Country Schools of Annapolis County
Long before school bussing, rural settlements had local schools out of necessity. This contemporary map shows, Victory, lower right), Bear River (lower left), and Clementsport (Highway #1). Google map.
Powerlot School sat on a hill on Powerlot Road outside of Clementsport. A one-room school.Picture circa 1920.
Seemingly remote communities like East Victory and Clementsport were integral parts of an economy based on forestry and the export of lumber products, primarily to the East Coast of the United States.
Bear River’s Oakdene School reflected the relative size and economic importance of the village, connected by the River to commercial shipping lanes and markets for it’s lumber products, from pit poles for the mining industry to lathe by the millions for home construction.
"...fire, late Friday night (January 19, 1934) destroyed Bear River's fine academy and St. John�s Anglican Church, one of the most spectacular and disastrous in the history of that town. But for the efforts of a very large number of volunteer fire fighters, assisting the local fire brigade, and the snow-covered roofs, would have swept the entire section of the town on the Annapolis side of the river.
The Academy was built in 1892. St. John�s Anglican Church was built in 1833.
Scholars Did Not Miss a Day.
Bear River Academy opened every department of the school at the usual hour Monday morning. Rooms were secured on the second floor of the Bear River Trading Company for Grades One through Four; in the vacant offices of the Bear River Pulp Company for Grades Five through Nine, with Grades Ten and Eleven in the Masonic Reading Room. Grade Twelve will for the present meet in a private home offered by Mr. and Mrs. Boyd Rice.
reporting from: The Digby Weekly Courier January 26, 1934.
East Victory School. Photo: “The Woods: a Collected History & Reflection of the Milford & Area Communities History Group”, 2005.
“The original East Victory School burned in 1910 after a fire in the community…The School was rebuilt…the school (had) four double seats in the center isle and eight double seats on each side of the room. The student population varied between fifteen and twenty students.” P. 44
From the research of Brenda Thompson and the Bear River Historical Society. See more about the heritage structures and homes of Annapolis County at Mapannapolis.ca.