A story about a Pioneer Saskatchewan School Inspector and his One Room School House teacher daughter.  J.Frank Hutchison (1865-1935) and Orma V. Neilson (1890-1967)

 By Lisa G. Henderson

.....The Hutchisons were Saskatchewan pioneers and teachers.  Some of the fourth and fifth generation descendants of John Franklin Hutchison have continued the tradition he and his daughter started.

..... John Franklin Hutchison, known as Frank Hutchison, was born on a farm near Columbus, Ontario on September 12, 1865 to Canadian parents, William Hutchison and Sarah Vickery.  He was the eldest of their three children. The Hutchisons moved to a new farm in Meaford, Grey County, Ontario in 1875 when Frank was still a boy. He went to high school in Owen Sound and presumably took some of his Normal School training there before becoming a teacher around 1885.

..... In 1889 Frank Hutchison married 17 year old Rachel Breadner of Meaford, Ontario. Their first child, Orma Vinetta, was born on June 5, 1890 in Owen Sound where Frank was teaching.  Another child, William James, was born in 1895. It is pretty clear that some time before 1898 Frank Hutchison attended the University of Toronto and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. I speculate that Frank and his wife were supported by the Hutchisons senior in this endeavour, as many years later he was the only one of the Hutchison children who was not named as a beneficiary of William Hutchison’s estate. ..... About 1898 Mr. and Mrs. William Hutchison and their two unmarried children moved to Carmen, Manitoba to farm, along with a contingent of Meaford people.  I think it was about this same time that Frank and Rachel began their life in Saskatchewan, where Frank was hired to be principal at Oxbow’s School (SD #225). While in Oxbow, their third and last child, George Franklin Hutchison, was born in 1901. Their two elder children attended Oxbow School until they moved to Prince Albert in 1906. Undated University of Toronto Graduation photo of J.F. Hutchison.

The Leader. Regina, SK April 20, 1906.

Undated photo of Oxbow School, built 1899. Oxbow School District 225. . As you can see, Oxbow School was not a one room schoolhouse. Frank Hutchison may have taught in one when he first arrived, though.

..... Frank’s predecessor E. B. Hutcherson has an entry in the online book Pioneers and Prominent People of Saskatchewan, 1924 publication date in which it says "During the early days of his inspectorate in the Territories, his field was a wide one, embracing all the territory that lay between Medicine Hat and Broadview, Prince Albert west to Lloydminster and east to Star City; fifty-three school districts."(p. 202)

..... Frank Hutchison’s  granddaughter, Wilda Henderson, who wrote a family history for the East Central School Area History Committee’s 1998  publication Chances, Challenges and Cherished Memories: Colleston, Cecil, Birson, Fanford, Steep Creek, Sask Forks recalled there:

My grandfather Hutchison was a school inspector. His territory spread from Battleford in the West to the Manitoba border in the East, and, for a short time later, to La Ronge in the North. This area he covered for some years by horse and buggy, or “cutter" as the weather decreed.

Some younger people will not believe that but it was the only transportation then. He told of occasions when he “lost the trail" enroute to a destination, after dark. He then praised a faithful mare, let her take over, and got back onto the right track, usually.  Once, however, he had to stop and “make camp" until daylight when he was then able to get his bearings.  Later, as trails improved to be dirt roads, he got a touring car and gradually no longer had to use horse and buggy. (p.197 of CCCM)

Prince Albert, c. 1909. School Inspector Frank Hutchison on far right with his buggy in the foreground. In one of the many twists that I find in genealogical research, the man on the far left is Ralph Henderson, fa-ther of the man who would marry Frank’s granddaughter Wilda. Neither of the principals were born when this photo was taken. Frank would have had to spend a lot of time at the blacksmith’s.

..... For a general description of the life of a school inspector in these times see the blog entitled Saskatchewan Inspection of the One Room Schoolhouse

..... The only document I have been able to find so far about J. Frank Hutchison during his time as a School Inspector in Prince Albert District is this July 18, 1906 Saskatoon Star Phoenix article in the Google News Archive which has him representing the Department of Education for a survey of Saskatoon about high schools.

