Assumption High School - Crusader Purple Raider Yearbook (Windsor, Ontario Canada)

Page 32 text:

ASSUMPTION IN THE PAST MR. THEODULE GIRARDOT Mr. Theodule Girardot was born in France in 1824 and was successively teacher, dean and principal of Assumption College. It was Mr. Girardot who was instrumental in having the Basilian Fathers appointed to the College after his departure in 1870. He was public school inspector of North Essex from 1870 until his death in Sandwich in 1900, and served two terms as Mayor of Sandwich. Seventy-Five Years of Progress at Assumption College A lSSUMPTION COLLEGE is celebrating this year the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of its administration by the Basilian Fathers. When Father Dennis O ' Connor of the Congregation of St. Basil arrived in the village of Sandwich in August, 18 70, with three other Basilian priests and the munificent sum of $300.00, he took over the administration of a school that had been con¬ ducted under other auspices from 1857. The origins of Assumption College may be traced back to the return of the Jesuits to Assumption Parish in 1843. Father Pierre Point, the Jesuit pastor, was an exceptionally astute man and observed throughout his parish an appalling illiteracy and ignorance. His parish extended twenty miles along 1870-1945

Page 31 text:

RT. REV. D. O ' CONNOR, C.S.B., L.L.D. FIRST SUPERIOR 1870-1888 - I ' ACE rWKNTY-EICHT

Page 33 text:

18701945 the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair and as far south as the Irish mission of Maidstone; in addition the parish conducted missions in Belle River, Tecumseh, Stoney Point, Chatham, Walpole, Raleigh and Tilbury. The parish numbered some 3,000 souls who were almost exclusively French-Canadian in nationality. Father Point immediately introduced a network of elementary French- speaking schools in his parish, establishing by 1846 thirteen schools with an average enrollment of 80 to 100 students. His schools were among the first elementary schools of any kind in Western Ontario and anticipated by several years the introduction of public schools supported by governmental taxation (1854). He encountered considerable opposition from members of his flock who remained unconvinced that there were benefits to be derived from education commensurate with their cost and maintenance. The civil authority also was rather hostile in the beginning, since the Ontario system of education under the direction of Dr. Egerton Ryerson was then only in the process of formation and the principle of denominational schools was not a matter of general agreement. In spite of the faltering enthusiasm and latent antagonism that his project evoked, Father Point not only proceeded with his plans, but enlarged upon them. Recognizing the importance of secondary education, he was enabled to open a high school for girls in the parish presbytery in 1852 through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Antoine Beaubien of Detroit. (The first secondary 1870 ' 1945 -