Mahone Bay Old School_A Life and Times_Bob Sayer

Albert and Fannie Daurie
Photo: Courtesy Dora
McAlpine.
Albert was small of stature, but
mighty of spirit.
• He was a pillar of the church,
the Masons and the fire brigade.
• Fred Mosher mentioned him
kindly as allowing students to
use their back porch to change
for skating on the pond-as long
as they were gone by 10pm.
•He was the stoker who
tended tons of coal, kept the
coal furnaces burning and the
pressure up for the new fangled steam furnace. Did he cough up lumps of coke? “The
fire” in the furnace had to be set by 7am.
• He was the trucker who had to dispose [mostly on the field behind the school] of the
mountains of ash that accumulated.
• He tended the school outdoor well, kept the drinking water tanks full and clean.
• He was the plumber who tended the broken toilets and the frozen pipes. He even
installed the new disinfectant soap machines.
• His lair was the basement, but he had to clean the whole building, top to bottom,
twice a year: ‘To have walls and ceilings dry cleaned before school re-opens’
• He was the fixer of broken gutters, doors and windows.
• Soon after the school opened, he insisted on lighting in the basement. Not a man to
be kept in the dark!
• On occasion he was asked to be a policeman: report to the principal on teachers
who lingered too late after school; ‘remove and report loiterers and smokers from the
basement.’
• A janitor’s lot in life is not an easy one!
• He regularly petitioned the school board for higher wages. He was successful. By
the mid-1920s, at the princely sum of $525 per year, he was, after the principal, the
next best paid member of staff.
• Twice the Board dared to put the job up for tender. Both times he was re-appointed,
his supremacy never to be challenged again. In 1932 there were complaints about a
dirty basement. Chairman Charle Lohnes reported ‘Interviewing janitor, he claimed
all complaints unfounded and contended that THE coal was nothing but dust, and it
was impossible to keep the basement floor clean.’
The Triumph of The Dauries: Loans to the School Board
In 1931, the Town and Board were cash poor and desperately needed money
for school repairs and improvements, particularly for excavating, replacing and
insulating water pipes and pumps. To the rescue came the Dauries-with a loan of
$932, repayable over 10 years at 5%. The best was yet to come. Lunenburg Foundry
had perfected the Automatic Stoker for homes and institutions. It was a best seller:
much more efficient in heating and a huge saving in labour. Albert had died in late
December 1933 and his son Gordan had been appointed to succeed him. Fannie came
forward with a second loan to buy and install the Automatic Stoker.
Poetic Justice
Photo Courtesy Lunenburg Foundry
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