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Wingham Advance-Times, 1977-06-22, Page 4rng ana Advance-Tinies, June 22, 1977 � days in Wroxeter: 0 Building schools and roads This is the second part of a ' history of the Village of Wroxeter prepared by Mrs. George Gibson of RR 1, Wroxeter. The first school house of Wroxeter was built in 1860 of squared legs and is the building, much altered in appearance now in 1977, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Mac Wylie. Pupils' initials may be seen on its basement walls. About 1880 a brick school,, com- prising two classrooms, a lobby and big woodshed, was built at a new location, where the Maitland conservation building now stands. This school was destroyed by fire in 1905 and for a time classes were held in the town hall, which was located on a lot next to the Hemphillhome, now owned by George Hamilton. The third school to be erected, in 1906, was a fine red brick build- ing with two classrooms and two spacious basement playrooms. In 1910 these playrooms were converted into classrooms and the building became a combined public and continuation school (Grades 1 - 8 and Grades 9 - 12). In 1948 the continuation school was discontinued, its pupils henceforth to attend Wingham High School, and the whole build- ing was again taken over by the public school. Due to the west aide basement room being condemned for class- room use, an additional room was built for $7,000. The building was now heated by three furnaces using 60 tons of coal a year. In 1946 the unused room was equipped as a manual training room and woodwork was taught every Friday afternoon by Ken Edgar. On an Monday morning in March, 1954, a blaze of undeter- mined origin broke out in the basement of this school, and in two hours only the bare walls of. the 50 year old building were standing. Fifty-six pupils, to- gether with their teachers, M: s. A. Wearring and Principal Campbell Brown, escaped but all equipment with the exception of the school register was lost; esti- mated loss was $35,000. Classes were transported to Fordwich where unused classrooms were made available to them. A fourth school, an attractive, two -roomed brick building was erected at a cost of `$40,000 and officially opened in 19555'.- It served the village well until June, 1963, when its doors were closed. In 1965 this building was bought by the Maitland River Conserva- tion Association and is now used as its headquarters. In September, 1963, the public school children of Wroxeter began attending the new Howick Central School situated on High- way 87, midway between Gorrie and Fordwich. After 75 -100 years service, the day of the one - roomed rural school was over. It had started in 1843, when each township was divided into sections and, in the rural areas, each section came to have its own one -roomed school with three trustees, elected by its own rate- payers, in charge. Oneleacher taught all grades from one toeight and even higher. During early years the attendance was high, 50 to 80 WROXETER PUBLIC SCHOOL about 1929 when the teacher was Miss Mabel Ross. Pupils are: Yvonne White, Maxine White, Gladys Musgrove, Kathleen Durst, Betty Hupfer, Dorothy Brown, Lucelle White, - - -, Irene Sei ling. Centre, Clark Sharpin, Allan Griffith, Reg Robinson, Bill Martin, - - - Star -Nes, - - - Hopkroft, Crawford Gibson. Front, Wendell Hembley, - - -, Gary Gibson, Jack Milligan, Chas. Patterson, - - -, George Seiling. pupils up to age 18. Many older boys and girls went to school in winter and were home in summer to help with farm work. Gradu- ally, however, attendance began to dwindle and theidea of the central school was born. Now all children of our township go to a Sixteen -room. central school. Many of these one -roomed country schools have been trans- formed into family homes. FIRST ROAD THROUGH HURON The first road wa chopped through the old Huron Tract, sur- veyed through from Stratford to Goder dh' in 1828, with .inns along the way every seven miles. It was over this road that many of the settlers came. The next highway was from Goderich, through Clinton, Brucefield, Exeter and Seaforth to London: This road was begun by the government, but later taken over by the county, which gravelled it in what it called first class style. On this road were toll . gates; • these were abolished in 1873. • One of the branches of this road came through. Seaforth and Brussels to Wroxeter and was for some time Wroxeter's only con- tact with the outside world. These county •oads were in time trans- ferred to townships. Howick Township passed an act in 1863 providing assistance for building roads. For everyone day's work given free by a man, the council would give one dollar and only on this condition would they give. It • encouraged the settler to improve the roads as the work was done in front of his own property. The first roads were not much more than trails, with fonn lying parts made passable by placing logs side by side crossways of the road — this was the old corduroy road.. Then came the gravel road; kept in condition by what was known as "statute labor", which meant days of work spent on the road by citizens without pay. The number of days depended on the assessment.. In . 