The Victoria Schoolhouse: A sense of community
The Victoria Schoolhouse: A sense of community
The Victoria Schoolhouse - A Sense of Community (2006) is the story of the Victoria (Bush's) community and how education developed in this rural farming community from the early 1800s to 1966. This story is told through pictures, anecdotes, remembrances, and archival research. The story examines some of the factors that may have made this one-room school unique and how a sense of community developedwith the school and church closely related as the central focus. In addition, our book gives a good account of the development of education in Ontario during the same time period.
About the Authors
Dan Rainey and Helen Tompkins are a brother and sister team who have collaborated on several educational and writing projects during their teaching careers. The recording of the history of the one-room schoolhouses in Ontario is of particular interest to both of them, since they attended a one-room schoolhouse in Innisfil Township in Simcoe County.
Dan is proud to have experienced teaching in a one-room school with eight grades, while working closely with a small community to meet the educational needs for their children. When the one-room schools closed in Prince Edward County in the mid-60s, Dan was the Principal of the Bloomfield School and became Principal of the new Pinecrest Memorial Elementary School in the fall of 1967. Additional education roles have included employment with the Ministry of Education in teacher training summer programs and a Consultant of Culture and Curriculum with the P.E.C. Board. Always with a deep commitment to the community, Dan has served as a Councillor in Wellington, sat on the Board of Directors, Children's Aidfor Prince Edward County, and has been a Board of Director with QEMA since 2003, serving as Historian since that time, and President since 2006. Dan is proud to have been a recipient of Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee Award for community service in 1978. Along with his enthusiasm for history, Dan has a passion for photography and many of the photos from his photo collection appear in this new publication.
Helen has experienced a long and varied career in education . As well as a classroom teacher and teacher-librarian, Helen was employed as a Regional Educational Consultant for the Ministry of Education, has worked in teacher education, presented on the professional development circuit, in addition to the writing of curriculum for the Ministry of Education and several school boards. Always with an interest in meeting the needs of 'the whole child', much of her career has focused on the individual needs of students. Helen's special interests include architecture, antiques, archives, and history, and more recently one-room schoolhouses and the communities they served. Helen lives in Richmond Hill and is deeply committed to her family and her cat, Harrison.
Nellie Montgomery (1921-2008)
Nellie Montgomery, a lifelong resident of Prince Edward County, loved history and spent many hours researching local history and family genealogy. She served many years as Curator of the Tweedsmuir Histories kept by the Rednersville Women's Institute. As acharter member of the Seventh Town Historical Society, she helped research and write its book on Ameliasburgh Township history. Nellie was also a charter member of the Quinte Educational Museum and Archives and served on the Board of Directors from 1977-1984 . She was a contributing author of The Victoria Schoolhouse - A Sense of Community, the QEMA publication about the school where she had taught for a few years prior to her marriage to Harmon Montgomery. A researcher to the end, Nellie was helping research our current publication, The Saga of the One-Room Schoolhouse, until her death in 2008.