Tin Cap Ontario – Heritage Place Museum

October 16 2017

Tin Cap – News from the Village – 1925-1926

John Hamlets of Elizabethtown Elizabethtown Ontario, Forgotten Hamlets in Elizabethtown, Leeds and Grenville County Ontario, The Athens Reporter, Tin Cap Ontario 0

The Athens Reporter- excerpts have been taken from this newspaper for the years – 1925 to 1926. The original newspapers are in the archives of the Heritage House Museum, Athens, Ontario

Tin Cap – Feb 27^th, 1925

Mrs. Leonard Elliott, Brockville, spent a few days last week visiting her aunt, Mrs. George Boyd.

Fred Wright, Miss Mollie O’Donnell and Miss Myrtle Lyons visited on Tuesday at William O’Donnell’s.

Mrs. Anson Gilroy was called to Hamilton last week by the death of her father, Aquila Hanson.

Mr. and Mrs. B.S. Johnston, Brockville, are visiting the form parents, Mr. and Mrs. D.A. Johnston.

Roy Locke, Brockville is moving his household effects into his new home recently purchased from S. Barker.

Reeve Reuben Davis is in Toronto this week.

Tin Cap, Jan 25^th, 1926

Harold Rowsome, recently of the Recorder and Times staff, Brockville, and a former resident of the Tincap, left last week for Ottawa where he has accepted a position in the Civil Service.

Mrs. Robert Marks is visiting in Smiths Falls

Basil Reed is visiting in Bishop’s Mills.

Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Davis celebrated their 40^th anniversary of their wedding last week by entertaining a number of friends. Telephone messages and congratulations were received from many distant friends to wish them many more years of happy married life.

W.W. Anderson, Ottawa, visited at Jonas Gilroy’s last week.

Miss Matilda Anderson has been quite ill at her home here.

April 26 2016

Tincap – A One Room School House in Elizabethtown

John One Room School Houses in Elizabethtown Elizabethtown Township Ontario, Leeds and Grenville County Ontario, One Room School House, Ontario, Tin Cap Ontario, Tincap School 7

Tin Cap School

(Sectional School #9)

A Brief History of the old Tincap school its’ teachers and students.

When the first frame school was erected around 1802 a shinny cap of tin was set on the cupola. It could be seen for miles, particularly on sunny days.

The school stood near the intersection of Hwy no. 29 and Kilkenny Road on the south sidde of Kilkenny Road. Col. David Breakinridge, later known as the “Duke of Leeds” or “Squire Breakinridge” was given a crown grant at Tincap in 1802 and the school was later built on a lot partitioned from this grant.

The first stone school was built near the Perth Road because of its accessibility to the road. In 1855 the first structure was demolished and replaced by a second school . The old tin cap was retrieved from the first school and placed atop the cupola of the second structure.

In 1894 this second school burned and was replaced with a new frame building and the tin cap was placed atop of this new school.

Early teachers at the original school were Jonathon Lyman and Miss Sarah Booth.

One of the first teachers at the second school was Mr. Bell, then Miss Jennie Smith, of Fairfield, who taught for several years. Later Mr. Morrison, who was described as having one arm, yet quite capable of wielding an oak rod with which he dealt out school justice to the unruly.

Other teachers were Mrs. Shepherd, Mrs. Fred Fulford and Miss Fannie Connor. Then Rev. W.A. McKenzie who was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Brockville for many years, taught at Tincap. He lived in Morristown, N.Y. and commuted daily by boat and foot to reach the school. After rowing across the St. Lawrence he would walk through Brockville and up the Perth Road five miles to reach the school. History doesn’t record what time he had to get up in order to maake the journey on time to open the school. In winter he is reported to walk across the ice to make this trip.

Then Miss Anna Hutcheson of Brockville, Mr. James D. Truesdell and then Miss Martha Maley, who later married Mr. Truesdell. Miss Eliza Fair, Miss Chipman Miss Moore. Later Mrs.J.D.Truesdell again taught at the school and was the teacher when the school burned around 1894.

During this time classes were held in the stone house owned by Mr. M. O’Donnell until the new frame building was ready for classes.

The new frame school was equipped with a Tin Cap and a bell to keep the community linked to the original name. The first teacher in the new school was Miss Susie Hanna of Lyn and some of the pupils then attending were: Newton, Vida and Laura Young; Edward, William and John O’Donnell; Kitty, Edward and Elva Charlton; Minnie Warren, Katie Rogers, Gertrude and Gordon Thompson, Mary Bolger, Edwin Parker; Frank, Eva and Fannie Darling, and Flora Johnston. School records state that when this new frame school was being built, a carpender named Downey was killed in a fall from the roof.

Afterwards Mr. Albert Baker taught for one term. Then Miss Mabel Grant taught for five years. Among others who taught later were: Lena Beale, Rose Bresie, Stella Beale, Margaret Carr, Anna Anglin, Winnie Wilson, Anna Elliott, Violet Elliott, Vera Armstrong, Lela Wilson, Katherine Heffernan, Margaret Clow, Laura Dudley, Hazel Plunkett and Florence Ware.

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, constructed in 1844, condition: Good

1854: Frame building first opened in 1800