The Beresford Village School District was organized formally in April 1901. By that fall, trustees had hired Brandon architect W. H. Shillinglaw to draw plans for a one-classroom wood frame school building, to be erected at Beresford in the Rural Municipality of Whitehead. Constructed the next year, on land purchased for $100 from the Canadian Pacific Railway, in 1912 an addition was made to its west end. The school operated continuously until June 1967, although high school students had been bused to Souris as of 1959. The district was dissolved in 1968. The former school building was later used as a community centre but, as of 2012, appeared to be used for private storage.
The teachers who worked at Beresford School through the years included Mr. Campbell, Miss O. Hornibrook, Miss M. Haigh, I. Buason, Charles T. Cresswell, Miss A. Douglas, Miss E. Waidge, Miss M. Elder, Ethel Johnson, Pearl Winteringham, Ada Bowler, Miss M. Huddleston, Miss E. Leachman, Miss Wahn, Miss E. Christie, Miss Parkinson, Miss V. Patrick, Cecil James Hutchings, Miss E. A. Littler, Miss M. J. Brown, Miss A. Robertson, Miss E. Churchill, Harry Cannon, Mary Gillander, Isobel Molloy, S. A. Moffat, Ruth Roper, Isabelle Gorrell, Joan Pettapher, Elizabeth Pettapher, Hilda Peterson, Ada Moffat, Mary McDougall, Mrs. Tunningley, Isobel Wilson, Miss M. Hunter, Mary Lawrence, Anne McFarlane, Lorna Lee, Mrs. Claude Boleyn, Maxine Boyd, Marj Curtis, Mrs. Mary King, Garth Bishop, Marion Douglas, Mary Johnson, Betty Berry, Elizabeth Smith, Doreen Smith, Karen Bissett, Linda Rogers, and Betty Jean Mote.
Aerial view of the school at Beresford (1990s)
Source: Manitoba Pool Fonds, S. J. McKee Archives, Brandon University
Beresford Village School (June 1967)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, Architectural Survey, Beresford.
The former Beresford Village School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1461.
The former Beresford Village School building (July 2012)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
The former Beresford Village School building (June 2021)
Source: Rose KuzinaSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.72863, W100.19538
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: South Beresford School No. 172 (Municipality of Souris-Glenwood)
Memories of Beresford by Beresford Centennial Committee, 1970. [Copy at Manitoba Legislative Library, F5649.B47Mem]
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.
Whitehead Wanderings, 1883-1983 by Whitehead-Alexander Centennial Committee, 1983. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.W53 Whi]
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
We thank Rose Kuzina and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 15 July 2022
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