Margaret Ann Kerr

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• Name: Margaret Ann Kerr
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-103364
• Immigration: 1845, , Canada
• Residence: 1861, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Church
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; C. Presbyterian

Notes:

Death of Mrs. Dr. Kerr

We regret to announce the death of this lady on Saturday last, in her 63rd year. The deceased lady was a general; favorite in this section, where with her husband and family she has long resided. She was ever foremost in good works and kindliness and will be missed by many who in the past have been the recipients of quiet, unostentatious kindness at her hands. Mrs. Kerr was a native of Paisley, Scotland, and came with her husband to this country in 1845. For a short time the family remained in Hamilton, where, at that time, or shortly after, her two brothers engaged in the wholesale trade. Both predeceased Mrs. Kerr, after occupying a prominent position for years in the city. After a few years Dr. Kerr and family came to Galt, where they may be said to have since continuously resided. Dr. Kerr is now in his 83rd year. It is needless to say that the blow to him is a severe one, or that the warmest sympathy is felt in the town for himself and family in their affliction. The family consists of two sons and two daughters, all of whom resided with their parents with the exception of Mr. Wm. Kerr, who is at present engaged in business in New York.

Mrs. Kerr's funeral took place on Wednesday afternoon last, Rev. J. K. Smith officiating. The large attendance testified the respect in which the deceased lady and her family are held in the community.

Galt Reporter Dec 12 1884 pg 1

Margaret married Dr. William Kerr 1840, , Paisley, Scotland. William was born CALC 9 Mar 1803, , Paisley, Scotland; died 22 Aug 1892, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-66249
• Immigration: 1848, , Canada
• Residence: 1861, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Church
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; C. Presbyterian
• Residence: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Presbyterian

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-332722
• Occupation: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Dry Goods Merchant
• Residence: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Presbyterian

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-105042
• Residence: 1861, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Church
• Residence: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Presbyterian

Notes:

DEATH OF MISS KERR

We regret to have to announce the decease of Miss Margaret A. Kerr, second daughter of Dr. Wm. Kerr, which sad event occurred on Monday morning last, after a very brief illness. The deceased was an active member of Knox Church and she will be greatly missed in church and social circles. The funeral took place yesterday (Wednesday) and was attended by a large concourse of friends. The funeral services were conducted by Rev. Dr. Jackson.

The Dumfries Reformer 9 Apr 1891 pg 1

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-178262
• Residence: 1871, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; C. Presbyterian
• Occupation: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Boarding House
• Residence: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Presbyterian

Other Events:

• Interesting: life story, education
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-66246
• Immigration: 1848
• Residence: 1861, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Church
• Occupation: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Miller
• Residence: 1891, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Presbyterian

Notes:

Recollections of My Schooldays at Tassie's

By James E. Kerr, Galt

It was in August, 1859, that my father, who then lived in Doon, sent me a lad of twelve years, to the Grammar School at Galt. With the exception perhaps of Upper Canada College it was regarded as the best Preparatory School in the Province. This enviable reputation which it had acquired was entirely due to the merits of its headmaster, Mr William Tassie, an M. A. of Toronto University, and afterwards, in 1871, honored with the degree of LL.D., conferred upon him by Queen's College, Kingston. Mr. Tassie was Principal of the school for twenty-eight years.

During the Tassie regime the school was much more than a local institution, for thither came from all parts of Canada and even distant places in the United States boys whose parents were desirous that their sons should receive the best educational training then avail able. In order to accommodate this large influx of pupils the Head Master found room in his own house for about forty boys, and about fifty or sixty were placed in houses in the town.

During the four years of my attendance at the school I boarded in Dr.Tassie's house. Though one of the largest houses in the town, for forty boys the accommodation was somewhat limited. A play-room was much needed, but, as the necessity of such a room had not been foreseen when the house was planned, we were obliged to betake our selves to our bedrooms when the inclemency of the weather or other reasons prevented us from seeking recreation on the play-ground. The noise we made in our dormitories frequently brought us into trouble with Dr. Tassie, whom I am sure we very often disturbed, but who I think was not very severe with us considering the provocation we must have given him.

