My mother, Bernice Konias, taught at Invergordon School House near Crystal Springs SK. "I noticed on your site [here] that it says the school closed in 1949, but I have a T4 slip of my mother's dated 1950 and a gift to my mother dated from the class of 1950-1951." School Days in By Joyce Middlebrook ?The school was constructed in 1945 by Nels Lindberg.? It
consisted of one large classroom, 2 cloakrooms and was heated by a large, home
made barrel stove.? Classes commenced in
the fall of 1945.? The grades taught were
1 to 8.? Grade 9 to 12 were by Correspondence
or you had to go elsewhere.? It was hard
to get teachers because the community was isolated in those earlier years. A front porch was added to the school in 1949, which
was great.? We all took turns putting up
the flag in the morning.? Each day was
started by the Lords Prayer, singing of the Anthem, and a daily dose of Cod
Liver Oil which was usually frozen in winter. In 1951, we had our first lady teacher, a pretty girl
from Henribourg by the name of Bernice Konias.? We didn?t
have a teacherage built at that time, so she stayed
in one of the cabins at the lake.? For
her it was cold and lonely.? Eventually
her young sister Lilly came to stay with her. ? She was a very community spirited person.? Bernice had a dance to raise money for the
Christmas Concert.? It was the first time
we were able to afford costumes for the parts we played in the plays.? Many of the women sewed these costumes.? I remember my mom struggling to make angel
wings.? It was during Bernice?s term that
the DNR and students planted trees.? How
we students enjoyed doing this!? The
teacher and community worked well together to raise money for the ?Student
Fund?, so that there would be presents under the Christmas tree for everyone.? Bernice had 13
students during her term, and her brother, Joe was the one who picked her up
and drove her back and forth to Henribourg for the
weekends. The roads were very rough back then." ![]() ![]() Candle Lake School Children, 1951???????? ?Bernice, Lil, John, Ann and Walter posing at the school 1955??????????????????? As an additional note: Candle Lake is a resort situated on the south west quarter of section 18 township 55 range 22 west of the second meridian. According to Wikipedia, "Candle Lake is a body of water in central Saskatchewan, approximately a fifty-minute drive northeast of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. It is also the name of a resort village along the Eastern shore of the lake, and of Candle Lake Provincial Park which encompasses much of the surrounding area. Candle Lake is a popular tourist destination in Western Canada and is located in the boreal forest biome." The resort village thrived as tourism gave the area an aconomic boost to supplement the fishing and trapping. By 1977, the resort village of Candle Lake was incorporated with over 500 permanent residents states David McLennan in the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan.
The majority of these school districts are numbered with very high school district numbers; an indication that they were of the later one room school districts to be formed, as the lower numbered school house districts were formed in the late 1800s and early 1900s and so on. As can be seen on this map revised to July 1911, there were very few historic one room school districts this far north at the turn of the century. Though the fur trade brought the early Hudson Bay explorers, and Northwest Company traders to the northern area of Saskatchewan - then known as Rupert's Land and the Northwest Territories, when the transcontinental railway came through the prairies on a southern route parallel to the United States - Canada border, the early immigrant settlement sprang up along the railways and the branch lines.
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