..... Sometime between 1911 and 1916 the Hutchisons moved to Kinistino where Frank became the Inspector for Inspectorate #32. He is not mentioned by name in Harold W. Foght’s  A Survey of Education in the Province of Saskatchewan Canada A Report to the Government of the Province of Saskatchewan.   Online at: Regina, 1918. Chapter 5 – School Inspection and Professional Supervision. 

..... But you can find out a lot of information about the experience of the inspector of Inspectorate #32 in 1917 in the chart described as Table 3 and also see where his area was in Map 4 of Chapter 5. Frank had 2 years of high school and 4 years of University (B.A.) and nine months of Normal School training. In 1917 he had 12 1/2 years experience teaching elementary school and 7 years experience teaching high school.  His territory was just over 4, 000 square miles, and he had covered 3,000 miles of it that year. The district included 13. 5 municipalities.  His annual salary was $2,000

..... Frank Hutchison retired from his job as inspector in 1930.  He died in Detroit, Michigan in 1935 while visiting some Hutchison relatives.  His wife Rachel lived on in Kinistino until 1948.

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. March 19, 1935.

..... Rachel Hutchison was the only one of my husband’s ancestors who maintained a photo collection to pass on to her daughter Orma. Surprisingly, the photo portrait from the 1890s is the one photo she had which shows Frank’s face clearly.  Either he wasn’t home much or the Hutchison males were camera shy.  There is no portrait of his father, either.

..... My husband, Frank’s great grandson, met J.T. Tomlinson, a later School Inspector in Prince Albert in the 1960s.  The retired Mr. Tomlinson remembered Frank Hutchison as a “stern and serious" man. Perhaps this was a requirement for School Inspectors because I remember that it was a big deal when the School Inspector came to my classrooms in primary school in the late 1950s. We were always told by the teacher to be on our best behaviour.

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..... The One Room Schoolhouse Teacher ..... My portrait of Orma Vinetta Hutchison is much fuller. She finished high school in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and obtained her Standard VIII certificate from the Department of Education in August, 1907. She may have had some initial Normal School training in P.A. as well, because she obtained her first class certificate when she graduated from Normal School in Regina in the summer of 1908. She was then 18 years old, like many Normal school trained female teachers when they started out. ..... The Regina Normal School Souvenir book of 1908, which she kept, is now online at the One Room Schoolhouse Project. In it, you can see her photograph as a member of the Glee Club on p. 49 and a yearbook description of her on p. 65. We know she studied with Elizabeth Rankin, the Music and Art instructor, as she left us a drawing and was confident as a singer. Miss Rankin was an artist of some note who spent most of her career at the Saskatoon Normal School. You can find a biography of her on my blog Early Saskatchewan Art in the News and on the Internet

Orma Vinetta Hutchison

..... The places Orma taught are enumerated in her obituary which appeared in the Oct. 5, 1967 edition of the Prince Albert Daily Herald. But if it weren’t for the wonderful information about school districts supplied in the aforementioned Chances, Challenges and Cherished Memories 1998 (CCCM) and Settlers between the mighty Saskatchewans: Stanleyville and Russelville. Prince Albert: Stanleyville-Russelville History Book Committee, 1980 (SSSR) and other reminiscences we would have trouble figuring out when she taught where.  Her daughter’s recollections are again invaluable: Mother was a school teacher, one of her first contracts being with Colleston School District No. 9 in the North West Territories in 1909 and her salary was $600.00 for the year. That is probably where she met the Neilson family, as my Grandfather Neilson’s house was about a quarter mile east from the then site of Colleston School. She taught at other schools in the area too (of which I have no records) but I know that she boarded at the home of the Byrne family, in what later became either Stanleyville or Russellville, south of the Colleston district (p. 197 CCCM)

Prince Albert Daily Herald. Oct. 5, 1967.

..... This is a copy of that early contract for Colleston School which was published in the local history book. It is most helpful as the list of Colleston teachers on p. 667 has a gap in it between 1904-1913.

