MARY'S GENEALOGY TREASURES
Beautiful Mountain View is situated about 14 miles
west and south of Cardston. In 1890 this district was
called "Fish Creek", appropriately named because of the
abundance of fish in the creek at that time.
In 1893 Mr. John Biddle suggested the name be
changed to Mountain View so, until l905, Mountain
View of the North West Territories was the mailing ad-
dress (via Cardston, Canada).
The earliest mention of education is an account of
Mr. John Biddle, a non-professional teacher, who taught
small groups of children in his home. This was before a
school was built.
The first school was a one room log building, built in
the early 1890's, and stood where the present day school
(1977) is situated. Mr. Edmunds was one of the first
teachers. He taught in 1896-97. He was followed by a
Mr. J. B. Faull, who had as many as 80 pupils from
grades I through VIII in 1900-1901. Other teachers at
this time were Mr. Adams, and Miss Holt.The teachers
salary at this time was $40.00 per month. Instead of
"Grades" the term used was "Standards".
Those who went to school in 1900-1901 who are still
living at this time (1977) are: Merle Burrows Reed,
Carrie Burrows Peterson, Delance Strate, May Davidson
Webster, Hazel Tippetes Walburger, Joice Rich Harker,
May Earl Meeks, and Henry Walburger.
Early in the 1900's the school was enlarged by a west
end addition, which also had an upstairs for recreation
and later used as a school room. Rulon Hicken taught in
the big room and William Webster, who started to teach
in 1921, had the first five grades with 56 pupils. With a
total of 42 years of teaching, Mr. Webster taught 27 of
them in Mountain View.
Recreation in the early days was often carried on with
simple home-made equipment. Balls were made of string
which was wound round and round and through and
through and tied to make them more secure. These balls
provided many happy hours for the little folk-however,
a real ballgame was a bit different-after a few innings
the string gradually unravelled and that was the end of
that game! The bats were shaped from pine poles which
were brought down from the mountains. This "job" fur-
nished the men and boys with many hours of"useful
whittling". However, everyone was ingenious and many
games, in summer and winter, provided hours of enjoy-
ment for both old and young alike-another proof that
the "generation gap" was not so wide in those days!
Students were anxious for education and walked or
rode horseback from three to five miles to school. A pot-
bellied stove stoked with wood by hand was the heating
system, and in winter time teacher and students warmed
up first front and then back. For the first years water was
carried from the creek in a bucket and all used the one
dipper for drinking. Later on a well was drilled by the
school .
Mrs. Mostyn kept order in her room with the aid of a
"shampock"-a rhinocerous hide strap. Some of the
earliest trained teachers were from Eastern Canada.
Bessie Oland Caldwell came West to teach school for the
high wages. She received the admirable sum of $300.00 a
year-a considerable raise from the $180.00 a year in
Nova Scotia. George Parker, Mary Smith, and John
Payne were the first trained teachers from Mountain
View.
School fairs became an annual and exciting event to
look forward to. Everyone participated contributing
colorful and interesting displays of art, penmanship,
composition, vegetables, flowers, seeds, handicrafts,
fowl, livestock, etc. With the help of Hillspring and
Glenwood joining in these were fairs worthy of
honourable mention.
About 1926 or 27 the old school was torn down and a
four-room structure was built. While being erected,
school was held in rooms of private homes. About 1955
two large rooms were added to the west of the present
building with indoor plumbing for the first time.
Clifford Neville drove the first school van starting in
1943 with a horse drawn one, later switching to motor
vans. He drove 27 years without an accident.
From Mountain View S. D. No. 281 of the N.W.T.
(1900) to Mountain View consolidated School of the
Cardston School Division (1977) there has been ap-
proximately 97 different teachers with Mrs. Iretta
Thompson leading with a total of about 40 teaching
years.
A goodly number of former students with a certain
amount of claim to fame had their humble beginnings in
Mountain View School. This school is still in operation
serving the needs of the elementary and junior high
school students. High school students attend school in
Cardston .
The book "Mountain View Remembers", written by
Julia M. Nelson, furnishes one with much additional fac-
tual material on the history of Mountain View. It is a
valuable and interesting source of information concer-
ning the early settlers of the community, their children,
and the many teachers who guided and influenced their
lives.
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