School days, school days, dear old Golden Rule days

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School days, school days, dear old Golden Rule days

Isobel Harry details the 100-year history of Gordon/Barrie Island’s SS No. 4, a 1926 limestone schoolhouse that served as a school, municipal hall, and residence.

Expositor Staff

Sep 05, 2026 - 6 min read

The first wood frame school built in 1886 on an acre of property owned by Joseph Wagner, from ‘Echoes of School Days’ by John McQuarrie.

School days, school days, dear old Golden Rule days — The first wood frame school built in 1886 on an acre of property owned by Joseph Wagner, from ‘Echoes of School Days’ by John McQuarrie.

I live in a former school at the corner of Seventh Line and Noble Sideroad in the municipality of Gordon/Barrie Island. Built of limestone on a one acre lot severed from the large farm of Joseph Wismer and donated by him to the community, the date stone over the front door reads: S.S. No.4 1926.

This hundredth anniversary seems a fitting time to remember SS No. 4 and its contribution to education from the earliest days of settlement after the signing of the Manitoulin Island Treaty in 1862.

Mr. Wismer’s donation of an acre of his land actually dates to 1886, the year the first wood frame school was built here, one of five log schools in the early days of Gordon and Allan West (as the municipality was known then). According to Pat Best’s ‘History of Gordon Township,’ this location was chosen as there were more early settlers on the Seventh Line. “It was also used by the Anglicans to conduct services in Gordon, as well as the Salvation Army, who held weekly meetings and concerts for a time,” thereby starting a longstanding tradition of this corner serving the township in myriad ways for over a hundred years.