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5.8. No. 1 Elderslle Township RR. No.3 Chesley, Ontario by Gordon Reid When the last bell rang in the Cantire School in 1936, it ended sixtv~thrce years of history. Anew era began. Until 1873, School Section Number One [Elderslic had meant the school in Paisley. When that place grew to village size, their school became known as the Paisley school1 and the number 1 was transferred to Cantirc. Here a thriving population of youth required aschool of their own, pupils formerly having had to travel on foot to more distant, and already crowded, Schools on adjacent concession lines. In 1936, when the new Township School Board was formed. schools of small enrolment were closed, including Number 1. Soon afterwards the htttltling was demolished. Tom McNeil of Chesley had the contract. There now remains only a disused well and some planted trees to indicate the former use of this ground, which Was originally severed from Lot 5, Concession 4. The memories which I recall must necessarily be those of my own times I will try to describe the school life of Cantire as it was lived by my generation of pupils in the years 1915-1922. These times I know: any references to days earlier, such as the pioneer era, or later, must be somewhat suspect as hearsay evidence. However modest the result may be, it must be realized that the account is social history of a sort. The families represented in Cantire when I began school (i think it Wits in 1‘) IS) had much the same namesasthose ofthe earliest pioneers. West to l-iast on( ‘onccssions Four and Five, these names included McLeod, Mchath, McIntyre, Macl’herson, Taylor, Somerville, Bradley, Stoddart, Luttrell, MacKay, Barniathcr, tiowanlock, Reid, Eason, Bell, Blue, Muir, McAllister, McConochie, Blackburn, Walpole, McDonald. Names added about this time included Ray, McCurdy, Buchanan, chigcr, Allan. Today (1987) it seems that the only names of this list which still survive in (‘antirc are Ray, Sweiger, McDonald and Reid. Few personal memories of mine reach back further than my entry into school In 1915. One event does go back to August4. 1914, the day the Great W;1r,:tl Icaslfortis inCanada, broke out. Now I cannotclaim to have been an intelligent reader of the news at that early date; but it happened to be the day on which Gowanlocks‘ house horned to the ground. Two things made a lasting impression on me: first, the terrorol the sight 0f flames and of the chimney leaning out until it crashed, even at the safe distance of a third of a mile, and second, my fright at being abandoned suddenly in our own back