In Mrs. Tassie we found a never-failing friend. I shall never forget the kindness she showed to us, and I am glad that this opportunity is given me to pay this long-delayed tribute to her goodness of heart. When we were sick she nursed us with a mother's care. If we had coughs or colds she administered to us gruel or swathed our necks with hot cloths. To purify our blood she would dose us with sulphur and treacle. For every ailment she had some old-fashioned remedy. In person Mrs. Tassie was above the medium height and slight, the face pale, the hair dark, and the eyes black and piercing. Her voice was pleasant. She spoke with a slight brogue which betrayed her Irish birth. At nineteen she had married the handsome young teacher, who was the same age as herself, and sailed off with him to make her home in the wilds of Canada. Some people have said that it was a runaway match. I think this statement is not correct. At any rate the marriage turned out a happy one. Mrs. Tassie's maiden name was Sarah Morgan. She was a daughter of William Morgan, Dublin, and grand-daughter of Peter Burchell of Kilteel Castle, County Kildare. She died in Peterboro' in 1895.

At seven in the evening we were called in from our games to prepare the lessons for next day. I usually spent the larger part of my time puzzling out with the aid of a lexicon the twenty or thirty lines of Virgil or Horace which had been assigned for study. The translation was undertaken first, then the construction of the sentences, and lastly the division of the lines into metrical feet. Our translations were very bald and literal. Dr. Tassie made no attempt to show us the thought of the author or to point out the beauties of his style and the stress and strain of our endeavours to get the barest translation to hang together so as to make sense prevented us from seeing the ities of diction of the author. There was no continuity about the translation. We did not go back to pick up the thread of the narrative that had been dropped the day before. Minute attention was, however, given to points in grammar or quantities in scansion J mythological allusions which were profusely scattered over.the text. The fortunes of the gods and goddesses, demi-gods and heroes, with their parentage, fightings, deeds and labors had to be memorized. While busy with our lessons the Master watched us closely, either from his desk or in walking about the room, to see if any were idling or scheming. At nine o'clock with a sigh of relief, though with a secret dread of the ordeal which awaited us on the morrow, we put our books back into our satchels, and after the reading of a portion of Scripture and prayer we were dismissed.

On Sunday we all attended the Church services. More than half of the boarders were Episcopalians. Dr. Michael Boomer was the English Church clergyman. I can recall nothing of his preaching, but I remember that he was a very fine reader. His reading of the Prayer Book and of the Scripture lessons was the best that I have ever heard. Old Knox Church which I attended was an exceedingly plain barnlike structure. In it the ideas of the old Scottish reformers in reference to church building had been carried out with a faithfulness that would have pleased the iconoclasts of John Knox's day.

Instead of a full holiday on Saturdays, Dr. Tassie thought it better to give us half holidays on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Our amusements in summer were chiefly bathing and boating. The boys who were learning to swim went to the Mill Creek where the water was comparatively shallow, but when they were able to swim perhaps fifty yards they were allowed to bathe in the river near the school where the water was deep. Fortunately no drowning accidents ever occurred. Dr. Tassie had one or two rowboats for the use of the boarders, and many a half-holiday we spent upon the river which for a mile or more above the school was deep enough for rowing.

In winter our chief amusement was skating. There were no rinks either open or closed, but when the ice was good on the river no more charming place could be found than on its glassy surface for the pursuit of our favorite pastime. In winter also we had sledding on some of the hills, and when the snow was soft we had snowballing. A standing feud existed between the town boys and us. They called us "Tassie Apes," and we retaliated by shouting "Baikie Apes," a Mr. Baikie being at that time Principal of the Central School. Many were the fights that occurred, when fists and sometimes even sticks and stones, were used.

