's deductible. Industrial • Commercial • Site Reports P KYLES & KYLES ARCHITECTS 247 John Street South HAMILTON JAckson 7-1561 • Institutional 15 Downie Street STRATFORD 4895 THE BRIGHT MODERN CAFETERIA, which now comes avail able for the use of SDHS students, is a long step forward from the dampy, dingy basement accommodation in which students for years have eaten their lunches. Facilities exist for providing hot drinks and a snack bar, which students operate, makes available ice cream and other popular items. The new cafeteria adjoins the stage of the auditorium, which thus serves a dual purpose. (Expositor photo by Phillips). SDHS Had Beginning In Seaforth Activity of 70's (On the occasion of the openingkr of the new auditorium addition of the SDHS on November 16, 1954, a historical review of the school was prepared by James R. Scott. Ex- cerpts from the review, in which the early days of the school are related, are here reproduced.) B37:JAMES R. SCOTT The Seaforth High School was organized January 7, 1879—twelve years after Confederation, four years after Seaforth's incorpora- tion as a town, and twelve years after the Public School. was built. The Public School Ls important in the High School's history, not just because it is the source of a good number of its students, but because, particularly during the tenure of Edward McFaul, it pro- vided advanced instruction to those students who needed it long before there was a separate High School building and staff. It can properly be said that the Seaforth High School had its real begin- ning in the old Public School. Boom Days in Seaforth But Seaforth and the surround- ing district were experiencing a Worn in the '70's. When times are good, classes are crowded and SEAFORTH DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL We are proud to have been chosen as general contractor for the splendid new addition to the Seaforth District High School. We congratulate the citizens of the Seaforth School Area on the modern facilities they have made possible, and which will do so much in furthering the education of the youth of the area. Logan Contracting Limited P.O. Box 368 - Phone 271-8800 STRATFORD a-- ONTARIO new schools get built, and in those years prosperity had come to Sea - forth. The growth of the town had been phenomenal. When the Huron Road was put through in 1828 the site of Seaforth was regarded as unde- sirable swamp, worth nothing to the land -hungry influx of settlers which the new road, would bring. Ten years later, when Harpurhey and Egmondville were already started as settlements, all you could find in present-day Seaforth was a signpost, pointing to other places, and the corner was com- monly known as "Guide Post Swamp." When the railway went through in the 1850's, there were still only two buildings in Seaforth —Andrew McKearnan's log tavern and a clearing of ten acres with a log cabin belonging to Christo- pher Sperling. Yet exactly twenty years after that time; the settlement was in- corporated as a town, and the Main Street looked very much the same as it does today, except for the Town Hall, the Commercial Hotel and a few business blocks erected later. ' In the twenty years after the coming of the railway, Seaforth acquired three extensice s a 1 t manufacturing plants, three large flour mills, two foundries, two cab- inet factories, two stave factories, two steam sawmills, six carriage factories, three pork -packing es- tablishments, and a flax mill. Besides this, the surrounding countryside had been cleared, log cabins had been replaced by sub- stantial frame or brick houses, and agriculture had become establish- ed as the dominant factor in the Huron County economy. Undoubtedly, Seaforth was ready for a High School, The First Buildings Just the same, they started cau- tiously. This was and is a canny community and it had already es- tablished its pattern for building schools more than a decade before when they built the first section of the Public School. (Incidentally, that same nattern is still being fol- lowed in the present expansion pro- grame of the Sr'aforth and Dis- trict High School). Like its predecessor, the Public School, the original High School was simply an overgrown, lopi-id- ed four -room schoolhouse. It was built in 1878 and was ready for occupancy in the . first week of January, '79, when the school started operations under Hie prin- cipalship of Charles Clarkson, 13.A. Two other teachers, Joseph Mor- gan. and Fred T. Congdon, made up the staff. Right from the first, education at the secondary school level took hold in the district. Those who sought the Normal School Entrance, for example, av- eraged around thirty at that time, with a corresponding decrease in numbers in the Uppelr School echelon. Examinations -were not held in the school building, which was not large enough to accom- modate them easily, but in the Town Hall—that is in the old Town Hall which stood in the square off Market Street, a block west of the present structure. It was soon obvious that larger accommodation would be required to meet the needs of the education - conscious community and one of the first lessons which the board of those yearslearned was that the physical plant necessary for mo- dern education Is not merely a matter