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Information on the old U.E.L
school in the village of Adolphustown is limited. What we do know has been
included below. The schoolhouse was situated
on a knoll about 100 yards east of where St. Alban’s Church is today. We have no information on
the building date of the school, or how long it ran. It has been said that a Mr.
Lyons kept school in Adolphustown as early as 1789. In 1843, a new school for
School Section No. 1 was built. We do know there was a
school in Adolphustown in 1811. The teacher was Arent
Van Dyck. The location of this school
house is unconfirmed. It may be the school mentioned previously that was located on the western end
of the village (Lot 25), or, it may refer to what is known as "The Old U.E.L. Schoolhouse" |
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The Schoolhouse E. B. Biggar
- An Anecdotal Life of Sir
John Macdonald (1891) “The school house was a little wooden
structure, built by the original settlers, the U. E. Loyalists. Though the only one in the township, it was
but sixteen feet long or thereabouts, with two windows on each side, filled
with seven by eight inch window panes.
There was but one board
desk in the school house, and that ran round three sides of the room. The teacher’s desk was at the vacant end,
and a pail of water in the corner was about the only other piece of furniture
in this temple of learning.” From Memories of Henry Ruttan “,,,there stood the old square Log
School House on the hill at Adolphustown Village.” |
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The Teachers Arent VanDyck (1811) This
is the first record we have found for a school in Adolphustown. As was
mentioned, it may be the school that was apparently erected at the west end
of the village of Adolphustown on the front, or, it may be what was later
referred to as the Old U.E.L. Schoolhouse. “Whereas Thomas Dorland,
Philip Dorland, Willet Casey,
Gibbs Ranney and Jonathon
Allen, Committee of the School in Adolphustown have been bound to Arent VanDyck, instructor of said school in the sum of
$25 for his services for the term of six months and also to promise boarding
for the said Arent for the time aforesaid. Therefore we the
subscribers, employers of said school, each for himself promise to pay to the
said committee quarterly, an equal portion of the above sum and also an equal
portion of the boarding above mentioned according to the number of pupils
subscribed to our respective names as witness our hands.” Adolphustown Nov. 7, 1811. |
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1811
Adolphustown School, Subscribers |
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Name |
#
kids in
school |
March
1811 List
of Inhabitants in Adolphustown |
Possible
Children in School |
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Thomas
Dorland |
1 |
1 boy, 1 girl |
|
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Philip
Dorland |
1 |
1 boy, 2 girls |
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Willet
Casey |
3 |
1 boy, 2 girls |
Thomas Casey b.1798 Mary Casey b.1800 Jane Casey (1803/07 -1937) |
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Isaac
Brown |
1 |
1 boy, 1 girl |
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Ursula
McWhirter |
3 |
4 boys, 2 girls |
Peter VanAlstine b.1800 Allan VanAlstine. b.1802 John McWhirter. b. ? |
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Jonathon
Allen |
3 |
4 boys, 1 girl |
Joseph Allen b.1799 Phoebe Allen (1801-1834) Alexander Allen b.1803 William Allen b.1805 |
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William
Ruttan |
1 |
5 boys, 1 girl |
Abraham Ruttan b.1798 Elizabeth Ruttan b. 1798 Matthew Ruttan b. 1802 Jacob Ruttan b.1806 |
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Henry
Hoover |
2 |
3 boys, 4 girls |
Samuel C. Hoover (1797-1880) Mary Hoover b.1799 Sarah Hoover b.1802 Henry Hoover b.1804 |
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Henry Meade (1823) An old cluttered
map of the village of Adolphustown from 1823 includes a “School House” on the
east side of what is now the location of St. Alban’s church. Henry
Meade taught from June 1, 1823 – Dec 1 1823 and had 33 students. “This is to certify that we
the proprietors of the School in the 1st Concession of Adolphustown have
agreed with Henry Meade as Teacher of our school. The said Mr. Meade is to do
everything in his power for the education of our children and for this due
and faithful performance without hindrance or neglect he is to have the sum
of Three Pounds a month with Boarding and Lodging. This all to be provided
according to the number of scholars from each proprietor. Adolphustown N.B. The above agreement to
continue in force for Twelve Months” “We, the Trustees of the
school held near the Court House in the Village of Adolphustown do hereby
certify that Henry Meade, teacher of said school, hath deemed himself with
propriety and to our satisfaction in the said office of Teacher for the
period of six months from June 1st 1823 to December 1st 1823. And we further
certify that thirty three scholars are educated in said school. Given under our hands at Adolphustown this 1st day
of December, 1823 Peter Dorland J.W. Watson, trustees” |
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1823
Adolphustown School, Subscribers |
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Name |
#
kids in
school |
March
1822 List
of Inhabitants of Adolphustown |
Possible
Children in School |
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W.V.