Agreement between Colleston School District 9 Trustees and Teacher Orma V. Hutchiso.
P664. Chances, Challenges, & Cherished Memories: Colleston, Cecil, Birson, Fanford, Steep Creek, Sask Forks, Prince Albert

..... Orma appears on the teacher’s list for Stanleyville School district in 1912, 1913 and 1914. ( p.33-34 SSSR). On page 31 of this local history book, there is a brief history of the Stanleyville Public School District No. 385 – first log school erected in 1895 on Twshp 47, Sec. 32, Range 24, W2nd meridian. Peter Byrne was one of the earliest trustees in 1895. Charles Byrne was a trustee in 1905. Charles Byrne settled in Stanleyville in 1887 and had a family of seven children so that is likely where Orma boarded while teaching there. (p.3. SSSR)

Stanleyville School P. 32 Settlers between the mighty Saskatchewans: Stanleyville and Russelville. Prince Albert

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Map courtesy of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool MAPS 60 Years 1924-1984 Schools denoted by L. Henderson COLLESTON School District # 9 SW Section 22 Township 49 range 25 W of the 2 Meridian CECIL School District # 130 SW quarter of Section 28 Township 49 Range 24 W of the 2 Meridian STANLEYVILLE School District # 385 SASKATCHEWAN FORKS School District # 364 SW Sec 16 Tsp 49 Rge 23 W of the 2 Meridian EAST CENTRAL PUBLIC SCHOOL 545 -11th Street East • Prince Albert

..... That leaves a gap of two early years teaching not accounted for and it is likely that she taught at ROZILEE School District #2473, LILY PLAIN SD #501 and BRIAR LEA SD #3103 in those years.  These were small communities west of Prince Albert in the Shellbrook area. I don’t have any access to their local histories, which might shed light on what happened in the school districts there. Colleston and Stanleyville are rural districts immediately east and south of Prince Albert in a fertile belt between the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers.

..... This gap in the record will be resolved for me when the Inactive Teachers Registers 1905 to 1938 are finished being digitized and go online at FamilySearch.org.  These are wonderful resources for people researching pioneer teachers. Unfortunately, I live in B.C. and cannot just zip over to the Saskatchewan Archives in Regina to look at them. The registers record every contract and inspection that teachers had in Saskatchewan. I was fortunate to be able to see copies of the ones concerning Gordon Snelgrove, Saskatchewan’s art historian, who taught in the province’s one room school houses before attending University. Some of these registers were on display at the Gordon Snelgrove Gallery at the U of S in January and may be reproduced in a catalogue about his career scheduled to be published in 2015.

..... Orma’s early career as a one room schoolhouse teacher came to an abrupt end when she married John Fisher Neilson in February of 1915. Male teachers could be married but not female teachers. Someone sent me this clever little thing several years ago and I think it is apt to insert it here. Ah, the good old days. ..... Also, Irene Poelzer’s short book, Saskatchewan Women Teachers 1905-1920: their contributions. is now online at Our Roots Nos Racines  No names are mentioned in this book but it is a good feminist historical analysis of the place of women in the early educational system in Saskatchewan.

Rules for a female school teacher - 1915

..... The Neilson family were pioneers of the Colleston district. John Fisher Neilson Sr. and his wife Jane McDonald, both born in Ontario, homesteaded in the district in 1881.  They had come from Rockwood, Manitoba where their parents had homesteaded in the 1870s. J.F. Neilson Sr. had joined the Ontario Rifles and came west with the Red River Expedition in 1870 to quell the initial Riel uprising in Winnipeg. His service was rewarded with a land warrant in Rockwood, which he appears to have signed over to his parents Francis R. Neilson and Elizabeth Hayes before leaving for Saskatchewan. J.F. Sr. was also a member of the Prince Albert Irregulars in the 1885 Riel Rebellion. 

..... The Neilson homestead was very close to the first school in Colleston, a log building constructed in 1895, which was soon replaced by a newer building in a slightly different location in 1902.  Photos taken in 1955 of both abandoned schools.

