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AT THE FORKS OF THE GRAND By the end of I833, Capron's school had been built. It was on Grand River Street in the Upper Town, perched on the edge of the high bank of the Grand. Concerning it The Western Mercury of I834 says, "A large, commodious School House is now open daily in which is a well taught school, displaying the rudiments of the English language". During many years this building looked down upon the river, and served not only as a school but later also as a church and village hall; and finally, after i857, as a fire-station. It was not pulled down until after 1890. The newly appointed trustees had considerable power. They could, for example, hire and fire the teachers, make rules for the government of the school, choose the text books, collect quarterly fees from the parents, and refuse admission to children whose parents did not pay the fees. They could also present the teacher with a certificate of service and merit, so that he could claim a share of the legislative grant of $30,000, which was then the total sum set aside by the government of Upper Canada for the support of the common schools. All their decisions, however, had to be approved by the District Board, a group of men appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council for the purpose of seeing that the trustees did nothing contrary to the interests of the small ruling-group of Upper Canada. Unfortunately little is known about the iirst schools, except that about 1845 the one built by (Capron had become too small for the growing village and was abandoned in favor of an Upper School and a Lower School, one of which for administration purposes was in Dumfries Township and the other in Brantford Township. But "History of Brant County, 1884" gives a few facts concerning the first school on the Paris Plains; and since all the early schools in this area were much alike, these facts should at least suggest the characteristics of those in Paris. The Plains School was built in 1830. As its first teacher, the trustees: .. engaged a wandering waif and stray, a Scotsman who had been educated for the ministry in the Presbyterian Church, by name Benoch. He proved an admirable teacher, bating an occasional lapse from duty, owing to his indulgence in the cup that cheers so little and inebriates so much. In Mathematics especially he was a valuable instructor, having the gift which some of the more modern methods and higher pretentious lack, that of gaining ready access to the pupil's mind, or appreciating his difficulties, and showing him how they can be removed. So great became the Dominie's fame, that many grown up people of both sexes, whose education had been utterly neglected during their youth, were glad to come, with single-minded humility that was much to their credit, and sit on the school-benches among the children. Thither came the young farm-hand anxious to learn as much ciphering as should serve his turn in reckoning up his wages; there bent over her copy book's "pot-hooks and hangers" the young hired girl, desirous of being able to write her signature to that momentous document by which woman discounts the happiness of her future. 156