Karen Graham
On Sunday Dave and Sue Stewart hosted a reunion of Beechwood School SS4, one of six one-room schools in Cavan Township that was closed at the end of the 1963 school year. The following year, these students were bused to the new school on County Rd. 10, North Cavan Public school which was operating under the leadership of Principal Grace Lowes. The original school was housed in a log building on Sharpe Line west of County Rd. 10 which was built in 1834 and was known as Sharpe’s School. A new log construction was built on the school’s present site just north of the original building in 1847, and was subsequently recovered in brick in 1864. The average attendance at that time was 30 students.
According to records on display in the Stewart’s barn, school sections were established in Cavan Township in 1842. Archival documents indicated that in 1844, Upper Canada was moving towards a standardized school system with common curriculum under the direction of the first Superintendent of Schools, Egerton Ryerson, a Methodist minister from the western Ontario farm community. Documents on display also referred to the Ontario Student Record (OSR) as early as 1940, which is an official school record still maintained today.
After the decommissioning of the building in 1963, the property was purchased by the Hoffsteders who maintained the school house as a studio behind their home. The property is currently owned by Olley family, who have preserved the original feel of the schoolhouse which is now home to a quilting studio.
Reunion attendees congregated at the Stewart farm one concession north of the school to reminisce about their school days and to review documents, original records and photographs relating to the school from bygone times before heading to the school location for a tour. As the former students walked in and around the school, they recalled moments of their youth, climbing trees, getting into mischief, and reaching for baseball bats as they exited the building for some outdoor recreation. Among those in attendance were residents with prominent family names from the area, many of whom still reside within walking distance of this historic building, including the McCamus, Winslow, Sharpe and Stewart families. Many former teachers also bore these names, and at least 9 were from the Sharpe family, and other teachers came from the Stewart, Lough and McCamus families.
