Structural Material 85

enjoy some place invested with the sacred association Of home; nobody bUI the Schoolmaster is obliged to board round, none but the Schoolmaster is put up at auction and auctioned off to the lowest bidder.”

To say that no one worried about the teacher’s methods or his educa- tional attainments would be a fair statement. The teacher in the early days did not require a license and this work was often taken up when the “would- be” schoolmaster was not able, or inclined, to do more strenuous labor. They were not paid by the government but the fathers of the children would pay what they could or provide firewood to warm the building, if such building could be found.

When the free school system came into effect it meant that every child could attend school whether his father could afford it or not. Before the day of the School Visitor no one felt responsible to see that the schoolroom had good windows to let in the light, or that the log walls were made tight by chinking with moss and mud.

Stories passed down from one generation to another do suggest that a log schoolhouse was the first centre of learning in Wilmot Valley. Lakes Map, 1863, has a school located in Lot 25 not far from Hale’s Marble Works, while Meacham’s Atlas, 1880 has the school clearly marked in Lot 19 where it remained until 1926. With the building, in several locations and referred to under changing names and numbers it is very difficult for the researcher to find accurate records, but no matter where it was located, its four walls witnessed the same trials and tribulations, the same mischievous pranks, and the seemingly never ending hours; of readin’, ritin‘ and ‘rithmetic that were, and still are, a part of school life.

Mil/“01 Valley Sell 00/ after repairs veri' mum't’ in l 949.