Second, in an era when few families were able or willing to educate their children, particularly their daughters, beyond the bare minimum demanded by law, an unusually high percentage of Catholic parents in Adjala struggled to keep their children in school so that they would be eligible for higher education. This was true not only of Hugh and Catherine Donnelly’s daughters, but also of several other families whose children would later become prominent in the secular and religious worlds beyond Alliston.10 Many of these local children went into the Church’s teaching orders. For example, in this period, Adjala Township produced a higher number of vocations to the Community of St. Joseph than any other area in Ontario.11
The Donnelly family were faithful Catholics and well respected in the Adjala community. Catherine was baptized in St. Paul’s Church, Alliston, and attended Mass every Sunday with her parents at the little mission Church of the Immaculate Conception, only a mile from the farm. However, in the absence of a separate school, she was sent to the local public or ’common’ school. These schools did not ignore religion, for in the nineteenth century there was a profound Christian moral and religious component in the public school curriculum. Appropriate Bible readings and prayers, carefully selected so that particular Christian doctrinal differences would be avoided, began each school day. The School Readers, at all grades, contained passages from the Bible suitable for memorization, and many of the poems, fables and stories were selected to teach Christian ethics.
This continuous exposure to a mixed religious environment as a child would prove invaluable throughout Catherine’s teaching career — one which she often declared far outweighed any religious advantage she might have gained from attending a separate school. She felt that it helped her to understand, appreciate and feel comfortable with people of other religious denominations. Indeed, one of her dearest school friends, Nettie Wright, was the daughter of the local Anglican rector. In return, her beliefs were respected and this “positive approach to society” resulted in “a big share of kindness from such God-fearing, lovable Characters provided by my Creator. In my childhood, neighbours who were Methodists or Orangemen, had been the best mutual co-workers for good.”12
Catherine credited her mother, whom she frequently described as “generous, wonderful and good,” with nurturing in her and her sisters a profound love and understanding of their Catholic heritage. She recalled that in her childhood the little church was not open during the week for any religious classes for children (nor was there any local religious order to teach them). They learned their religion at home, from their mother. The services on Sundays lacked the musical splendour of the large town churches, as they had no choir, but the family attended faithfully. In their community, there was no church hall where the little congregation could have choir practice, or organize church groups for the adults.
From her mother Catherine learned the skills of keeping a farm home, but it was her father who trained her in the Donnelly tradition of expertise in the care and training of horses. She recalled fondly, “My hard-working father was a sort of perfectionist in his farming and care of animals — not a money-maker. I loved to work outside with him handling horses and he taught me very strictly … I owe a great deal to my Father though I did not fully realize it till comparatively recently.”13
Like most of the rural farm children of that era, Catherine Donnelly received her elementary education at a one-room public school, No. 5 Tossorontio Township, later known as Meadowbrook School. Although these schools are now scorned as inadequate, there was very little else the taxpayers in the rural areas could afford, since the community did not have the resources to build elaborate structures for a scanty, scattered school population. The towns built larger elementary schools, and a high school was built as soon as the taxpayers decided it was a necessity. But only a small percentage of the farms were within walking distance of these centres. When a farm child was ready for high school, the family had to be able to afford some school fees, entail the expense of boarding their child in town, and do without their labour on the farm as well. Although some children might try go to high school on horseback, it was an unreliable form of transportation during the long winter months; snowstorms could block the country roads of Simcoe County for days.
Catherine’s parents were able to send her to Alliston High School, where she went on to obtain her junior leaving certificate (Grade 11) in 1901. She loved school and wanted ardently to become a teacher. Her school principal in Alliston gave a glimpse of her character at that time when he wrote a recommendation for her as she was seeking her first teaching position:
Miss Katie Donnelly attended Alliston Public School … and she showed herself possessed of energy and ability, pluck and determination which carried her successfully through all her examinations in less than the average time … she has been a most fruitful, persevering and clever student … I can with pleasure recommend her to any Board of Trustees in need of a teacher who will fully justify any confidence which may be placed in her.14
Before Catherine could begin her career as a teacher she had to qualify for a certificate of training from one of the province’s Model Schools. These were special county schools set up after new teaching regulations had been mandated by the province in 1877, to ensure that prospective teachers hired by local school boards had received a minimum of training. Model School courses were a popular substitute for the more lengthy and expensive course offered at the provincial Normal School in Toronto. The entrance requirements were low, as were the fees, and the course only lasted fourteen weeks. It was also usually situated close to the candidate’s home town, which kept residence and travelling costs to a minimum.
Between 1877 and 1907, over 36,000 elementary teachers qualified for a third-class teaching certificate by attending the fourteen-week course. The apprentice teachers received highly practical training in classroom management and teaching methods given by fully licensed and experienced teachers. The certificates, issued by the County Board which ran the Model School, were valid only for three years. Teachers who wished to become fully qualified had to upgrade their certificate to either second or first class by enrolling in the Toronto or Ottawa Normal Schools for advanced professional training.
The most valid public criticism of the system was that only one-quarter of their graduates upgraded their qualifications. As a consequence, fully qualified rural teachers often found they had priced themselves out of a job, as many school boards would hire a less-qualified candidate for a smaller salary. Boards could do this with impunity since teachers’ contracts were only for a year. Teachers’ salaries, particularly those for women, were very low, so the teaching force became a very transient one, as women sought positions with better wages and working conditions. School inspectors complained about the harm caused by the “Arabs of Ontario … They have no fixed abode, and are here this year, there the next and nowhere the third.” Indeed, fifteen schools in Oro Township, south of Adjala, averaged eleven teachers each in the 1874-1900 period.15
In the summer of 1901, at the age of seventeen, Catherine Donnelly enrolled in the Model School at Bradford. Even then, she seemed to have the intellectual curiosity and natural ability to communicate ideas with which a good teacher must be blessed. When she graduated in October of that year, her principal gave her an enthusiastic recommendation:
The bearer Miss Donnelly has been known to me since the beginning of the present Model term as a teacher-in-training. Seldom have I met a student as diligent and attentive as Miss Donnelly. Her work in every respect is eminently satisfactory. In teaching she is diligent, pains-taking intelligent and thorough. She will doubtless put into actual practice in her own school those qualities she exhibits as a student teacher.
It is with the greatest pleasure and confidence I recommend her to the favorable consideration of School Trustees.16
Catherine was eager to start her teaching career. Her prospects were good; she and her family were well known and esteemed in the township. She