Brownsville Annual Public and Continuation School reunion planned for June 18

Debbie Kasman, Tillsonburg Post Correspondent

The Brownsville Annual Public and Continuation School reunion will be held on June 18 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m at the Brownsville Community Centre. There will be a potluck lunch and a $5 cost at the door to help cover costs. Attendees are asked to bring historical pictures with them.

Historical Context

In Ontario, "continuation schools" generally referred to smaller high schools, often in rural or smaller urban areas serving a specific geographic area that offered a full range of secondary school courses and programs, including academic, vocational, and arts courses leading to the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD). Continuation schools provided students with a sense of community and sometimes offered specialized programs or smaller class sizes.

In Ontario, continuation schools were introduced as early as 1896 as a historical solution for offering high school education in smaller communities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Continuation schools were essentially elementary schools that added Grades 9-12, serving as a bridge between elementary and high school in rural areas. This system arose from budgetary constraints and the need for more accessible secondary education in rural areas where building separate high schools was not feasible.

As communities grew and resources became available, continuation schools eventually evolved into the full-fledged high schools we know today.

According to the 1937 Ontario Schools Act (in Revised Statutes of Ontario), the elected board of trustees of continuation schools had the same powers conferred to them as the public and separate school board trustees for acquiring a school site, erecting buildings and additions to existing buildings, providing equipment for and paying the cost as well as the maintenance of each continuation school. Each continuation school was allowed one principal and two assistant teachers. Funds for the schools were allocated by the county from property taxes the county collected. Agricultural training was also provided in some schools.

The closure of continuation schools was a gradual process, with many closing in the mid-20th century.

According to an essay written by Mrs. L. C. Brown on the community history of Brownsville, the village of Brownsville was named after Brinton Paine Brown who settled in the area in 1841. Brown was an ordained minister of the Methodist Church. He and others in the area decided they needed a school and Mr. Brown offered a log house he had built to be used as the original school, hiring Mrs. Abram Matthews for the summer who was paid $8 per month including board. The community then built a new frame school after that. In 1867, a brick school was built north of the village and in 1914 a new school was built south of the village.

According to a newspaper article from the Tillsonburg News published in 1967, the Brownsville Continuation School, built in 1914, was a three-room brick building built where the community centre and park are today. In 1924, two rooms were added to accommodate Junior Matriculation. Two years later, a stone fence and memorial arch were built as a community project to adorn the entrance. The school had both a boys’ and a girls’ entrance and there were two gates at the front entrance that students loved to swing on. The memorial arch was built to commemorate the soldiers who died in the war.

Sergeant Jack Ker attended the Brownsville Public and Continuation School. An employee of the Borden Company until he enlisted for active service, Sgt. Ker became a wireless air gunner with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) overseas, serving in England and on the Norwegian Coast. He was shot down over the North Sea and declared missing in action during WWII.

Sgt. George Hall, another Borden employee and wireless air gunner, was reported missing and believed killed over water in 1942. Sergeant Hall was also a former public and continuation school student in Brownsville.

Lieutenant Steward Don M. Honsberger attended both public and continuation school in Brownsville. Lt. Honsberger joined the navy in 1942 and after serving in Scotland, Russia, Newfoundland and Ireland, returned to become the postal clerk of the Tillsonburg Post Office in 1966.

Dr. Hugh McClintock, another public and continuation school graduate from Brownsville, went on to study medicine at the University of Toronto and joined the staff of the Toronto Western Hospital. Dr. McClintock also joined the RCAF where he ended his air force career as deputy principle medical officer at Number One Training Command. Dr. McClintock returned to civilian life becoming the Director of the Gage Institute Chest Clinic at the University of Toronto where he focused on air health effects and respiratory conditions.

The village of Schomberg, north of Toronto, was also named Brownsville, after businessman Thomas Brown settled there around 1830. In 1862, that Brownsville was renamed Schomberg in order to establish its own post office.

Marion Honsberger is organizing the reunion of the Brownsville Public and Continuation School west of Tillsonburg this year.

*Thank you to Dr. George Emery, professor emeritus, Western University, for his historical contributions to the article.