The McMahon School was located on a fenced three acre
plot of land, in the north east corner of section 15-11-20-W4.
The site chosen was approximately in the centre of the area
designated for a new school district, and was donated to
the school district by Mart McMahon, the owner of the
property. The school took its name from this generous
donor. The first classes were held in the autumn of 1927
and the last class was held on June 28th, 1942. During
the summer of 1942, the school building was raised off its
foundations and hauled to McNally School grounds, across
the road from White School, where it served as an annex
until the new McNally School was completed, and then as
a teacherage. From 1942 on, the students in the area were
bussed to first White School and then to McNally, the new
composite school, formed from the several small school
districts in the County of Lethbridge, south of the City of
Lethbridge.

Previous to 1927, the few children living in the area, later
to be known as the McMahon School District, attended
the adjoining schools of Wilson or the Galt School in the
town of Stirling. Since many lived several miles from these
schools it was extremely difficult to keep attendance in
the winter. In some cases this entailed the family having
to move from the farm to spend the winter near a school,
or else the children would be boarded out to families
or homes near a school.

There being enough children of school age in the area,
although one of the new students was only five, the
appropriate government authorities were approached
and permission was granted to form a school district,
and collect school taxes in the area to be known as
the McMahon School District. A school board was
appointed (elected?) and a one room school building
was purchased from a Hutterite colony somewhere
south of Chin Lake. This school building was moved
to the land that had been donated to the school and
was placed on a cement and stone foundation. Shortly
after classes opened in the school building, an
epidemic of scarlet fever broke out and the school
building, considered the source of the infection, was
closed for a while and fumigated by burning sulphur
and formaldehyde in the classroom.

Members of the first School board were Bill Robinson,
and Harold Hudson, with Charles Patching as Secretary
Treasurer. Since the school building was not on site
when the school year began, the first classes were
held in the upper rooms of the Patching's family home.
School furniture was scarce and it was quite fortunate
that there were not that many students. There were
chairs, a few desks and a wooden table for the teacher
to work on. Classes were held here for only a few weeks
when the students were moved into the school building
proper.

Children attending the first year came from four families.
The Jorgenson family sent Thelma, Esther and Agnes,
there were three Patchings, Tom, Harry and Delbert,
three Robinsons, Cecil, Elizabeth (Betty), and Vema,
and two Wocknitz' William and Lillian.

The teacher for the first year was Helen James. She
had just graduated from Normal School with one year's
training and this was her first year of teaching in a
mixed grade classroom

Rural schools didn't hold their teachers very long and
a succession of teachers taught at McMahon School.
The A T A. list of teachers included Helen James,
Margery Rossiter, Dorothy Glasser, Dorothy Roberts,
Sheila Tapley, Dorothy Wocknitz, Betty Thompson,
Isobelle Smeaton, Maxine Ditto, R.L. Shields, Margaret
Eggelston, Vilda Whitney, and McNair Knowles. (this list
is incorrect as the last four teachers on it taught at
Wilson School. Goldie Kittleson, who did teach at
McMahon School was not on the list.)

The school building was one room, with a hall annex
which served as an entry. It was set up in a north
south direction to get the best light from the east
windows and to keep it's back to the ever present
west winds. It was furnished with the usual school
desks in assorted sizes for students of different ages
and grades, and a teacher's desk at the south end
equipped with the traditional large bottle of ink, a hand
school bell and a 14 inch strap in one of the drawers.
This being a rural school it was not unexpected to find
a gopher or a lizard or snake in one of the drawers also.

The school was heated by a potbellied coal heater placed
in the centre of the north wall of the classroom, which
was certainly inadequate for early mornings during the
cold days of winter. It was not unexpected to see all
the students wearing their winter clothing with their
desks moved as close to the stove as they could on
frosty winter mornings. The stove would not keep fire
overnight so it was the janitor, (usually one of the older
students), who had to light the fire and try to get the
place comfortable before the other students arrived.
One advantage of this stove was that it had a flat top
so soup could be warmed up on it, and a warm meal
provided in the cold weather. It was also portable
enough so that it could be moved out of the way for
the dances which were sometimes held in the school.
Since the building did not have electric power, the
only lights that were in the school were gasoline lamps
brought from district homes for Christmas Concerts and
dances. Some years later, about 1937, a small basement
was dug under the school using local volunteer labour,
and a coal furnace installed.

A good source of water for both the students and horses
was one of the first problems that the school board had.
Several test wells were sunk and a cribbed well was dug
some 70 yards northwest of the school. It produced
enough water, but seemed to be a great place for ants to
commit suicide. It was always a problem whether to pump
another bucket of water or scoop the ants out.

The school never had a great deal of playground equipment.
A set of two swings were erected and a sort of Merry-Go-
Round whirligig was built from an old wagon wheel and axle
and a board for students to ride on while being spun. I
don't remember if the school ever had its own softball
equipment but in the spring someone would bring the
necessary ball and bat, and, using all the students including
the teacher, a diamond would be set up in the flat land west
of the school and ball games would be played.

North and east of the school was a large slough which
generally had enough water in it to provide skating in the
winter months and rafting in the spring and fall months.

The teachers usually went home on weekends and during
the school week boarded with local families. Later when
the Wocknitz family moved away, they were able to use
their house as a teacherage. Several of the teachers
were able to play the piano so one of the earliest additions
to the school was a piano. Though there were difficulties,
McMahon School had class entries in the yearly Kiwanis Music
Festival and students were able to take music lessons from
some of the teachers.

Too much credit cannot be given to the young women who
staffed the rural schools of Alberta. This school operated
during the depths of the great Depression and what is
known as the "Dirty Thirties" in the farming communities.
With very little training, compared to the training available
now, they made lesson plans, usually taught all grades up
to and sometimes including grade ten, tried to discipline
boisterous students, put on a Christmas Concert, and
faced with trepidation the annual and awesome visits of
the School Inspector. To economize on lesson plans, if
there were only one student in a grade, and the student
was judged proficient, this student would be promoted,
often more than one grade in a year.

As previously mentioned the Depression was in full swing
but, to the credit of McMahon School District, the teacher
never had to wait for her pay check as they had to in
many other rural southern Alberta Schools, although sad to
say, this cheque, using today's standards, was very small.
Very few of the taxpayers were delinquent and since the
school district had enough reserves, tax notices were not
sent out for its last year of operation.

Very little remains to remind some one who passes by the site,
that this was once the McMahon School. For a few years
the foundation remained in the corner of the section, but as
the years passed, the well was filled in, the foundation rocks
hauled away, and the school yard broken up for tillage, and
the McMahon School passed into history.

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