of classroom space. The original school building had no central heating, no gymnasium and no laboratory facilities. All these, it was realized, had to be incorporated into the new plans.., The central heating was easy en- ough and the gymnasium was at- tended to by building a large, barn - like frame structure behind the school. The laboratories were an- other matter. It was just about this time that the natural sciences were recognized as a proper in- gredient of higher education. No longer was it believed that a solid grounding fn Greek and Latin roots was enough to make an all- around scholar. In this technologi- cal age it is hard to realize that less than a century ago the idea of a laboratory in the school was a new and somewhat revolution- ary idea. The citizens of Seaforth did not balk at it, but moved along with the newest' views of educa- tion and decided to include two science rooms in the plans for the school addition. One was the physi- cal laboratory which` was equipped with "a large assortment of ins struments from the best makers in Canada, the United States and Austria," and the other was the Chemistry lab which included 23 tables and which served the stu- dents of Seaforth (with only minor repairs to the plumbing) for the next 50 years. Altogether the new school was a large, up-to-date structure which was designed not only to meet the immediate needs of the commun- ity but those of the future. At that time there were more class- rooms available than could be us- ed and and one of them was turned oved tb the students for use as an assembly hall. This practice continued — a classroom doubling as an assembly—right up until 1938 when yet another addition was put on the old school. Collegiate Status Even before the addition of 1887 was built and the school settled in to a half century of uninterrupt-' ed service to the community, the character of secondary schooling in Seaforth had become apparent. The first headmaster, Charles Clarkson, was an unobtrusive but effective teacher. One of his early students, who later became a dis- tinguished Canadian jurist, has written of the first principal, "his easy manner of impartinginforma- tion was not fully appreciated' by some of us while we were pupils, but I have realized since that he had the ability to teach without seeming to do so." He also had the capacity to gather good teach- ers around him and during both the periods when he was principal the staff of the school was com- posed of unusually sound men and women. J. C. Harstone, who was principal between - Clarkson's two terms, was an active aggressive man who not only maintained and encouraged the school's standards of scholarship, but who was -large- ly responsible for getting the school's athletics on an organized basis, thus laying the foundations for a long series of successful teams, especially football. Between them, these two men confirmed the pattern which was to be Maintained without interrup- tion until the cataclysm of the First World War. After its expan- sion the school quickly became re- cognized throughout the province as one whose students were bet- ter grounded than average in the subjects on .the curriculum and whose athletes could take their place in any company. Naturally the status of the school was raised and it became a Col- legiate Institute. In maintaining its fame, a large measure of its suecess was due to the calibre of the principals who guided it—es- pecially G. F. Rogers, who served from 1900 until 1914—and to the teachers who staffed the various departments. Among the early teachers were many who moved on to larger and more responsible posts or to the faculties of normal schools or universities. Among these were Messrs. Carruthers, Crawford, Anderson, Prendergast, Brown and Miller, and on the distaff side Miss Hilton—the first lady member to be appointed, in 1882 — Mrs. Kirkman and Miss Kirkwood, Once it was under way the school was in an enviable position, It had fine facilities, principals and staff of outstanding qualifications and personality, and it served a community which believed in and supported the ideals of higher edu- cation. The personnel of the school boards of these years always num- bered among them an unusually active and aggressive number of men who took pride and a per- sonal interest in the welfare of the school. Indeed, it was by no means unusual in the early days of the school for a board member to visit a class and put the students through their paces. Among those who did this regularly was Dr. Coleman, who often dropped around to give the. students an oral quizz in geometry. In addi- tion, the board members made it a point to attend meetingsof va- rious school organizations i and to be on hand to support its athletic teams. At least two former prin- cipals are on record in acknowl- edging the tremendous help and • (Continued ,on Page 11) CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST WISHES TO THE STAFF AND STUDENTS of the SEAFORTH DISTRICT HIGH - SCHOOL "Music resembles poetry; in each Are nameless graces which no methods teach, And which a master -hand alone can reach:" —Alexander Pope WATERLOO MUSIC COMPANY LIMITED WATERLOO ONT. The One - Stop Service Centre For All Your Musk Needs • • • 0 • • • • 1 r • • • • • • a •