George Gouinlock

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• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-57561

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• Interesting: education
• Name: John Gowanlock
• Name: John Gowinlock
• Occupation: Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; teacher
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-63112
• Residence: 1813, Bishop-Wearmouth, Durham, England

Notes:

The men who took the most prominent part in organizing the first library in the village were: Rev. Dr. Bayne, Alexander Burnet, James Cowan, John Gowinlock, William Trotter, H. G. Barlow, James Harris, Andrew Elliott, Francis McElroy, Francis Hogg, Andrew Moscrip and Walter H. Benn. These men have long since passed away, but they all did good work in their day in laying the foundations of a progressive and moral community; to the older generation of Galtonians their names call up a crowd of memories of the days that are no more.

First Annual Report of the Waterloo Historical Society, Berlin 1913, pg 17

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The old rough-cast school-house at the head of Main Street was erected in 1832. Its first teacher was Mr. James Milroy, who removed to Iowa in 1856, and the second, Mr. William McColl, who taught until Rebellion times. With this school, however, must ever be associated the name of Mr. John Gowinlock, who was its sole teacher for many years. He was an excellent specimen of the old-fashioned dominie, before the days of County Boards and periodical examination!. His teaching was eminently practical. He knew what the birch was for, and he applied it. He frittered away no time on physiology, botany, or philosophical abstractions. He professed to teach the three R's, and he did it, and did it well.

It is not a little singular, notwithstanding the immense superiority claimed for our schools of today, that many of Mr. Gowinlock's scholars compare in point of education very favourably with those turned out under our much-vaunted modern system? May the secret of this not lie in the fact, that whilst the attention of scholars in those days was strictly centered upon the essential requisites of education, their studies are now so numerous and diffuse, as to prevent that mastery of each subject, without which instruction is of little practical use, and readily passes from the memory?

Reminiscences of the Early History of Galt and the Settlement of Dumfries in the Province of Ontario, by James Young pg 90

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John Gouinlock was born in Greenhill, Scotland. He was an educator along with his brother George ran one of the leading schools in Edinburgh. He came to Canada in the late 1820`s and was Galt`s teacher as early as 1827. He had a log home on Blair Road about two miles from Galt. In 1832 a roughcast schoolhouse was built at the intersection of Wellington and Main streets. He left a lasting impression on his students and applied a strict discipline in the school freely using the strap. He was one of the first members of the Galt Subscription and Circulating Library in 1836. He resigned from teaching at the school in 1845 and died in Brantford.


Cambridge Mosaic , Jim Quantrell, 1998, City of Cambridge [abbreviated snippet from original text in book]

John married Hannah Colledge 13 Feb 1813, Bishop-Wearmouth, Durham, England. Hannah was born 1785, of, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 30 Sep 1858, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried , Pioneer Pergola Cemetery, St. Andrew's Park, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

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• Name: Hannah Gouinlock
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-57524
• Residence: 1813, Bishop-Wearmouth, Durham, England

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• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-201323

Walter — Elizabeth Scott. Elizabeth was born 1756, , Scotland; died 8 Apr 1827, , Scotland; was buried , Ashkirk Cemetery, Selkirk, Selkirkshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet]

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• Name: Elizabeth Gouinlock
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-133835