Originally Published in Heritage Happenings, October 1995
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When Waterdown was first settled, there were no schools for the majority of the population, as education for “the masses” was still unknown. In this new land, every able-bodied young person was needed to assist with the tasks necessary to provide food and shelter – so there was no place for schooling.

The first parliamentary legislation dealing with elementary education in Upper Canada was passed in 1816, one year after Waterdown’s first school, housed in a log cabin and situated at the corner of Mill Street and Dundas Street was opened. It was probably founded originally as a private school for the children of Col. Alexander Brown, but appears to have evolved into a village school, as Mr. George D. Griffin, son of Ebenezer Culver Griffin, and a member of one of the early village families recorded his memories before the turn of the century.

In 1815 there was a log school house on the south west corner of Mill and Dundas. The teacher was Miss Mary Hopkins. She was not of the Hopkins family that lived in Nelson. She married Elijah Merritt of Smithville. The school was not kept up constantly and for part of the time Mr. Brown sent his children to Hannahsville.

The “Mr. Brown” referred to in the Griffin reminiscences, was Colonel Alexander Brown who settled in Waterdown in 1805 and established the first mill on the Grindstone Creek close to the Great Falls. He reputedly was responsible for the establishment of the school as, like his brother-in-law James Grierson, he wished to see his children educated.

This very early schooling was only available to those families that could pay the small weekly or monthly fee that the teacher received for each child that was taught. Often the salary was so small that the teacher boarded around, a week with one family, and a week with another, which helped to compensate for the poor pay received. Few early settlers were able to afford this luxury, and even less were able to afford a private education for their children such as the Hon. Adam Fergusson of Woodhill, East Flamborough and Captain Frederick Feilde of Waterdown provided for their children.

Mr. Griffin also recalled the next school that was built in the village, as by 1830, the log school house had been replaced by Ebenezer Griffin’s hotel.

A new school house was built, if memory serves, in 1827 on the corner of Mr. Grierson’s farm. This writer was there at school the first day it was used. The building was also used by the Methodists on Sabbath morning and by Presbyterians in the afternoon up to 1843 when both denominations had built their own churches.

The Village School seems to have been a lively place – the children of Waterdown in the 1830s appear to have been no different than the children of the present day, ever ready to play a trick and outwit a teacher.

In an article that appeared in the Waterdown Review, 6 March 1924, Mr. Patton recalled a story that had been told to him by Mrs. Abrey of Carlisle. This incident had occurred about ninety years earlier, close to the start of the Christmas holidays.

The school house was situated on Dundas Street. It was a very well built frame structure, about 20 x 30 feet, ceiling about 10 feet high, two windows on each side and two windows and entrance door at the front. It stood on posts about a foot from the ground and not closed in.

The custom in those days was that the scholars were to shut the master out of the school on the afternoon of the last day of school. The teacher, a Mr. Griffin, in anticipation of what was to happen put gimlet holes in the lower sash at the meeting rails and inserted a nail: the upper sash being stationary, also put an outside fastening on the door and put a ladder under the house.

Next day when noon came Mr. Griffin went to dinner as usual. Returning at one o’clock, he found the door fast on the inside and the scholars cheering him. He begged of them to let him in, but they only laughed the more, so Mr. Griffin took out the ladder and went up on the roof and placed a small board on the chimney. There being a fire in the stove, Mr. Griffin was soon master of the situation. The smoke soon filled the room and the situation was reversed.

The scholars tried to open the door, and then the windows without success, so as soon as Mr. Griffin had smoked them a little, he opened the door, having had the second laugh which, of course he greatly enjoyed much to the chagrin of the scholars.

At a public meeting held in the village in 1847, a decision was made to purchase two acres of land on Main Street South at a cost of £300 for the erection of a new stone school house. Within two years it had been built, as a small comment on it appeared in the Hamilton paper:

“A very substantial structure of stone had been erected for use as a Public School”.

During the next decade few references to schooling have been found, but it appears that the building on Main Street proved to be too small for a concrete addition was made to it. By 1857 a second school had been established in the village, as the Waterdown School Board Minute Book records that the Boards of the Common School and the Grammar School were united under the title “The Joint Board of the Grammar and Common School Trustees of the Waterdown County Grammar School”. Dollars and cents replaced pounds sterling in their bookkeeping records and a medical inspection of all pupils was initiated.

Mr. George Allison, Secretary of the School Board wrote the following description in 1910 about this joint school in Sealey Park for a Report on the establishment of schools in Ontario.

This school is situated on a beautiful plot of ground on the south-east side of the village, and from it a fine view of the City of Hamilton, of Burlington Bay, and the Beach may be obtained. The grounds contain more than three acres, planted with a number of very fine Shade Trees.

Unfortunately what Mr. Allison failed to mention was that in 1910, when he wrote the account, there had been few improvements from the day the school had opened. The school was still using outdoor conveniences, and the older girls and boys had to bring in wood and water and help keep the school clean.

© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1995, 2022.