Like thousands of Europeans at the turn of the century, my father dreamed of immigrating to Canada to become a homesteader. He had a great love of the land, and the glowing accounts of farming and ranching in the CPR literature distributed to lure immigrants to Canada, convinced him that it was the proverbial land… Read More

The school-marm role of western fiction and movies was the real role of Mrs. J.V. Gething. Her first teaching post, in 1924, was in a deserted log cabin minus a couple of windows and which she refurbished herself. Her last one in 1959 was in a structure so up-to-date it served hot lunches to 300… Read More

Interviewed by Dorthea Calverley, Summer 1979Interviewer: I am speaking to Mrs. Eleanor Sutherland in her home in Dawson Creek where she is retired, after many years of being a citizen of this country and a resident of Dawson Creek. She is also well known in the country as a teacher — a specialized kind of… Read More

7-010: OVER AND ABOVE THE CALL OF DUTYBy Dorthea CalverleyCross-posted: 07-010: Over and Above the Call of Duty Preparing students for the annual music and drama festival was extra work which many teachers took on. It was all voluntary effort. It needed an interest in the pupils that did not end at four p.m.! In… Read More

In 1929 a new teacher arrived to teach in Charlie Lake. She came from Vancouver. She came because, she says unashamedly, “The salary was the highest in the province of B.C”. It was $132.00/month. She had had three years experience and needed every hour of it for she had 40 rootin’ tootin’ ranchers’ kids to… Read More

By Dorthea Horton CalverleyThe Kelly Lake Settlement was until very recently one of the most isolated parts of British Columbia. Not that it was so far from Dawson Creek or Pouce Coupe as the crow flies, but because it had no access by road. In the winter, travel by sleigh was possible, but by wagon… Read More

At the end of this 1970-71 school term, Mrs. Annie Bray will retire from teaching. She has been teaching in this area since 1943. Mrs. Bray, a highly respected teacher presently teaching in Rolla School, says she has taught long enough — 28 years. She would like to do some extensive traveling to see the… Read More

By Dorthea Horton Calverley, 1973It is given to few teachers to help not only a town but a whole country to grow. Jean Gething has already passed as many years in retirement as she spent in teaching in the British Columbia Peace River area. Yet no one seeing her today would think of her as… Read More

  Teaching experience in Peace River: 1. April and June 1933 – Sunnybrook School 2. Sept. 1936 to June 1938 – Upper Cutbank (formerly Henshaw) 3. May and June 1940 – sub in several schools – 2 week period at Groundbirch 4. Sept. 1940 to June 1942 – Progress Superior School (April, May and June… Read More

Mrs. Margaret Johnson — Miss McIntyre as she was then — arrived in Charlie Lake in October 1924 to take over the newly completed school and remained until June, 1926. Mrs. Johnson recalls that the one-room school was built by Mr. Soman and Red Powell from lumber donated by Mr. Southwick. It was not ready… Read More