Dorland |
1 |
Not included in list. |
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Lazarus
Gilbert |
2 |
4 boys, 2 girls |
Sarah Gilbert (1810-1828) |
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Jonathon
Allen |
3 |
4 boys, 3 girls |
John Allen (b.1809) Parker Allen (1811-1902) Anne Allen (b.1814) Gertrude Allen (1816-1893) |
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J.
W. Watson |
1 |
3 boys |
John J. Watson (1816-1891) |
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Noxon
Harris |
3 |
2 boys, 4 girls |
William Griffiths Harris (b.1807) Jane Ann Harris (1810-1892) Matilda “Augusta” Harris (1814-1902) |
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Peter
V. Dorland |
2 |
1 boy, 1 girl |
Betsy Maria Dorland (1814-1838) Philip Dorland (1817-1870) |
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Samuel
Dorland |
1 |
3 boys, 2 girls |
Thomas Dorland (b.1810) Tabitha Dorland (b.1814-1893) John P. Dorland (b. 1816-1887) |
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Michael
Rutter |
1 |
3 boys, 1 girl |
Michael Rutter (b.1816) Catherine Rutter (b.1817) Alexander Rutter ( b.1818) |
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Jacob
Lazier |
1 |
Not included in list. |
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Caroline
Ranney |
3 |
3 boys, 4 girls (under Orrin Ranney 1922) |
Orrin Ranney (b.1812) James Ranney (b.1815) Elizabeth Ranney (b.1817) |
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Job
Deacon |
1 |
Not included in list. |
John Deacon (? -1841) Ann Deacon (? -1846) |
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Samuel
Casey |
2 |
3 boys, 1 girl |
Sarah Elizabeth Casey (1810-1892) Gilbert S. Casey (1813-1886) Horatio Nelson Casey (1816-1874) Willet N. Casey (1818-1861) |
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John Hughes (c1824) Henry Ruttan Memories “Mr. John Hughes taught, a somewhat celebrated
Teacher in his day, to whom children were sent from other Townships. Among
the scholars then were the Macdonalds, afterwards
Sir John and Mrs. (Professor) Williamson, the Allens,
Hagermans, Dorlands, Trumpours,
Ruttans and others, whose names yet linger in the memory of the older people.
It was then the only School in the entire Township, south of Hay Bay, and
numbers of the children had to walk four or five miles daily to reach that
School, and through thick woods and bad roads, and yet some fairly good
scholars and very intelligent persons came out from that early Log School
House. How times have changed since one Teacher and one small School House of
20 feet square seemed to suffice for nearly an entire Township!” E. B. Biggar - An
Anecdotal Life of Sir John Macdonald (1891) “…
was presided over by a crabbed old Scotchman known as Old Hughes. Hughes had an adroit method of taking a boy
by the collar and giving him a lift off his feet and a whack at the same
time. The skill and celerity with
which he did this was very interesting to all the boys, except the subject of
the operation, and Johnny must often have enjoyed the exhibition, though he
had no love for the chief performer, upon whom he played more than one sly
trick. His school mates of this early
day describe Johnny Macdonald as thin and spindly and pale, and his long and
lumpy nose gave him such a peculiar appearance, that some of the girls called
him “ugly John Macdonald.” One of them
says he did not show any marked cleverness till later on, when he had got
into the study of mathematics.” Napanee Beaver, July 10 1891 “Mr. Hughes had a capital reputation as a teacher
and a number of his scholars were afterwards well known men in the country.
