11 



education in the Northwest. We learn 

 from the correspondence of Mr. Rod- 

 erick Mackenzie after his retirement 

 that there was a school at Terrebonne 

 in Lower Canada to which a number 

 of Hudson's Bay Co. officers sent their 

 children, placing them under Mr. Mac- 

 kenzie's surveillance. We hear also 

 of sons being sent to Lachine and af- 

 terwards to Edinburgh. Even after 

 the opening of the school at Red River 

 a number of young ladies were sent 

 to England for their education. Mr. 

 David Thompson, the explorer and as- 

 tronomer, who had married a young 

 Indian girl when beyond the Rocky 

 Mountains, writing to a friend in the 

 province of Quebec says "I thank you 

 for your esteemed favor of Sept. 9th, 

 and am obliged to you for the traits 

 of civilized life and for news of my 

 daughter. She costs me £63 10s at 

 present and I think £50 would do her 

 all the good the present sum costs me. 

 It is my present wish to give all my 

 children a good and equal education. 

 My conscience obliges me to do it, and 

 it is for this that I am now working 

 in this country." He writes from Atha- 

 basca River, foot of the Rockies, 1810. 



Mr. John Macallum, who was after- 

 wards ordained at Red River, arrived 

 from England in 1S36, as assistant to 

 Mr. Jones. He took charge of the 

 school for young ladies and also the 

 classical school for the sons of Hud- 

 son's Bay factors and traders. He 

 was assisted by Mrs. Macallum and* 

 also had teachers brought out from 

 England. He had two daughters who 

 were pupils in the school, one of whom 

 still survives in British Columbia. 



One of the Red River ladies who at- 

 tended that school when a very little 

 girl says that the building occupied by 

 it stood near the site of Dean 

 O'Meara's present residence. The 

 enclosure took in the pretty 

 ravine formed by a creek 

 in the the neighborhood — the ravine 

 that is now bridged by one our public 

 streets. It consisted of two large 

 wings, one for the boys and one for 

 the girls, joined together by a dining 

 hall used by the boys. There were also 

 two pretty gardens in which the boys 

 and girls could disport themselves 

 separately. The large trees that sur- 

 rounded the building have long since 

 disappeared. The young girl spoken of 

 as a pupil seems to have had her 

 youthful mind captivated by the 

 beauty of the site, and indeed nowhere 

 could the love of nature be better cul- 



tivated than along the bends of the 

 Red River near St. John's, where 

 groves of majestic trees succeed each 

 other, where the wild flowers flourish 

 in the sheltered nooks and the fire flies 

 glance among the greenery at the close 

 of day and where for sound we have 

 the whip-poor-will lashing the woods 

 as if impatient of the silence. 



Mr. Macallum's teaching and his 

 care of his pupils were highly appre- 

 ? ia1 -ed and his death wihich took place 

 in 1849, was a serious blow to educa- 

 tion in Red River. Almost simultane- 

 ously came the arrival of Bishop An- 

 derson, who was just in time to con- 

 duct the funeral services. Among the 

 governesses who took part in the work 

 of these schools may be mentioned a 

 Mrs. Lowman, a widow, who came 

 from England. She married a Mr 

 Bird, a retired Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany factor, who lived near 

 Middlechurch, and she was the 

 mother of the late Dr. Bird, 

 who in the early seventies was 

 speaker of our House of Assembly. 

 There was also a Miss Mackenzie, a 

 native of the country, and related to a 

 number of the prominent families in 

 Red River, who was first a pupil and 

 then a teacher in the Macallum school. 

 It is said that a number of marriages 

 took place between the governesses 

 brought from England and retired 

 Hudson's Bay Company officers, and 

 that the promoters of culture in Red 

 River were much discouraged by hav- 

 ing their educational investments thus 

 speedily cancelled. The 'following 

 story may be given as a Red River 

 joke, but illustrative of this fact. With 

 a view to exercising due caution in this 

 matter, an accomplished lady in Eng- 

 land, who had reached the mature age 

 of eighty-five was approached with a 

 view to having her services engaged 

 for Red River, but when asked for a 

 guarantee that she would not make 

 any matrimonial alliance, she said, she 

 did not know. If a rich Hudson's 

 Bay magnate came along with pro- 

 posals, she might be induced to change 

 her condition. The negotiations were 

 broken off. 



Bpjyjs' SohiooliSi. 

 After the death of Mr. Macallum a 

 change was made in the arrangement 

 of the schools for boys and girls. The 

 boys' classical school was placed under 

 the care of Mr. Pridham and Mr. 

 Thomas Cochrane, son of Archdeacon 

 Cochrane, Bishop Anderson also giving 