Colleston School
a) Log school house
..... b) Frame school house

..... John Fisher Neilson Jr. was born on the homestead in 1882, one of nine children and the first one to be born in Saskatchewan. By the time he met Orma Hutchison, he was homesteading himself on a piece of

land in Colleston, slightly further out from Prince Albert than his parents’ land. Orma spent the first few years of her married life in a log house on their farm which was replaced, by the frame house they built in 1920. She lived here until her death in 1967, when the still unpainted cedar siding had turned quite black.

Neilson Home 1920

..... Apparently, moving to the new house was quite memorable because Orma had her third and last child the same day.  She spent most of the 1920s and 1930s doing farm work and raising her children.  But she also worked on her teaching career.  Her eldest daughter remembered that her mother had gone to work at Cecil School, about 4 miles east from their home, when her brother was still young.  He had spent 3 months in Holy Family Hospital in Prince Albert with appendicitis and peritonitis and the family owed a large hospital bill.  The Cecil School roster of teachers shows Orma Neilson teaching there in 1926 and 1927.( p. 659 of CCCM)

..... Wilda continued:

There were many students at Cecil school who were very musical, so mother started getting piano lessons on Saturdays, from one of the Noble girls in Prince Albert, so that she could teach that lesson to many of the students at the school. She taught there for two years, until the bill was paid. When she finished there, parents came to see if she would consider carrying on with music lessons for their children on Saturdays. This she did, lessons were 25 cents each. ..

From this grew a very nice girl’s choir, the reason being, to sing at the Sunday services, in Colleston United Church, during the summers. There was no church during the winters, as most preachers were students, making this their summer occupation.  The choir won first place in the Prince Albert Music Festival one year and Mrs. Neilson’s piano students often entered the festival competition. (p 199 CCCM)

Saskatchewan Musical Association (SMA) Prize Certificate Orma Neilson

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Cecil School house circa 1944. Chances, Challenges, & Cherished Memories: Colleston, Cecil, Birson, Fanford, Steep Creek, Sask Forks, Prince Albert p662 ..... The Cecil School was the next school east of Colleston school. According to notes about Cecil School District #130 the first school opened in 1889 and a new school was built in 1906.(p.655 CCCM) The Cecil school closed in 1953 and the community used it as a hall for 5 years.  When Cecil and Colleston amalgamated into one community co-operative, the building was moved to the Colleston Church site.  (p.662 CCCM).

..... Mrs. Orma Neilson appears on the Cecil School teachers list for 1926 and 1927. (p.659 CCCM) There is no listing for 1928 but in 1929, to my surprise, Miss Catherine Parr Traill is shown as the teacher until 1934. She was actually related to the historical Catherine, but born a century later in Meskenaw, Sk.  See this website for a genealogy.  Her grandfather Walter Traill was the original Catherine Parr Traill’s son.

..... In World War II, her daughters away being educated as nurses and her son in the army, Orma Neilson re-started her teaching career by taking a contract at Saskatchewan Forks School for one year in 1941. According to p.686 of CCCM, Saskatchewan Forks S.D. #364 was formed by NWT government but a school was not erected there until 1915. It was located on the south east corner of the SW 16-49-22- W2 meridian ( p.690 CCCM)  This was an area near to where the North and South Saskatchewan rivers went their separate ways. The school closed in 1953 when East Central School began operation.  The building was moved and it became the Steep Creek Community Hall for many years before it was demolished. (p.689 CCCM) There is a large section on Saskatchewan Forks School in the book with recollections of it by many former students.

..... A reminiscence of the look of the school was written by author Ken MacDonald:

The schoolyard had an ice house, a barn, two outdoor toilets and a large woodpile which the students usually piled in such a way as to make a series of hiding places. Ball diamonds were on all sides with the largest diamond taking up most of the northwest corner of the yard.