1876 an assess- ment of $600.00 to $1,000.00 rated three days work. If a man neglected his statute labour it was charged on his taxes at 75 cents a day. PAW. masters were the overseers. Each had a beat, usually from one concession to the next. In 1925, a system of road build- ing began under the guidance of the provincial government. This ended statute labour. A road 'superintendent looks after the township roads and provincial government controls the pro - Education board OKs purchase of hearing aid for local girl The Huron County Board of Ed- ucation agreed Thursday to pur- chase a $1,025 phonic ear hearing aid for a kindergarten student in Turnberry Central School. The board approved the request from Principal Paul Statia after Superintendent of Education Don Kenwell explained the reasons for the board's involvement. The child has a profound hear- ing deficiency and, according to STEPHEN SALLOWS TERRENCE SALLOWS D. Stephen E. Sallows and Terrence J. Sallows, sons of Mrs. Shirley Sajlows„ Ingham, graduated June 18 from the Funeral Services course at Humber College, Toronto. They are both serving their apprenticeships at R. S. Kane Funeral Home, Toronto. Following the graduation cere- monies, a family dinner was' held„at the Crock and Block Restaurant, Toronto. Mr. Kenwell, the device will allow her to continue to, reside at home and attend the local school. The alternative is to attend 'a special school for the hearing handicapped. Mr. Kenwell said he has a letter from the Robarts School for the Hearing Handicapped recom- mending the use of the device. He said it is not a normal hearing aid, but consists of a receiver worn by the student, a trans- mitter worn by the teacher and a special power supply that can be recharged. He reported the ministry of education verified that the equip- ment is classified as personalized special education equipment and is subject to an 85 per cont minis- try grant, making the board re- sponsible for about $150 of the total cost. "I believe the student's welfare would be''better served by the purchase of this device which would enable her to continue in her home setting rather than a residential setting at the Robarts School in London,” said Mr. Ken - well. He added the grant portion of the purchase is not available if a private organization or parent buys the device. He suggested the board make the purchase and assign the device to the student for as long as required, provided she continues to attend a school under the jurisdiction of the Huron County Board of Edu- cation. Dorothy Wallace, trustee for Goderich pointed out the bdard has to pay no matter what route it takes. She said it could help the child stay at home or it could re fuse the purchase and foot the transportation costs for the child to go to London. The costs are for two 'trips a week. • John Cochrane, director of edu- cation, said that the ministry would like to see the child remain in Turnberryas part of its overall philosophy to leave children in schools rather than "cart them off to an institution". Chairman Herb Turkheim asked Mr. Kenwell if he had approached a service club on the matter, pointing out that quite often they are more than willing to sponsor such a project. Mr. Kenwell said he had pre- ferred taking this route first since he did not relish the idea of going to a service club and having it suggest the matter should be handled by the board and possibly criticizing the board un- duly. Colborne Trustee Shirley Haz- litt asked if it wasn't possible for the ,board to use the 85 per cent ministry grant to help' parents in similar circumstances. She said the board could make a purchase of a similar device and then col- lect 85 per cent grant from the province and the remaining per cent from the parent. R. J. Elliott of Blyth said he wouldn't like to see the board set a precedent by suggesting it would be willing to purchase cor- rective limbs or other such things. Five people bitten by dogs Five people in the Wingham OPP detachment area were bit- ten by dogs during.the past week, an OPP spokesman reports, He said this appears to be a steadily increasing problem. The Vicious Dog Act provides that the owner of a dog which causes injury by biting may be required to show reason in a pro- vincial court why the dog should not he destroyed. Anyone bitten by a dog that cannot later he identified and ob- served may be required to under- go -medical treatment including shots to protect against rabies. vincial highways. All roads are now, gravel, concrete or maca- dam and, with the use of power machines and trucks, men hired by the township, county and pro- vince keep these fine roads in ex- cellent condition the year. round. With the up-to-date machinery to cope with the lofty banks of snow, the method of clearing our roads today is so different from in years past. In 1947, a severe winter was experienced and Gallaher's Hill, two miles north of Wroxeter, was impassable in January and February at least three times. Men from the .neighborhood turned out and worked with shovels to open the road. The third attempt sawn, several men suffering from snow blindness so they gave up. During the first part of April, a bulldozer was hired and the road was made passable. In early years, two good wooden truss bridges spanned the Maitland Riverwithin the village limits. These bridges were later replaced by steel bridges. In 1929, the swollen waters of the Mait- land River caused the bridge in the village to be washed away. One of the residents of the vil- lage, Clarence White, was cross- ing the bridge in his car when the bridge gave away. He was res- cued a short way, downstream, unhurt. A board walk was built up to take care of those crossing the stream on foot. Our present new concrete bridge was completed around 1930.. The bridge known as Day's Bridge at the edge of the village was removed a few years ago, and then one was built,on High= way 87 to take its place. It was built by Mowbray Construction Company, Wingham 'at a cost of .$40,000.00. Traffic was moving over this bridge December 29th, 1962. 0-0-0 Next week: the Wroxeter Tele- phone Company and- other local businesses. \, '4 THE OLD WROXETER SCHOOL was destroyed by fire about 1959 or early 60's. This was a continuation school for grades one to eight and the first four years of high school. Those wanting to complete their high school'-` education went on to Wingham. May Wyman of Essex was principal prior to her marriage to John Hupfer in 1918 and some of the teachers were Mabel Ross (Mrs. Jas. Allen Jr.); Rona Van Velsor (Mrs. Hector Browne); AInha Hastie and Annie Little. American Express presents the greatest travel bargain ever offered to WKONG s. . . :::„.„4,,:„.....,".," ,k, S clu,,,i, O!n8DEPARTUr7ES NIAGARA ......... ....�. 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