In the nascent hamlet of Midnapore in the 1880s, there were only a few families around. Yet with large families like the Shaws, who brought 8 children from England (some of whom old enough to have families of their own), there was a growing need for schooling in the area. The first formal school district in the area was the Midnapore Protestant School District No. 85, founded in 1887. Classes were initially taught in old St. Paul’s Anglican Church. The first teacher in the community was Helen Millar, a daughter of the pioneering Shaw family who married Malcolm Millar, the founder of nearby Millarville. In 1888, funds were requested to build a school from the government of the Northwest Territories (which governed the area until Alberta became its own province in 1905). A small, one-room school was built half a block south of the church, and the inaugural class had 12 students. The number of pupils ranged from 8 to 19 over the next few years, but in those pioneering days average attendance hovered around 50%. The main subjects taught were English (reading, dictation, composition etc.) and mathematics (arithmetic especially). Much time was also given for ethics and singing, with additional courses in book-keeping, French, needlework and “Physiology and Hygiene”, to name a few. This building served as the schoolhouse until about 1916, when a new, larger school was built on the west side of Midnapore, now called Millrise. The original school was still standing in the 1950s, when Glenbow Archivist Sheilagh Jameson wrote a piece called The Shaws of Mjdnapore. In that article she noted that the schoolhouse was now being used for “holding grain and serving as a haven for pigeons”. The building was gone soon after, and most likely demolished.
-Mark Schmidt
For more area history, visit www.thedeepsouth.ca
