Historic Sites of Manitoba: Arden School No. 341 (Arden, Municipality of Glenella-Lansdowne)

Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

The Arden School District was formally established in October 1884 and a school building was erected three years later, in June 1887, at this site in the village of Arden, in the Rural Municipality of Lansdowne. It burned in 1890 and was replaced.

As settlement in the Arden area hastened through the early 20th century, a second school building was erected in 1909. As the consolidation movement continued, the school became Arden Consolidated School No. 341, in October 1919. Another building, known as the “Little School,” was built in 1920 on a design by Winnipeg architect E. D. Tuttle. By 1939, the school comprised three buildings, with grades 1 and 2 in the Little School, grades 3 to 5 in the “Middle School”, and grades 6 to 12 in the “High School”.

A new school building opened in 1954 and the Little School was moved to its present location on the south side of the Arden municipal office as a Seniors Centre. The Middle School became a private residence, first at Neepawa and later at Onanole. The High School building fell apart when an attempt was made to move it, and its parts were incorporated into several buildings around Arden. The new school operated until June 2001 when students began to be bused to Neepawa.

A monument commemorating the Arden school was dedicated at a ceremony on 14 October 2007. Its base is constructed from locally made concrete blocks recovered from a nearby derelict farmhouse.

Principals

Period

Principal

1906-1907

J. H. Marsh

1907-1910

George Wesley Bartlett (1876-1950)

1910-1912

?

1912-1913

H. P. McPhail

1913-1915

Frederick H. Burkholder (1888-?)

1915-1917

Victor Harvey Hugo (1888-1972)

1917-1918

John E. Gillanters

1918-1919

Kathleen Farrell

1919-1920

Edward Sandford Lord (1869-1922)

1920-1921

Louise Anne Foreman Elliott (1894-1974)

1921-1923

J. E. Ridd

1923-1925

Percival Beresford Bennett (1884-1954)

1925-1927

James Clark Whenham (1896-1970)

1927-1928

Hazel Arretta Vandecar Foster (1897-1990)

1928-1929

Vivian Clarkson “Clark” Hardy (1897-1982)

1929-1936

Walter Fahrig (1889-1937)

1936-1939

George Scott Belton (1904-1967)

1939-1945

Elmenia Jean Mollard (1901-1991)

1945-1948

Henry Lambert Williams (1890-1976)

1948-1951

Abiah Davies Morgan (1899-1967)

1951-1952

Bodvar Jon Skuli Bodvarson (1911-1972)

1952-1955

Benjamin Foreman (c1898-1981)

1955-1956

Glenn Homer Turner (1912-1987)

1956-1957

Frederick C. Mongeon

1957-1958

Peter Jacob Olchowecki (1911-2011)

1958-1961

Harold Edgar Woods

1961-1962

Irma Sirett

1962-1965

Joseph Grodecki (1925-2011)

1965-1966

E. Dunsmore

1966-1969

Cecil McCullough

1969-1973

L. Boychuk

Teachers

Among the other teachers at Arden School were Hugh McCamis (1887), Jean Isabel Wellwood, John E. Ridd (1920s), Karl E. Chambers (late 1920s), John Maxwell “Jack” McGilvray (1930-1934), Margaret Eames (early 1940s), Mrs. H. Thompson (1953), A. E. N. Carnochan (1956-1957), and Ruth Emisch (1967-1973).

Photos & Coordinates

Arden School

Arden School (circa 1908)
Source: Rob McInnes, MN0633.

The Arden School consisted of the three building to the right of the church at left

The Arden School consisted of the three building to the right of the church at left (circa 1930) by C. K. Rogers
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 32.

Arden School monument

Arden School monument (July 2012)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.27739, W99.26704
denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

“Arden, Man”, Western Canada Fire Underwriters’ Association map, July 1918, Archives of Manitoba.

“Langruth news,” Portage la Prairie Leader, 3 September 1953, page 11.

One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.

Over the Rainbow: Memories of a Country School Teacher by Ruth Emisch, 1993.

“Keep in touch” by Keith Boughton, Retired Teachers Association of Manitoba, Winter 2008, www.ardenmb.ca/history/schoolcairn.htm.

We thank Tracey Winthrop-Meyers, Rob McInnes, Nathan Kramer, Edith Burnside, and Bob McCamis for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 24 December 2023

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