Balsam Bay School District was formally organized in May 1895. A one-room schoolhouse operated at NW27-17-7E in the Rural Municipality of St. Clements until early 1940 when the building was destroyed by fire, allegedly caused by students playing with matches. A replacement was built 1½ miles northeast of the original site. In 1960, older students left with the opening of Walter Whyte Collegiate and the school closed in 1966. The district was dissolved in 1967 and its area because part of the Lord Selkirk School Division. The building was used as a residence for some time then was used as a Parish Hall and Community Centre by the Ladies Auxiliary of St. Lukes Anglican Church.
The teachers of Balsam Bay School were Parrick Bruce (1896-1900), Ada Peebles (1905-1910), Ellen Folster (191l-1912), Felix Sauer (1912-1915), W. J.Corrigall (1915-1916), Felix Sauer (1916-1918), William M. Pecover (1918), W. H. Jones (1918), Minnie Porre (1918-1919), K. C. Aseltine (1920), Harry Emerson Oakes (1920-1921), Frederick Robinson Blaney (1921-1922), Gustave Pfaff (1922-1923), James E. Plewes (1924 1925), Henry Joseph Walford (1925), John Charles Cosgrove (1926), Thomas W. McBurney (1926-1928), David Alexander W. Brown (1928-1929), Helen Martha MacTavish (1919-1930), Clarence Osborne Motheral (1930-1932), Thomas Wilmor McBurney (1932-1935), Lorne W. Locke (1935-1936), Thomas MacDonald Wallace (1936-1938), Wilbur David Finlay (1938-1939), Peter Jacob Willms (1939-1940), Harold Herbert King (1940-1941), Harry Herbert Galan (1941-1942), Erdman Falk (1942-1943), Anne Boldr (1943-1944), Martha Kauss (1944-1945), John Wiebe Kroeker (1945-1946), Shirley Hecreschuk (1947), Mildred Bernice Sellgren (1947-1948), Louise Helene Epp (1948-1949), Mildred Ostholm (1949-1950), Victor Dumore (1950-1951), Mrs. Innis Wallace (1951-1952), Mr. A. R. Gislaun (1952), John Les Ryan (1953), Clive Searle Waggoner (1953-1955), Lawrence Giesbriecht (1955-1962), John A. Muller (1962-1963), Mrs. Lorna Fleury (1963-1965), Mrs. Josephine Peebles (1965-1966), and Mrs. Ina Smith (1966).
After sitting vacant for many years, the former school building was destroyed by fire in April 2024.
Balsam Bay School No. 859 (c1908)
Source: Education Department Report, 1908, Manitoba Legislative Library.
Balsam Bay School (no date) by J. E. S. Dunlop
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 13.
The former Balsam Bay School building (2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
The former Balsam Bay School building (May 2020)
Source: Rose Kuzina
Site of the former Balsam Bay School building (April 2024)
Source: Kurt DorwardSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.48879, W96.57765
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: St. Lukes Anglican Church (RM of St. Clements)
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.
Balsam Bay School, St. Clements Heritage.
We thank Bobbi Jo Panciera, Rose Kuzina, and Kurt Dorward for providing additional information used here..
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 18 April 2024
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