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Photos & Coordinates | Sources
The Canal School District was organized formally in January 1913 and a log building was erected on SE12-21-15W in what is now the Municipality of McCreary. The original schoolhouse was replaced by a wood frame structure in 1918, financed in April 1917 by way of an $1,800 debenture. It became part of the McCreary Municipal School District in 1936. The district was re-formed in January 1950 and returned to its former district number and independent operation by Fall 1952. The school operated until 1959 when it closed with remaining students going to McCreary Consolidated School No. 1348. The building was moved to McCreary where it was used for a time as an Anglican parish hall. In 1997, it became part of a community museum and, two years later, a municipally-designated heritage building.
Among the teachers of Canal School were Miss Alexandra W. Law (Spring 1914 - August 1914), Stanislaw Pitre (Fall 1914 - Spring 1917), Frances Thornton (September-Decemer 1917), Marie Louise Trottier (February-July 1918), Miss Alice Lafortune (Fall 1914), A. Grouet? [Trouet?] (Spring 1919), Irene Balcaen? (Fall 1919), Gladys W. Whitmore (Spring 1920 - February 1921), Robert “Ron” Greenman (March 1921 - Spring 1922), Harry L. Stein (Fall 1922), F. D. Row (Spring 1923), Lillian S. Dumaresq? (Fall 1923 - Sprin 1924), Eva Wickes (Fall 1924 - Spring 1925), Katherine H. Wilkes (Fall 1925 - Spring 1927), Mrs. Olive Margaret Layoup? (Fall 1927 - Spring 1928), Henriette “Nellie” Andre (Fall 1928 - Spring 1930), Florence Catherine Homann (Fall 1930 - Spring 1931), Lillian Elleanor Thurley (Fall 1931 - Spring 1934), Donald John Campbell (Fall 1934 - Spring 1935), Margaret Eileen Howe (Fall 1935 - Spring 1937), Irene Merle Bell (Fall 1937 - Spring 1939), Charlotte Lucy Cooper (Fall 1939 - Spring 1940), Colette M. Rocan (Fall 1940 - Spring 1941), Hazel Claudine Ayer (Fall 1941 - Spring 1942), Margaret Pauline Huntley (Fall 1942 - Spring 1943), Mary Elspeth Everall (Fall 1943 - Spring 1944), Germaine Marie Bella LeBlanc (Fall 1944 - Spring 1945), Mildred Alice Collins (Fall 1945 - Spring 1946), Eunice Grace Aitken (Fall 1946 - Spring 1947), Verla Harper (September-Decemer 1947), Asta Jonina Asmundson (January-June 1948), Edith Marian Kristine Brickman (Fall 1948 - Spring 1949), Edgar Rae Storrie (Fall 1949 - Spring 1950), Milton Luchuk? (Fall 1950 - Spring 1951), Walter Kopytko (Fall 1951 - Spring 1952), Violet Masiowski (Fall 1952 - Spring 1953), Malcolm John Woodcock (Fall 1953 - Spring 1954), Ronald “Ron” Clifford (August-November 1954), Olga Code (November 1954 - June 1955 & Fall 1955 - Spring 1958), Rena Marion Meffen (Fall 1958), Daris Ida Hannibal (Spring 1959), Miss La Broquerie (?-?), and Jean Baker (?-?).
Canal School (no date) by C. K. Rogers
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 22.
The former Canal School building (May 2012)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.77373, W99.49032
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Municipally Designated Historic Sites
McCreary: Milestones and Memories by McCreary History Book Committee, 1987, pages 154-155.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
Corporate Security registered documents (ATG 0089), #31 School District of Canal, GR12576, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Canal School District #1718, GR1630, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Canal School District No. 1718 - Daily Registers, GR6770, Archives of Manitoba.
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.
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
Canal School, Railway Street, McCreary, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 23 November 2023
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