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The Basswood Consolidated School District was established in the community of Basswood, in what is now the Rural Municipality of Oakview, in 1915. The following year, after school trustees had toured Strathclair School, they approved construction of a two-storey brick veneer building, designed by Winnipeg architect Frank R. Evans and built by contractor Worswick Brothers of Winnipeg.
Other nearby rural schools closed, including Fairmount School No. 201, Rosemount School No. 319, and Winterton School No. 716, and their students were brought here. Over time, students from other rural schools that were closed came here, including those from McBride School No. 558 (1964). The school closed in June 1969 and the building was later demolished.
At the site of the former school is a commemorative monument, erected in 1983 for the centenary of the municipality, and a small brick replica.
Period
Principal
1916-1917
Murray L. Waters
1917-1918
William George Edwin Pulleyblank (1890-1955)
1918-1920
Margaret Gertrude Dudley (1888-1980)
1920-1921
James Robertson
1921-1923
Margaret Gertrude Dudley (1888-1980)
1923-1925
Charles Raymond Slawson (1900-1933)
1925-1926
Thomas Patrick King (1873-1954)
1926-1927
Edmund Herbert Leighton (1883-1954)
1927-1928
Margaret E. MacKenzie
1929-1932
Iva Jettie Stewart Leins (1900-1999)
1932-1935
Frances Mary Jones Robertson (1903-1987)
1935-1941
Margaret Hawley Speers (1908-2008)
1941-1942
R. Norman Currie
1942-1943
Willa M. Harvey
1943-1944
Rhoda M. Small
1944-1948
Phoebe Belcher
1948
Mr. A. G. Bedford
1948-1950
Dagney M. Kristiansen
1950-1957
Adam Joseph Juce (1921-2010)
1957-1958
Maurice Peter Kalushka (1918-2002)
1958-1960
Emma F. Dube
1960-1962
Leo Priebe Barkman (1925-2015)
The teachers who worked at Basswood School prior to consolidation in 1916 included Frances McGill (1904), Joseph Knight (1905), James Robertson (1905-1911), Anna Watt (1911), Winnifred Bloomer (1911-1912), Laura Dewar (1912-1913), Jean McLaren (1913-1914), Astellia Harrison (1914-1915), Norman Ewart Brett (1915-1916), Gladys Hamilton (1915-1916), Flora Sexsmith (1916), Christena Thompson (1916), and Henry Arthur Lye.
The teachers of Basswood Consolidated School from 1916 to 1969 were as follows: Euphemia McKinnon (1916-1917), Vera May Babb (1916-1920), Margaret M. Scott (1917), Myrtle I. Graham (1916), Eileen M. Ritchie (1917-1919), Maurice Sauger (1917), Alban R. Tufts (1918), Islay A. McIntyre (1918-1920), C. E. Ashley (1920-1922), Katherine C. Averill (1919-1924), Minnie J. Young (1920-1923), Katherine King (1922-1924), Kathleen Kelly (1923-1925), Pearl A. Brown (1925), Mabel M. Buchanan (1924-1925), G. Gwendolen Ewens (1925-1927), Mildred S. Williams (1925-1926), Gladys McGregor (1925-1928), Thomas P. King (1925-1926), Isabel Lee (1926-1927), C. Armenah Powell (1927-1928), Hazel Parker (1927-1928), Wilma Vinnell (1928), Gladys Thompson (1929-1930), Myrtle McArthur (1928-1929), Mabel E. Fisher (1928), Esme W. White (1929), George W. King (1928), Bertha Boles (1929-1937), Mary L. Snyder (1929), Lottie Dotten (1930), Margaret J. Moore (1930-1931), Myrtle E. Fines (1931-1932), Agnes Lavery (1931-1932), Mary H. Brown (1932-1934), Leona Fallis Jackson (1932-1940, 1943), Margaret J. Buick (1934-1939), Ruby Amy (1937-1940), Ruth Roper (1939-1942), Georgina McConnell (1940-1942), Evelyn G. Davidson (1940-1942), Marguerite Coutts (1942-1947), Louise Thornton (1942), Ina Beattie (1942), Jean Gray (1943), Willa Harvey (1942-1943), Audrey A. Young (1943), Annie M. Murray (1944), Albert B. Diamond (1943-1944), Rhoda M. Small (1943-1944), Olive Milne Templeton (1944-1949), Dorothy Wherritt (1943-1945), B. F. Olson (1944), Mrs. C. E. McEachern (1946-1949), Leona Marks (1947-1948), Ila G. Chisholm McNabb (1949-1952), Anita Cox (1949-1950), Elsie Huhtala Jackson (1951-1952), Mary Byskal (1950-1952), Mary Juce (1952-1954), Orest Fedak (1952-1954), Esther Sjovold Reid (1954-1957), Pearl Podruski (1954-1956), Margaret Scheer (1954-1955), Margaret Coutts (1955-1956), Annie E. Lawson (1956-1957), Catherine Lochhead (1956-1958, 1968-1969), Edna Buchanan (1957-1963), Margaret E. Graham Curwen (1957-1959), Violet Switzer (1958-1963), Harold Lyle Severson (1959-1960), John Spak (1962-1964), Leona Campbell (1963-1964), Beverly Jackson (1963-1964), Vivianne Riddell (1964-1966), June Robinson (1964-1967), Mr. C. R. Lockhart (1964-1965), Paul H. Rudiak (1965-1966), and Heather Mandzuk (1966-1967).
Other teachers whose period of tenure at Basswood is unconfirmed were as follows: Miss D. E. Heap, Miss C. E. Ashby, Mary H. Speirs, Mr. R. V. Currie, Laura Woods, Frank Olsen, William Fraser, Miss Davidson, Mrs. Shier, Enid Butler, Peggy Graham, Miss J. Howard, Bernice Smith, Miss M. B. Marynuik, Miss D. Lindsay, Karen McKnight, Miss A. L. Mikymetz, Mr. C. Nicholson, Bob Lepischuk, and Mrs. M. Templeton.
Basswood School (circa 1916)
Source: Education Department Report, 1916, Manitoba Legislative Library.
Basswood School (no date) by W. C. Hartley
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 85.
Basswood School commemorative monuments (July 2017)
Source: Allan DrysdaleSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.30016, W100.03457
denoted by symbol on the map above
Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.
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.
Basswood, 1878-1978: A Century of Living by Basswood and District Historical Book Society, 1980. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5649.B38 Bas]
We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Allan Drysdale.
Page revised: 31 October 2021
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