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| Provincial Archives PA60298 |
First School at Fort St. John built on the Howe property. Before a community could obtain a government grant to build a school, there had to be eight children in the area who were six years old or more. In August 1921, there were eight children in the Fort St. John area. They were the three Beatton boys Fred, Bill and Duncan, the four Parsons, Guy, Alice, Lee and Roy and Mary Cobb. The school was opened in the home of Alwin Holland with Mrs. Easton as the first teacher from 1921 to 1923. Mr. Holland was surveying but in 1922, he went to Hudson's Hope to open its first school. He taught there until June 1923. In September 1923 he returned to Fort St. John and taught school in his home until later that fall. "Red" Powell had bought a sawmill from Mr. Parsons Sr. and Mr. Southwick. Lumber from this mill was used to build a one-room school on the Gilbert Howe property. Another room was added and in 1932 a third room was necessary. Some of the siding from the original school covers the walls of the little school house exhibit in the Fort St. John North Peace Museum.