Fights occurred among the schoolboys in those days as I suppose they do now. Every new boy had to have one or two of them before his position in the school was settled. After that it was only once in a long while that he had to assert his manhood, though, as it has been in the Balkans, war might break out at any time. Dr. Tassie did not countenance fighting, but I have an idea that he was secretly pleased when a boy whom he did not like received a thrashing from another boy. Perhaps he thought it might have a more salutary effect than if administered by himself. As a rule he kept out of the way when a fight was on. He appeared to act on the theory that little differences were best settled by the boys themselves in a fair standup fight without the interference of the teacher, the consequences of which interference are generally worse than if the fight has been allowed to go on. He trusted to the bystanders to see that there was no foul play and to the fighters themselves, for there had grown up among the boys a love of fair play. According to the rules of the game, after two boys had fought they shook hands and were friends again. Some years after I left school (I have the story from another "old boy") a fight took place in the gymnasium after the school was dismissed, and one of the two chief performers got the worst of it, as often happens. How ever, when the game was called off he went up to his antagonist to congratulate him and offered him his hand. The other fellow with a scowl turned on his heel and went out, upon which there arose such a storm of indignation among the boys at this boorish conduct that the offender had to leave school the next day and never returned
Our outdoor games were cricket, football, and baseball;' lacrosse had not yet been heard of. Cricket was the only one of these that required much skill and the only one that Dr. Tassie regarded with any favor. He never took any part in our games; that would have been beneath his dignity, but when a cricket match was on, especially when our boys were opposed by a heavier team, he was often an interested, though always a silent, spectator of the game. He liked to see his boys undertaking hard things, and if they put up a good game when the odds were dead against them it pleased him very much. He did not show his pleasure openly. It was only by some little remark or question at the tea-table that we could tell that the playing of the boys had satisfied him. He admired pluck, endurance, and skill. He favored cricket because as we played it there was never any squabbling over the decisions of the umpires, because there was a generosity and love of fair play among the players, a good hit or a fine catch being cheered by both sides, and because the game was free from the rowdyism that had already crept into some other games. In short, he looked upon cricket as a gentlemanly game and it was his object to make us gentlemen.

Much to my own mortification and disgust though I often practised cricket I 'could never attain to any proficiency in it. I was always a very poor player. I cannot tell why this was so, for the steady application I gave to the game seemed to deserve success. I was never good at games of skill; some boys are like that.

Our playground was a large field just south of the ground now occupied by the C. P. R. station and tracks and east of North Water Street as it ascends the C. P. R. hill. It was leased by the Town Cricket Club, but we were allowed to make use of it for our games. Many famous games were played on this ground by the town team, which was then one of the best in Western Canada.

The Grammar School in 1859 was a long, rather narrow, one-storey stone building with no pretension to style or beauty of any kind. It was substantial, that was the most that anyone could say for it. It had not even a belfry or cupola to relieve the dull monotony of its outline or to show that it was not some small factory or storehouse. It stood on the site of the present Collegiate Institute. At the back of the school the ground sloped rapidly down to the Grand River and in front of it a wide expanse of stumpy field lay between it and the Preston road. To the south of the school grounds no C. P. R. bridge or unsightly embankment then cut off from the school the view of the pretty little town of Galt, lying almost a mile away in the valley below. The school contained two classrooms separated by a transverse hallway. The room in the south end was used by the mathematical master and across the hallway was the door of the north room in which Dr. Tassie taught. Entering by this door the visitor saw to his right a row of desks at which were seated the senior boys, and to his left along the full length of the west wall ran a bench occupied by the juniors. There still remained a large open space down the middle of the room. Here the floor was marked in chalk with squares and circles which might have suggested to the visitor geometri cal problems awaiting solution, but which were merely intended to indicate the lines along which we were to place our toes when our classes stood up for the recitation of lessons. Maps hung on the west wall and at the north end of the room there was a large black board. On a raised platform at that end was a table and the chair of the head-master.

The classrooms were always crowded, and it required all Dr. Tassie's skill and the constant exercise of his authority to maintain order. To a man less expert than he in the management of boys the task would have been impossible. Of Dr. Tassie's life before coming to Galt I know very little. He was born in 1815 at Dublin. His father, James Tassie, an engineer and contractor, was a descendant of a Scotch family, as was also his mother, Mary Stewart, who belonged to the Garth family. He spent his boyhood in his native city, and came in 1834 to Upper Canada. He taught school for some time in Oakville and afterwards in Hamilton, where he lived fourteen years. He seems to have taken up the curriculum prescribed by the University of Toronto. In 185? he graduated and a little later he received his M.A. degree.

In 1853 he assumed the mastership of the Galt Grammar School. The School had been founded in the previous year and had been taught for a few months by a Dr. Michael Howe. That but little progress was made in Howe's time may be conjectured from the fact that only a dozen names were on the roll when he resigned. Under the rule of the new master the school rapidly filled up and the room in the old Township Hall in which the pupils met became in a short time so crowded that the trustees had to set about building a schoolhouse on a piece of land obtained from the Dickson Estate. This school formed the south end of the building which I have already mentioned, the northern extension being added in the spring of 1859.

