PELHAM CORNERS SCHOOL

S. S.. 4, Pelham
Welland Road, near Haisr Rd.

[Pelham Historical Calendar 1983]

As early as 1835 there was a community sufficiently large to be recorded as the “Village of Pelham Corners.”

A school was a necessity. Samuel Rice set aside one-half acre (part of his property) in the south-west part of lot 3, Concession 9, on Sept 11, 1865, “for the purpose of establishing a school house and a teacher’s residence.”
More than four years elapsed before the trustees registered this transaction on Feb 4, 1870, in the name of School Section No. 4 Pelham, It is a matter of conjecture why the matter took so long, for the cost of the property was only $62.50, not a princely sum even then.

A brick school house of conservative design was built in 1881, although there are indications that a previous classroom was set up before that, in the building that later housed the Brasford family and then Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Weed, and was relinquished when this school building was finished. Due to an ever-increasing enrolment an addition was constructed on the front of the brick school in 1950, and in three to five years, an extension was again  necessary. An ample playground and a quiet neighbour round out the picture.

An early teacher on record was a Miss Wilson, whose salary in 1888 was listed as $250.00 per annum. One teacher bears very special mention, and that is Miss Mabel Stirtzinger who began teaching there on January 3 1918, and remained there until the Christmas holidays in 1931. Some years later, she returned.

Mr. Haggerty of Pelham Corners has only high praise for her. While he was her pupil he remembers a very dark morning when there was a terrific wind. As there was no hydro in the school, the classroom became very gloomy and the  situation rather frightening. Miss Stirtzinger diverted her pupils’ attention away from the  storm by quietly reading to them. On the way home that day Harry learned  that the wind had blown the roof off the north-west corner of the Quaker Church.

Pelham Corners was a one-Room school until 1950, with forty to forty-five pupils on the average. With eight grades, that was a handful for any teacher, but Mr. Haggerty feels that it provided an incentive for the pupils to “get ahead” when they saw what the older grades were doing. He could be right. He mentioned that the furnace had a circular tray around the base of it which required a gallon of water a day. The children considered it an honour to be asked to fill it. The older children went in pairs to bring in the coal, another privilege. Work was its own reward.

Prior to this, Mrs. Richard Liebau also attended this school. She remembers the box stove, and the boys bringing in the cordwood. In the girls’ entry there was one wash basin and one linen towel. The lunches were placed on a shelf there, resulting in an occasional frozen dinner.

It was so cold in the school overnight that the ink often froze, which was very unhandy. The first pump had a bucket with chains on it. Sometimes the chain broke, in which case Mr. Frank Muirhead  was called upon to fix it. He was their good stand-by when anything mechanical went wrong. In spite of all these difficulties, the wheels of education still turned faithfully around.

In 1970, the school was closed, with Mrs. Laurena Brouwer as principal of the four classrooms. She had very capably served Pelham in that school for ten years. At present, the schoolbuilding is used for storage. The lawn is well kept, but the  school yard looks very lonely.

Catherine B. Rise