150 years of education in Magog

par Maurice Langlois

Founding of the Magog Academy (1856)

As Ralph Merry V wrote in his personal diary, concerning the Magog Academy : « …said building to be ready to use the main school-room by the first of December 1856 ». That date marks the 150th anniversary of its opening. The Academy stood where the École Brassard now stands on Saint-Patrice Street, but it was then facing the Parc des Braves on Main Street, Although it was called Academy, it could be debated whether it was a model school (a superior elementary school), or an academy with programs more advanced than primary schools. In the Eastern Townships, towns or villages generally transformed their model school into a high school and then into an academy. In Magog, it was first called an academy and later became a high school .Competition for pupils was fierce and trustees called their school whatever they felt would attract more pupils. Various directories listed the Magog institution as a model school but I am leaving the experts decide whether it deserved its designation as an academy or not.

At the Outlet, now Magog, the first classes were held in Ralph Merry III’s first house, by his son Ralph IV, between 1818 and 1821. After the Merry house (the oldest still standing) was built in 1821, classes were given there until 1824. That year, a « little red schoolhouse », a district school, was built on the north side of Main Street, between Pine and Merry Streets. It is not possible to ascertain whether Ralph Merry IV taught there or not. Merry’s memoirs give no clues to that effect. But they indicate that after 1835 the school served several purposes, such as preaching, prayer meetings and even baptisms. With an increasing population, the facility became exiguous and a new building was needed.
Ralph Merry V appears as the promoter of the Magog Academy. Ledgers (from a private collection), held in his store, show entries of cash collected for the purpose of building the Academy, as early as 1855. Ralph Merry V, Samuel Hoyt jr., Calvin Abbott, E. D. Newton, Moses W. Copp, Abel (Abial) B. Johnson, Charles Turner, George O. Somers and others are generally credited as its founders. It was a 35 by 40 feet, two-story building. The first students were admitted on December 1st 1856.

In the fall of 1861, Copp, Abbott, Hoyt and Merry « finished a room over the schoolroom in the Academy, with the understanding that they are to have control of the same, and apply the rent, first to pay for finishing same room, and secondly to pay just claims against the Academy for work done heretofore ». (an entry in a Ralph V’s diary). That room was called « Good Templars Hall ». Over the years, the hall also served several other purposes.

According to Jacques Boisvert, an annex of 25’ X 30’, was added around 1891. By the end of the century, most academies were absorbed into a public High School system and Magog was no exception. In 1928, the building was dismantled and replaced by a brick building that was then called Magog High School. A section of the old building remained in the park for some years and another one moved on the Gaudreau property (ice cutters). near the train station on the lakeshore. It was later converted into a tourist information bureau.

In 1953, the Protestant School Board sold the brick building to the Commission scolaire catholique de Magog (CSCM) and built the Princess Elizabeth High School (PEHS) on Bellevue Street, on the south side of the river. Since then, the educational system in Quebec has undergone several reforms. The PEHS. is now an elementary school (PEES) and the old High school acquired by the CSCM, which in the 1960’s was used as an « Externat classique » (classical studies), is now devoted to elementary studies (École Brassard).

Maurice Langlois
Magog Historical Society
Published in The Townships Outlet, Jan.2007

21 mai 2009

Imprimer l'article