Lillie’s – A One Room School House in Elizabethtown

Lillie’s School

(S.S. No. 12 Elizabethtown S.S.No. 9 Front of Yonge)

Lillie’s School was located at Lillie’s about five miles from Lyn on the Graham Lake Road. The original school was built of wood and located on the west corner of Hendry Road a quarter of a mile west of the new school. The wooden structure blew down in a wind storm. It was replaced by one made of brick in 1880. This school was 40 feet long by 30 feet wide and could accommodate 35 students. The new brick school was used up until school consolidation in the 1960’s. The school was closed in June 1963, and was demolished in 1988.(R&T Focus on the District Feb. 1980)

The school also served as a church and services were held there every two weeks on a Monday evening by Methodists Ministers from Lyn. One the first graduates of Lillie’s School was John Booth who became a provincial land surveyor and helped to survey the counties of Leeds and Grenville.

Lillie’s was a shared school between Elizabethtown and Front of Yonge Townships. This means that students from both areas used the school and costs were split between the two townships.

 

School Superintendents Report (Ontario Archives)

Shows the following information, which in some cases contradicts what we have already researched, and contradicts other filed School Superintendents Reports:

1850: Stone Building, size 26×36, construction date 1845, condition: Poor

1854: Stone building, first opened in 1842

The following information was extracted from the motion papers of the Elizabethtown Council 1855-1872

That $36 dollars of Clergy money be divided amongst the School Sections of this Township in the following manner, namely Sections No 1 $10, No 12 $5, No 26 $9, No 27 $9.31 cents, No 28 $5, No 29 $2, No 30 $5, No 31 $6 bring union section all the full Sections will leave the sum of $13.11 cents each and the Clerk ? the sum to be paid to the Trustees of each School Section – 1873 (Lyn Museum Archives)