He had a son, a clerk in Macdonald's store.” |
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Students
Who Were Said to Have Attended the
Old UEL School c1824 With
Sir John A. Macdonald |
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Parent |
Children |
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Jonathon
Allen Nancy
Ann Dougall |
Parker Allen b.1811 Anne Allen b. 1814 Gertrude Allen b. 1816 Joseph Allen |
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Joseph Allison |
Amey Allison b. 1819 |
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Samuel Casey |
Stephen Casey Female Daughter ??----- (m. Thomas Wilson)
(1810-1892) |
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Peter V. Dorland |
Jane Ann Dorland James Dorland Thomas Dorland John Dorland (?) |
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---- Foster |
William Foster |
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Noxon Harris |
Jane Harris Rachel ‘Augusta’ Harris
(1814-1902) |
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Hugh Macdonald |
Margaret Macdonald b.1813 John A. Macdonald b.1815 Louisa Macdonald b.1818 |
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Orrin Rennie/Ranney Caroline |
Thomas Rennie James Rennie Bessie Rennie Caroline Rennie ?? m. Capt. Chalmers |
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---- Ruttan |
John C. Ruttan (d. 1899 age
84) |
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James Watson Rachel Allen |
John Joseph Watson b.1816 |
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---- Wilson |
Gilbert Wilson |
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Additional
Information Parker Allen Remembers “A little east of the UEL Memorial Church are still
to be seen the ruins of the old school house where the Macdonalds,
Caseys, Trumpours, Dorlands
and Harris, Ruttans, playmates of mine, went to school. It being the only
school in the Township, some scholars had to come for miles. Geo. Hughes, an
English scholar was the first teacher. He must have been a man of worth for
we had pupils from Brockville and Kingston and Picton. After Hughes, I think
Burns was the next teacher. From the Napanee Beaver,
March 26, 1897 “Mr. Fred Membery of Adolphustown Village, is the
owner of the lot with the foundation stones still upon it, of the old school
house (U.E.L.) in which Sir John A. Macdonalds’
first school days were spent and there are still living witnesses of the fact
in the persons of Parker Allen, Esq.; now in his 89th year, and
Mrs. Garner, living within twenty feet of the spot, in her 82nd
year. They testify that the old black oak tree just across the road from the
old school site is the same old tree that Sir John used to swing on with his
companions in his barefooted days, a ragged little youth of a Scotchman, and
they, his schoolmates, still here. Mrs. Garner says that in 1882, when Sir
John was at Adolphustown, the guest of the late J.J. Watson, she and her
sister Jane (Mrs. Pull), were introduced to him as his old schoolmates. He
replied that he remembered Jane quite well and asked her if she did not
remember playing along the creek with him while going to school at the old
U.E.L. school house, pointing to the very spot. Mrs. Garner is the same age
as Sir John and Mrs. Pull was four years older, but is now dead. Mrs. Garner
says that she and Sir John were about ten years old and that she well
remembers Sir John playing in the creek and getting blood suckers on his bare
feet and he would then go and get salt to get them off, which was the only
thing to loosen them from his feet. This fact is particularly noticeable from
the fact that he had “blood suckers” on him all his life of a much larger
type.” Letter from Mrs. Amey
Gunsolus Written Feb 29, 1908 To Clarence M. Warner,
President of L.& A. Historical Society Dear Sir, I herewith
enclose Mrs. Gunsolus’s statement of the 1st
school house in Adolphustown which I believe to be true as I have often heard
those she mentions as her school mates to say the same things and point to
the same spot where the school house stood and the foundation stones are
still to be seen there. I have
heard them all say that Sir John A. Macdonald walked from the Hay Bay shore
there to school, a distance of 3 miles from where his Father kept store and
lived above the store. I can remember of seeing the Old Macdonald Residence
on the Hay Bay Shore. Fred Membury “I, Mrs. Amey Gunsolus (nee Amey Allison), sister of
the late D.W. Allison, MP, now entered upon my ninetieth year of age, state
with distinct recollection that the afore mentioned school house stood on the
property now owned by Frederick Membery, immediately adjoining a small
building to the east, now standing there and once used as a blacksmith shop,
and only a short distance from the U.E.L. Memorial English church to the west
of it and that the first teacher’s name that taught in this school when I
first went to school was a Mr. Hughes. He was considered the best teacher far
and wide and many persons came to this school from a distance on account of
his superiority over other teachers. The late Sir John A. Macdonald attended
the school. I remember him as being very nicely dressed and looked upon as
being rather superior in ability to others in attendance and I do not
remember seeing him there barefooted as some have said he was. J.J. Watson, Parker Allen, Mrs. Watson, Mrs. Allen
Vanalstine and Joseph Allen, Mrs. Pull, Mrs. Garner, Thos. Rennie, Jas.
Rennie, Bessie Rennie, Caroline Rennie, Mrs. Captain Chambers, John E.
Dorland and sisters, Jas. Dorland, Thos. Dorland, John Dorland and Jane Ann
Dorland, the family of Peter V. Dorland, Gilbert Nelson and Stephen Casey and
sister, Mrs. Thos. Wilson of Kingston were all my schoolmates at this school,
but they were all older than me. In my father and mother’s time, and their
schoolmates Colonel Peter V. Dorland, Colonel Samuel Dorland, Samuel Casey,
Thos. Casey, the Ruttans and others being the second generation of the
U.E.L.’s got their first days of school here and Artie Vandyck, the
grandfather of Henry Vandyck of South Fredericksburgh, was their teacher and
walked from where Henry Vandyck now lives, around by the Bay shore fully four
miles every day to school.” Declared by Mrs. Amey Gunsolus. I have signed Amy Gunsolus Dated at Adolphustown this 29th day of
February A.D. 1908. The above signature Amy Gunsolus was written by her
in my presence and not withstanding her extreme age, her mind is so clear as
ever it was, Fred Membery, witness. |
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Weekly
British Whig Sept 3 1885 |
