BIG RUN (RIVERVIEW) SCHOOL

The first Big Run School was located where Reggie Banks now lives. Tommy Banks told us his granduncle went to this school in the 1860’s and he and his schoolmates used to walk around the shore from Annandale. They had to get what they needed to work with that day on the way up. They would get birchbark off the trees to write on and a piece of ochre off the shore to write with. There were no desks at this time. Tommy thinks that the first teacher was a Mr. MacNeil.

We learned that the old Big Run School was torn down on April 15, 1896. They built a new Big Run School where John Banks, Jr., now resides in the same year. The new one was built farther up because there had been a new school built in Annandale in 1893, making the distance less than the required three miles. Although moving the school meant it would not be close to the spring, the school was still moved against the protests of teacher, parents, and pupils.

The Annual School Meeting on June 18, 1889 was quoted as being a very quiet affair with not a single fight and very little profanity. Evidently the school meetings of years ago tended to be rather raucous affairs. Mr. Cameron was engaged for another year as teacher and the Reeves were John Morrison, Robert Robertson, and John Howlett.

It was the scene of many dances, basket socials, debates and school con- certs. One of the notables educated in this school was George E. Saville.

We can’t seem to find out why or when but sometime before 1925 the name of the school was changed from Big Run to Riverview School. Nellie Wilson (nee Banks) recalls going to school there and one of her teachers was Margaret MacCormack. She was known to have quite a temper and one day threw a piece of chalk and caught Nellie on the end of the nose. Nellie remembers that she wouldn’t have been any more frightened if Haley‘s Comet had hit her. Her older sister, Lila, had to take her outside to revive her. Melvina Blackett (nee Robertson) recalled being in some of the school pranks played. One she recalled was when one of the young men in the community was courting the teacher, Florence MacSwain. The pupils wrote their two names on the blackboard, each only writing a few letters. When questioned about who had committed the crime, the students all felt totally innocent since no one had written it all. When the teacher declared that no one was going home that evening until it was erased, she could not help but chuckle at their wit as the procession of pranksters lined up at the board to erase the letters they had put on.

This school was again moved in 1951 to the site where Heber Robertson’s house now stands. Heber Robertson later bought the Riverview School and pro- perty surrounding it. He burned the old schoolhouse and built a house there.

The last year the school was open for a full term was in 1951 with Mrs. Blanche Howlett (nee MacLean) as teacher. The following year the students went to Riverview for the first half of the term with Mrs. Grace Robertson as teacher.

_ The students completed the last half of the year in Poplar Point School.

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