The O'Hara School

THROWBACK THURSDAY/ AUGUST 27TH, 2020

As the back to school season approaches, we take a look at the O’Hara school and the O’Hara family’s contributions to local education.

Many who visit O’Hara ask us about why we have a schoolhouse here when there was not originally one on the site. One answer to that is the O’Hara’s helped to found one of the first schools in the area!

The first schoolhouse in Madoc Township was built on Henry O’Hara’s farm around 1829. The original structure was a log shack, which was about 20 feet square. This early school was heated by a sheet-iron stove which sat on a pile of stones.

The first teacher at the O’Hara school was George Ryan, an Irishman.

In 1859, a second school was built, this time as a frame building. In 1884 a new frame structure was erected on the other side of the road, and a few years later was replaced with a brick structure. This school stood until 1986, however, it closed in 1961 when Madoc Township Public School opened its doors..

The material for the early school was sawed at the O’Hara mill and all of the O’Hara children received their early education at the O’Hara school.