Readers’ help requested to fill in Mary’s story
Benjamin Burkholder appeared in last week’s Flash from the Past and I suggested readers check out his career on Waterloo Public Library and Waterloo Region Generations websites. He was one of Waterloo’s most influential 19th-century teachers.
This week, a brief salute to an equally-influential Waterloo teacher from the 20th century.
Mary Johnston died in July 2017 and there are several touching articles in the Waterloo Chronicle and the Waterloo Region Record. These, rightly, focus on Mary’s educational contributions and I recommend a search through the two newspapers’ websites to refresh memories. However, I got to know her as a person passionate about history.
Somehow, in attending Waterloo elementary public schools from 1957 to 1960, I missed crossing paths with her. But through our interests in history, Mary and I connected in the mid-1980s when she was president of the Waterloo Historical Society. She had served on the WHS publication committee and was later among the society’s three “bus tour ladies” (with Helen Koepke and Marg Dickson) who researched, arranged and hosted some 20 historical tours throughout southern Ontario. In the mid-1990s, Mary sat on two major historical research projects established by WHS. These resulted in two award-winning publications: “Waterloo Township through Two Centuries” by Elizabeth Bloomfield and “Waterloo County: An Illustrated History” by Geoffrey Hayes.
When Mary Johnston “sat” on a committee, that was the last thing you saw her doing — sitting. Joining a team of dedicated volunteers, Mary helped ensure that these large and detailed publications were accurate and well-written. Ten years after those books came out, Susan Hoffman and I assisted Elizabeth Bloomfield in a republication of the township book. I remember being amazed at what Elizabeth and the previous research team — including Mary — had accomplished.
In the odd way things happen in life, I have ended up helping to assess and preserve some of the local history aspects of Mary’s estate. Books, photos, documents and pamphlets filled her home. One of the photos being preserved in WHS archives is this week’s Flash from the Past.
Once she graduated from Waterloo College and teachers’ college, 20-year-old Mary Johnston took her first job. It was just north of Waterloo at SS #25 Bearinger school. From opening day in the fall of 1950 until retirement in 1987, Mary’s real home was the classroom. Even during her many years as principal and vice-principal in Waterloo schools, she was often in the classrooms.
The Waterloo Historical Society is publishing a remembrance of Mary in its upcoming annual volume featuring this end-of-herfirst-year Ernest Denton school photo.
Mary would have insisted that the pupils’ names are as important as the teacher’s, so I am hoping that a Flash from the Past reader was either in this photo and can fill in some of the students’ names … or perhaps someone has a copy with the names written on the back. If you do, please contact me.
Among the items Mary had saved was the 1881 County of Waterloo Uniform Promotion Examinations. The two partial papers shown here are for entrance to 6th and Senior 6th classes and were written on April 6, 1881. Together with History and Grammar, the exams ran from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. with one hour for lunch. On April 7, the same students did three and a half hours straight on Euclid, Dictation/Penmanship and Algebra. Test yourself in 1881 Geography and Arithmetic.
Two events of local history interest are coming up:
Sunday, March 18: postcard collectors show at Bingemans Embassy Room, 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Tuesday, March 20: Waterloo Historical Society meeting, Victoria Park pavilion, doors open at 7 p.m.; Record columnist Martin de Groot is guest speaker.