First Scholars

It would be pleasant to record, with authority, the names of the first ten children who made their way a hundred years ago to the little school to begin their learning, but unfortunately, the registers of the first two decades cannot be found.

The person who would know of these things is Mr. C.A. Helgesen, who was considerably younger than his brothers or sisters who were members of the first class. His phenomenal memory for people and dates has enabled him to supply the following list with only a slight chance of error. He thinks that the ten children enrolled the first day in March, 1872, were:
Henry and Sarah Helgesen, Mary, Margaret and John Witty, Martha Rosman, Emily and Edith Fisher, and possibly Sally Dutnall and George Brown.

They were the sons and daughters of hardy pioneers, who walked and rode to school in all weathers, and frequently heard the howling of wolves in the hills as they made their way home on the winter evenings.

Source: The First Hundred Years Metchosin Elementary School 1872-1972, Marion I. Helegesen