Page 97 - The Ogemawahj Tribal Council

Life at Alderville/Alnwick Industrial

Day School

Daily Schedule at Mount Elgin School in 1851 (Sister School of
Alnwick Industrial Day School)

5 a.m. Bell rings, students rise, wash, and dress
5:30 a.m. Breakfast, then prayers
6–9 a.m. Boys work on farm and girls in house
9 a.m. to noon School

Noon to 1 p.m. Lunch and recreation
1–3:30 p.m. School
3:30–6 p.m. Work on farm
6 p.m. Dinner and prayers

Evening In winter, boys in evening school, girls learn
needlework
9 p.m. Bedtime

Source: Miss. Soc. Rep., 1851, xi-xii

In the fall of 1855, a typhus epidemic swept through Alnwick. A teacher
and four students died. The school was closed and the remaining
students were sent home. (Miss. Soc. Rep., 1856, xxii)

In their annual reports, missionaries on other reserves sometimes spoke
of children who returned from Alnwick with a “lingering sickness” of
which they died (Miss. Soc. Rep., 1852, xv; 1853, xiv; Wesleyan Methodist
Church in Canada, Missionary Society Notices, 15 May 1857, 198). One
called the illness “consumption” (Miss. Soc. Rep., 1852, xvi). Viscount
Bury spoke of the “itch” being prevalent at Alnwick. See “Ojibwa
Participation in Methodist Residential Schools in Upper Canada, 1828-
1860” by Hope Maclean; link on weblinks list.

Resource Books Leaders’ Guide 95