The school had a large sign over the door – Saskatchewan Forks School District #364. Inside were two cloakrooms for boys and girls, and each was jealously guarded by the opposite gender. A huge Waterbury heater sat in one corner, surrounded by a protective cover. The blackboards and the teacher’s desk were graduated in size from the very small for the beginners to the large double desks for the high school students doing their correspondence classes. (p.689 CCCM)

..... The teacher who followed Orma, Florence Gowen, taught there for several years and she recalled that there were about 55 students in 1942, necessitating the division of the one room by partition for a junior and senior section.  By 1944 there were two teachers at the school. P.691

..... Another former student Ivy Phelps MacDonald wrote a recollection about her school days which included this:

Mrs. Neilson was my teacher in Grade 4. Mrs. Neilson was good at teaching songs. The war had just started, and she made us very patriotic with songs like “Tommy was a soldier" and “We are the men of the North." We lined up to salute the flag every morning. (p. 711 CCCM)

Colleston School about 1946. Back: Mrs Neilson
Chances, Challenges, & Cherished Memories: Colleston, Cecil, Birson, Fanford, Steep Creek, Sask Forks, Prince Albert p669

..... In 1942, Orma Neilson returned to teach in the one room schoolhouse she had first taught in when it was relatively new, the school that her own children had attended while she worked on the farm. Colleston School District #9 was set up in 1885 and the first school building was erected in 1887.  It was used as a stable after the new school was built. ( p.662 CCCM) The second school building was erected in 1901or1902 and ceased use in 1953 because the students were sent to East Central School. (p. 666 CCCM).  Orma was the last teacher on the teachers list for Colleston School and when East Central School opened, she transferred there. One reminiscence about the school contains mention of Mrs. Neilson:

As I (Priscilla McCloy) did not come to the district until the spring of 1945, my first time inside the Colleston school was for the 1948 Christmas Concert. Colleston was well known for its Christmas Concerts.  I don’t think another person could have been squeezed into the school. It was very hot but as usual the concert was exceptional. Mrs. Neilson assisted by her daughter in law Lucille Neilson had put a tremendous amount of work into the concert. Two things I remember are:

Betty Spademan, who was at the age of where children are missing their two front teeth, sang All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth. This was a real crowd pleaser. The last item as always was the appearance of Santa Claus. As soon as Santa spoke, one of the children said, “that isn’t Santa, That is----“  I can’t remember the gentleman’s name but it was a man, who at the time, worked for Doug Buchanan and the children recognized his voice. ( p.669 CCCM).

..... It wasn’t only Orma’s daughter in law who got enlisted to help at the school.  My husband remembers that his dad, Jim Henderson, a diesel mechanic at the CNR, obtained permission from his employer to use the Roundhouse to make the metal frames for some playground equipment for Colleston School in the late 1940s.

..... The school building is no longer located on its original site, but it was still standing on the other side of the road, not far from it, the last time we were in the area. It was delapidated and being used for storage.

..... Colleston School, like many of the other small rural one room schoolhouses enumerated here,

became redundant because a school with ten rooms employing multiple teachers was opened in 1953. This school was called East Central School, east being east of Prince Albert and its catchment area included the former small one room schoolhouse districts, from which students were now bused. Orma Neilson spent the last years of her career teaching Grade One students at this school.  The East Central School was destroyed by a fire in 1958 and it was replaced by a new building in 1959. Orma retired from teaching in 1959. She was nearly 70 years old. Orma’s 1957 Grade 1 class at Christmas time. East Central School,

East Central School in 1955 with Orma directing her students for a photo. Orma and her car. Orma presented with a retirement bouquet in front of the new East Central School (1959).

..... Orma Hutchison was a dedicated teacher and a great supporter of the community where she lived.  Known as a tireless worker for the Colleston United Church, where she conducted Sunday School classes and also directed the choir or played organ. She was a woman of many talents, who wove fabric from sheep’s wool, made quilts and sewed clothes. She grew an enormous garden and had a chicken, egg and butter home business in the 1930s. The Neilson home had one of the larger single rooms in the Colleston area and was often the setting for impromptu dances in those times, accompanied by Orma’s piano stylings.

..... She lives on in the memories of her surviving 95 year old youngest daughter and 9 grandchildren.

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