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Schools
~ Ashton Creek
School
~ Enderby
Schools
~ Grindrod
School
~ Hupel-Mabel
Lake School
~ Mara
School
~ North
Enderby School
~ Springbend
School
~ Trinity Creek School
~ ~ Czechoslovakians
Transportation
Trinity Creek is a small settlement
east of Enderby, on the south side of the Shuswap River. During the early 1900's the first
permanent settlers arrived there, establishing new homes for their families. The
completion of Baxter Bridge (Trinity Bridge) by Fred Barnes in 1912 linked the newly-made
Trinity Valley Road to Ashton Creek. This new access saw the arrival of more settlers into
the Trinity Creek settlement.
By 1920 the population of Trinity Creek had reached 69, 60 of which were of Czechoslovakian origin. There were now enough children to warrant a
school. ( The children had previously attended Ashton Creek School.) The people petioned
the government for assistance, and in the summer of 1920, the school inspector and local
MLA visited the area and saw the strong need for a school. In winter, a letter was sent
from Victoria saying that the government would donate $150.00 for the building, and
furnish half the money needed for books and desks etc.
In the spring of 1921, by volunteer labor, a log building with roof of cedar shakes was
built. The logs were cut and shakes were made at the school site; a big cedar tree stood
nearby and provided all the shakes for the roof. The volunteers were John Kral,Sr., Joe Vyschild, Tony Zamis, Frank Minal, Louis
Wejr Sr., W. Doubeck and Joe Stamberg. By
June the school was completed and a school district was formed to include the homesteaders
from Baxter Bridge to the extent of private property on Hidden Lake road to the railway
belt. Each homeowner in the district was charged $10.00 to help with the initial expenses.
The little schoolhouse was quite dark, having no windows on the south side. In winter the
unfortunate children sitting by the heater would be sweating in their socks, while the
ones on the far side would be freezing. The desks were set up on runners attached in rows,
making it impossible to move a desk unless the row was moved. The area received no
electric light in the school, and an outhouse was used because of lack of indoor plumbing.
Miss. E. Houston from Victoria was the first teacher at the school, "whose English
accent was far stronger than any Englishman's in England," according to Stan Wejr.
On the first day of school 21 students attended, all the way from six to sixteen years of
age. School was in session from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday to Friday with grades one
through eight. The teacher's salary started at $600.00 per year out of which room and
board was paid. The B.C. government paid the salary, and the remaining expenses were paid
by a collection from the settlers. However, after 3 years the government collected the
money through taxes. A regular board of trustees and a secretary-treasurer were elected
every year. Louis Wejr was secretary-treasurer for seven years and trustees were J. Kral,
A. Zamis and Joe Vyschild.
The eighth teacher at Trinity Creek School was Frederick Job, who taught in the 1939 to
'40 school season. Mr. Job lived in a small room attached to the school. When the children
were especially good, they could go into his room, down through a trap door into the
cellar, and get an apple. However, if the children were bad, the usual ruler was
administered. In that year, 18 students attended the school, dropping slightly from 1921.
During World War II there was a great shortage of teachers. There were many problems with
teachers being underqualified and, one year, a teacher wasn't available until the end of
October. During this time the students happily stayed at home.
Since there was no form of school transportation, the children either walked or rode their
bicycles to school. Some children had to walk two and a half miles, and in those days the
roads weren't plowed in winter, and in summer the mosquitos were so bad one had to run to
keep ahead of them. The older children attending A.L. Fortune School in Enderby (grades
9-12) had to ride their bicycles 12 miles. In 1947 two taxis were used as transportation,
then a van, and finally a bus.
The children of Trinity Creek had invented a number of fun and imaginative games to play
in their spare time. During class "the favorite pastime was to see who could fill up
their inkwell with dead mosquitos first, with ones that were killed while feasting on
hands, legs & face" (Stan Wejr).
According to Alvin Raboch, the children also had many outdoor games for winter and summer.
There was a small baseball diamond beside the school and they had only one bat and one
ball to play with. Whenever the seams on the ball began to rip open, the boys would take
turns sewing it back up at home. One of the best pitchers was Koichi Tokairin (Kobo), a
Japanese boy. He was also very good at judo, which brought a lot of interest from the
others. Other favorite pastimes were wrestling (they had dug a big
pit and lined it with cedar boughs), building dams in the creek, and playing cops and
robbers.
There were some old cedar stumps by the school from trees that had been logged off to
build it. The boys used to hide behind the stumps (which just happened to be the right
size for this) and throw rocks at each other. There was some technique needed to find just
the right angle so the rock would not hit the stump, but fall behind it. The game was
short-lived however, after Henry Raboch got his head cut open by a rock.
In winter, the children would go skating or slide down the road on their sleds; there was
no worry about traffic then. They would all link their sleds together by lying on their
stomaches and hooking their feet in the runners of the sled behind, and speed down the
road where it curves down the hill and passes over Trinity Creek. Some children had no
sleds so there would be "double deckers" (one lying on top of the other)."
One time the girl in the lead lost her steering and smashed right into the snowbank and
the kid on top went flying head-first into the creek!" (Alvin Raboch, Jan 15, 1990)
There were two jobs to do for the school which paid 50 cents a month. The flag was to be
raised every morning and taken back in at might, and water brought in from the creek every
morning. An old wooden bucket was used for this and a dipper which everyone would use.
Some years later they got a modern China crock (the dipper is alive and well in Alvin
Raboch's "antique collection"). Other small jobs included cleaning the
blackboards, and sweeping the floors.
A nice thing to note is that there was no segregation between boys and girls, and age
groups. If the older children were done early with their schoolwork they would help the
younger children if they needed assistance. Everyone played together and got along well
with one another - they had to. In such a small community, with only slightly over a dozen
children, one couldn't be too choosy for friends. That is a great lesson in life which
most of us in our time don't learn anymore.
The little log school at Trinity Creek was the center of community life for many years. It
was something the settlers had created by work of their own hands for their children, and
something to be proud of. It still stands today and is used as a storage shed by Mr.
VanDalfsen, who owns the property now. Although moss now covers the once freshly - cut
shingles, and the windows are only dark holes in the walls, the school is still there to
remind us of our lively past and of great days gone by.
Natalie Affolter
ALF School 1989