Chapter 5 Education EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS IN O'LEARY 1890-1992. EARLY SCHOOLING In the early days village children trudged off to school in Unionvale , a district to the east of O'Leary . The original school was located just east of the present residence of Keith Paugh . After this school burned, a new school was built near the home of Arthur Cornish in Unionvale thus moving the site much close to O'Leary . Approximately seventy pupils were crowded into this one- room schoolhouse. Chiefly through efforts of the teacher, A.J. Matheson , a new two- room school was built in 1896. It was built on the present site of McKenna's Furniture Store in O'Leary . In the same year O'Leary became a separate school district. The first teachers were A.J. Matheson from Brackley Point and Miss Campbell . In 1898, the school received first-class rating. The teachers at the time were Robert MacFadyen and Mary Irving . Other early teachers were Mary Fyfe ( Mrs. A.J. Matheson ); Harry Balderson , Southport ; Daniel Fraser , from - later a school inspector; Miss Stewart , later a mission¬ ary in China; Miss MacKinley ; Lulu Wortman ( Mrs. James Malcolm MacWilliam ); Walter Darby ( Judge Darby ); and J. Watson MacNaught , Coleman, later the cabinet minister who turned the first sod for the proposed P.E.I. - N.B. Causeway in 1964. First School in O'Leary 79