In the year 1859 Dr. Tassie had reached the age of forty-four, A man of medium height, rather stout, he bore himself with the easy grace of one who was conscious of his authority. He walked with head erect and with a firm and masterful tread. His cane held lightly by the middle was carried more as a symbol of power than as a possible means of support. His whole mien was dignified and gentlemanly. His head was large, features refined, the forehead wide and high, the face cleanshaven except for a tuft of whisker under each ear. His black hair brushed well back from his forehead was already tinged with grey about the temples. The nose was well shaped and had a slight roman curve. The lips were full and the chin well-rounded. His light grey eyes were large and prominent. His clear mellow voice had that ring about it which betokens decision of character. A slight clearing of the throat which had become habitual to him often oppor tunely betrayed his presence or gave us timely warning of his approach. When things were going well and he was in a good humor his face was pleasant and attractive, but when he was angry it grew dark as a sky overcast with thunder clouds and his eyes blazed as if the lightning was playing in their dark recesses. Though often angry he never lost command of himself. That would have been a sign of weakness and might have been a signal for rebellion. He was a man whom we all feared and, though in a spirit of bravado we might call him "Old Bill' behind his back, we felt that he was one with whom we could not trifle as we sometimes did with the other masters. We could not but respect a teacher who had no weak points and who never gave us a chance for ridicule. His bearing before his classes was always dignified. Long experience and keen discernment gave him an intimate knowledge of boy nature. He never made a mistake in reading character. His explosions of anger were always justified, though sometimes perhaps the fault was punished with undue severity. Some teachers are looked upon by their pupils as friends and con fidants. We never regarded Dr. Tassie in that way. He never spoke of himself, never let us know what his thoughts were, but dwelt apart, inaccessible as some mountain peak. He was an autocrat in his little kingdom. His will was law and admitted no question. He was absplutely upright and sincere. I believe his whole heart was in his school and that it occupied his thoughts to the exclusion of everything else. He was industrious, _ energetic and conscientious in the per formance of his duties. He rose at five in the morning and was at his desk till breakfast time. I have no idea how he spent his school vacations, but I know that during terms he gave himself no rest. His itle in my opinion to the gratitude and esteem in which he has rightly been held by his old pupils rests not on his teaching, for his methods of teaching were in many respects faulty, but on the influence he exerted on the boys in the formation of their characters. Manliness, sincerity, truthfulness, perseverance, diligence, thorough ness, were qualities that he himself possessed, and these he succeeded in imprinting on the hearts and minds of scores and hundreds of boys who attribute whatever success they may have attained in after life to the training they received under Dr. Tassie.


The Third Annual Report of the Waterloo Historical Society, 1915 pg 20

________________________


James E. Kerr was born in Glasgow, Scotland. The family came to Canada when Mr. Kerr was a small boy, settling first in Hamilton. After a short stay in Paris, Ontario the family moved to Galt where Mr. Kerr's father set up his medical practice. Mr. Kerr received his elementary school education at the old Market Square School and was one of the first students to enter Galt's new Central Public when it opened in 1857. After completing his formal schooling at Dr. Tassie's Galt Grammar School, Mr. Kerr spent several years in England and Scotland before moving to Missouri to take up farming with his brother. After ten years on the farm he returned to Galt and went to work for David Spiers. Mr. Kerr was closely connected to the Galt Public Library, becoming involved with the Mechanics' Institute in the early 1870's. He served as president and secretary of the Mechanics' Institute for many years and as Chairman of the Galt Public Library Board for a number of years prior to his death. Mr. Kerr was also a member of the Galt Public School Board and later served as secretary-treasurer of the Galt Collegiate Institute board. Mr. Kerr was also a long time member of the Waterloo Historical Society serving as vice president for Galt from 1915 to the time of his death. He died on January 11, 1934 and is buried in Mount View Cemetery.


Cambridge Mosaic, Jim Quantrell, 1998, City of Cambridge

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-74097
• Residence: 1861, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Free Church
• Residence: 1884, New York City, New York, USA.
• Occupation: 1896, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Gentleman
• Occupation: 1901, North Dumfries Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Farmer
• Occupation: 1911, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Income
• Residence: 1911, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Presbyterian

William married Frances Elizabeth Strickland 24 Jun 1895, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Frances (daughter of George F. Strickland and Helen, daughter of George Tucker Strickland and Helen E. Alexander) was born 29 Jan 1859, Galt (Cambridge), Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 1933; was buried , Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Cambridge, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]