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History of Maple Grove (Aldborough S.S. 8) and Oak Grove (Aldborough S.S. 10) Schools
- Museum / Archive
- Elgin County Archives
- Part Of
- Clachan Women's Institute fonds
- Description Level
- Item
- GMD
- textual records
- graphic material
- Date Range
- ca. 1888-1998
- Accession Number
- 2015-20
- Storage Location
- R3 S1 Sh6 B1 F4
- Museum / Archive
- Elgin County Archives
- Part Of
- Clachan Women's Institute fonds
- Description Level
- Item
- Accession Number
- 2015-20
- Storage Room
- Archives Storage Rm. 107
- Storage Location
- R3 S1 Sh6 B1 F4
- GMD
- textual records
- graphic material
- Date Range
- ca. 1888-1998
- Series
- Clachan Women's Institute fonds- History series
- Physical Description
- 3 photographs
- 2 cm of textual records
- History / Biographical
- Aldborough S.S. #8 (Maple Grove)
- In 1832 the first school was built in this section, on the north corner of the intersection of Furnival Road and the road lying between the fourth and fifth concessions. This site was purchased from Mr. Arch. Paterson. A new school was built in 1857 on the west corner of Lot 7, Concession 5. This brick school was destroyed by fire in 1946. While a new school was being built in 1946 temporary accomodation for the school had to be found. The trustees of S.S. #10, Aldboroug offered their vacant upper room to S.S. #8 but it was decided to hold classes in the house of Mr. Frank Popovich instead. By September 1946, a new one-room brick school designed by Mr. J.T. Findley of St. Thomas was ready for use. As with the other one-room schools in Aldborough Township, S.S. #8 closed in June of 1965.
- Aldborough S.S. #10 (Oak Grove)
- This school section, which is located in the northwest corner of the town-ship, was the home of the first white settler in Elgin County. In 1796 James Fleming settled on Lot 6, Concession 1 near the Thames River. However no other settlers came to this area until after the war of 1812 and it was not extensively settled until the 1840's. The first school was not built until 1852 when a small log building was erected on Lot 5, Concession 1, on what was commonly referred to as the "Martin Knoll". The first teacher of this small school was Mr. John McColl. In 1864 a larger school was built as a replacement on Lot 4, Concession 2. An impressive two-storey school was built in 1890 which came to be known as "Oak Grove" because of the many oak trees which surrounded the knoll it was built on. This school had two classrooms which were both continuously used except for a short period in the 1940's when only one classroom was needed. S.S. #10 was closed in June of 1965, after which the students were bused to the new Aldborough Public School.
- Information taken from Elgin County Schools, written by Jim Doelman and published in 1982.
- Scope and Content
- Three photographs of the Oak Grove School, ca. 1888-1895:
- -1: Oak Grove School, ca. 1888. This is identified as the second school building at that school section, and existed there between 1863 and 1891. These were the two schools which the Clachan Women's Institute were most interested in.
- -2: New Oak Grove School building (built in 1890), 1891.
- -3. Oak Grove School, ca. 1895.
- -a handwritten history of schools which have served the Clachan community, ca. 1948.
- "A Short History of Oak Grove School given by Mrs. Garnet Long at the Closing of the School, September 4, 1965".
- -a photocopy of the St. Thomas Times-Journal Bygone Day feature for February 21, 1998: "Students in this SS 8 Aldborough class (north of Rodney) include:..".
- Name Access
- Clachan Women's Institute
- Clachan (Ont.)
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