Greenfield School

Memories of Greenfield…by Marion E. (Webster) Steacy

The happiest years of my youth; seven as a pupil and four as a teacher; were spent under the roof of our public school at Greenfield, S.S. #3. What an appropriate name for a country school and a countryside! In the spring, the golden dandelions amongst the green grass and trees were a delight for the eyes on the walk to school in the morning.

This school was attended before me by my father and uncle. It was a one-room log school in the beginning. The present building is clapboard on the outside with a metal roof, new windows, chimney and a porch.

When I was six years old, I started to this school with Miss Hazel Haig as my teacher; who, by the way, was boarding at my home. I was scared to death that first day, I well remember. My mother walked me to school that morning in my new dress, hair bow and sandals. My brother was still too young to accompany me. I chose a seat on the right side of the room under the octagonal clock on the wall. I placed my dinned pail on the back bench. Some of the teachers who taught me were: Miss Nelly Taylor, Miss Hattie Cochrane, Miss Seal and Mr. Mackenzie. I met my first love in Senior Fourth, and I’m sad to say we are the only two left who attended in 1925.

My four younger brothers attended this school also. My best friends in life were made there: Edith and Clark McCready, Laura Sales, Mae and Anna O’Grady, Emily Grier, Gerald and Harold O’Grady. Never did I imagine that one day I would be a teacher in that school! I always wanted to be a nurse and live in a big city.

I had to write my Entrance Exams for two days in Lansdowne to pass into Continuation School. I stayed with my paternal grandmother and successfully passed all the subjects. My two other classmates also passed. As I was too young to leave home, I took piano lessons from Maggie Webster to obtain my Grade Two in theory and piano. Then I spent four years at Lansdowne Continuation School to obtain my grade 12. I was 17 and ready to train for a nurse, I thought.

My father informed me one day in August that I was going to be a teacher like my mother, and that he was sending me to Ottawa Normal School in September 1930. He sold his best cow to pay for my year there, and it had to be repaid later. I very sorrowfully attended Normal School and hated every minute of it, as it was not my wishes. When I finished the term, I could not get a school, so I spent another year at home available as a supply teacher, but no supplying to do.

As my father was a trustee of Greenfield, I was hired when a vacancy came up, as a teacher and janitor for $475.00 for the year 1931 – 32. I boarded at home with my family. I had to teach my two younger brothers, my first cousin, other cousins, and my neighbours’ children. This was a difficult situation. However my mother was a teacher and she straightened me out with a timetable and good advice so that things fell into place as a result.

My first day of teaching I shall never forget! At 9 a.m. I picked up the brass hand bell off my desk and walked out to ring it at the porch door for the children to line up on the rocks. The children came running from all directions. The smallest little boy, a beginner, fell down with his slippery leather shoes and cut his face on a sharp rock at the door. Blood was all over the place! Here I was with no first aid supplies, no telephone and a child bleeding to death – my first cousin at that! I ordered the oldest lad to run to the nearest neighbour to call for his father to come to the school.

In the meantime I held the bleeding boy in my arms and pressed my scarf on his wound until his father arrived to take him to Dr. Lochead to be sewed up. Eric still has the scar on his chin. I cleaned myself up as much as possible and after a while got the children organized for the first day. That year I had 8 grades and 2 pupils in Grade 9.

After four enjoyable years of teaching with very fine pupils, I left to marry the farmer up the road. My pupils of Greenfield formed my guard of honour at my wedding in Lansdowne United Church April 13, 1936. But that was not the end of my teaching profession – just the beginning!*
* This article appeared in our Spring/Summer 2001 Newsletter.