Nora and Jessie Morningstar, along with Nora’s children, Lorna and Donald Robson attended Union School No. 6 – a red brick, one-room schoolhouse located on Decew Road, just east of the mill. The school had a single teacher who taught grades 1 through 8 to a class of about 20 to 25 students. Between 1900 and 1910, teachers at the school boarded at the Morningstar home. Lorna also notes that her grandfather, Wilson Morningstar, served as the secretary on the school’s Board of Directors for many years.

Jessie started school in 1900 and recalled that the building was heated by a big stove. On cold mornings, her father, Wilson, would start the fire so the schoolhouse was warm when students arrived. There was an outhouse for girls on one side of the school and an outhouse for boys behind the school. Classes ran from 9:00 AM to noon and from 1:00 to 4:00 PM, with two recess breaks. Jessie wrote that while most students lived nearby, they often brought their lunches to school so that they had more time to play in the large schoolyard before the afternoon classes began. In winter, lunch and recesses were spent building snow forts, having snowball fights, playing fox and goose, and skating on the lake across from the school.

Lorna attended the school from about 1917 – 1925. She fondly recalled playing baseball and hopscotch in the summer and skating in the winter during recess and lunch breaks. ‘In the spring, on Arbor Day (the first Friday in May), each student brought flowers and shrubs to plant in garden beds on the west and south sides of the schoolyard, which concluded with a picnic at the base of Decew Falls. In the fall, students displayed their flowers and vegetables—grown from seeds planted in the spring—along with their knitting, mending, embroidery, and baking at the fall fairs in Thorold and Welland.’

Lorna’s brother Donald attended the school from about 1927 to 1935 and had a less idyllic view of his school days. He was often required to arrive early or stay late to make up for time missed or unfinished assignments. He found school challenging and frequently mentions a strict teacher in his diary, whom he referred to as ‘Old Jean,’ who was ‘crabby as heck.’

On January 9, 1933, he wrote: Well, today is Monday, and of course, I had to go back to school. Nothing much happened except that I got my arithmetic wrong. Old Jean looked like she would burst and explode.

Weekends were a welcome relief. On September 22, 1934, he wrote: Today is Friday—hooray! We won’t have to go back to that mouldy schoolhouse for two whole days.

Despite his many grievances, Donald did have some happy moments at school. He writes that he wasn’t bad at geography, enjoyed playing baseball and playing games indoors on rainy days, like ‘Days in Days out’ and ‘Dog and Bone.’ He also experienced some academic success. On March 12, 1935, he wrote: ‘Today is Tuesday. Something awfully funny happened—my spelling was correct for the second time this month! I’m kind of choked up.”

After graduating from Decew School, Jessie attended the high school in Thorold, Lorna attended St. Catharines Collegiate, and Donald attended Ridley College.

The experiences of the Morningstar family at Union School No. 6 highlight both the joys and challenges of rural education in the early 20th century. Jessie and Lorna remembered the schoolhouse as a place of learning, friendship, and seasonal traditions, while Donald’s memories were shaped by the pressures and frustrations he faced, particularly with strict teachers and academic struggles. Their stories remind us that, though they all attended the same school, societal expectations of the time may have shaped how they experienced and remembered their elementary school days.

Artifact Reference:
Donald’s Diary, F1998-442-813
Jessie Memoirs, p. 1: F2019.1.2
Wilson’s note about starting fires on stormy days: F1998-442-426

Carla Mackie is Historical Services Coordinator with the City of St. Catharines. Historical Services includes the Morningstar Mill, the Lakeside Park Carousel, and the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre.