Low Down Articles
Echoes from the Past
Article 59 of 111
This article first appeared in the "Echoes from the Past" column of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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An order in Council dated 6 Aug. 1862 is worded as follows:
"To erect into a school municipality under the same (sic) of St. Etienne, the parish of St. Etienne, of Chelsea, in the County of Outaouais, and to assign the same the following limits... the road by the name of Gatineau Road (Highway 105) west of The Gatineau River... south to Lot 4 in the 4th Range, being the property of Thomas Brigham."
Fourteen years later the Roman Catholic School of St. Etienne had been joined by a Protestant education system, as notation in the first minute book of the newly formed Municipality of West Hull (now Chelsea).
18 Sept 1876. That the Secretary-Treasurer is authorized to discharge the General Tax a/c the following taxes:
Protestant School House, Chelsea $1.50
School Commission d'Etienne $3.70
The following recollections by William Ryan (1882-1970), probably dating from the last quarter of the 19th Century add flesh to the bare bones of official records about the St. Etienne school which for many years existed in a building situated between the old Edmond's house, where the Edmonds ran a store and post office and the old Dunn House prior to the latter being burned to the ground in 1900.
Mr. Ryan recalls these families being represented by pupils at the school:
Leppards, Chamberlins, Fleurys, Hadleys, Faras (Farris). Two others were Michael Dunlap and Kevin Mulvihill of Farm Point.
Mrs. Burke, Gertrude Martin's mother, taught at the school. She had 52 pupils all grades. The chairman of the school's board warned her about two rowdy boys - one being a Sheffield - but they gave her no trouble.
Other teachers recalled to memory were a Mr. Ash, a Miss Lothian, Mrs. Cosgrove of Buckingham, Miss Amanda Stone Folsom, from the U.S.A. She married in 1856 Thomas Bartlett Hudson, son of Josephus Hudson and Deidamia Church of the newer Chelsea. Another early teacher was Miss Hannah Folsom Weymouth who married Thomas Brigham Prentiss (he who operated the store and post office in Old Chelsea before moving to Aylmer).
It is believed that Prentiss ran the store and post office where the Parkway General Store now is. The Dunn House was rebuilt in 1901 and is now "The Dawn House", a B&B. The Edmonds Store and post office still exists and is on the site of the old St. Etienne School.