"Wiggins School - 1892. Teacher: W. C. McCall.
"Back row: Stanley Austin, Tena Smith, John King, Bertha Misner, Maggie King, Bill Anderson, Roy Thompson. Second row: Lizzie Highland, Albert Bullen, Luella Highland, Lulu McDermand, Emma Lemery, Lizzie Andrews. Third row: Ed. Smith, David Gilbertson, Bruce Beatty, Florence Andrews, Harry Beatty, Harry Austin, George Gilbertson, Bob Andrews. Insert: Harry Misner."
Also see: photo enlargement.

School Days at Old Wiggins

"Wiggins' School, in Union School Section No. 13, Woodhouse, and No. 1 Townsend, is situated at the intersection of the "Scotch Line" and the "Cockshutt Road" -- which is the County Highway between Port Dover and Brantford.

"This school has been the door to the outside world for many hundreds of children, who lived on Concessions 5 and 6, Woodhouse, Lots 7 to 17, and in Townsend on the south half of Concession 14, Lots 10 to 13.

"Approximately 930 pupils, from 1870 to the present, have been listed from various sources for this Reunion register. Many are deceased, about 75 cannot be traced, but most of them have relatives or friends still living in the district who can furnish information concerning their whereabouts.

"The earliest school-house within the memory of pupils now living, was a frame building on the east side of the road beside the Grange Hall, on the north end of the Misner farm.

"Tradition says that there was an earlier "Log School" either east on the Scotch Line or across on the  south-west corner where the present school stands.

"On a map of the locality in 1856, now in Dr. Bannister's office, that square is marked off the north-east corner of Josiah Wiggins farm, Lot 12, but not labelled [sic].

Within the memory of pupils who attended school there in the [18]80's, an old log building, with no inner partitions, was still standing on that spot. It had been used as a dwelling by different families but was not divided into rooms like other cabins of that day, and possessed a huge brick fireplace.

If this building was the first school, it would account for the name 'Wiggins' being used."