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The Clearsprings School District (also known as the Clearspring or Clear Springs School District) was established formally in March 1880 and a temporary building, used as a school during the week and a Presbyterian church on Sundays, was built at 12-7-6E in the Rural Municipality of Hanover. A separate school was constructed in 1882, at the southeast corner of SW14-7-6E, on land donated by local farmer William Mooney. In 1919, it was replaced by a new, wood frame structure, situated on a two-acre lot at SW14-7-6E purchased (for $120) from Cornelius P. Reimer in July of that same year. It operated continuously until 1966 when it closed and students went to school transported to nearby Steinbach. The district was dissolved in 1968 and its area became part of the Hanover School Division. In 2013, a commemorative sign was erected at the original site by the EastMenn Historical Society.
Among the teachers who worked at Clearsprings School were Elizabeth Bray (1883-1884), Addie Rivers (Spring 1885 - Spring 1886), Minnie Mitchell (Fall 1886), John W. Chisholm (Spring-Fall 1887), Maud Morden (Spring-Fall 1888), /docs/people/wilson_jab.shtml Augusta Bredin (Spring-Fall 1889), H. W. McDonald (Spring 1890), William James Harrington (Fall 1890), John William Lawbe Doubleday (Spring 1891 - Spring 1892), G. W. A. Harcur [Harcus?] (Fall 1892), Nellie Collier (Spring-Fall 1893, mother of Richard Collier “Dick” Green), Duncan Martin (Spring-Fall 1894), George Wesley Bartlett (Spring 1895- Fall 1897), James A. Hamilton (Spring 1898 - Fall 1900), Annie W. McFarlane (Spring-Fall 1901), records not available (Spring 1902 - Fall 1904), M. Ethel McFarlane (pt Spring 1905), Charles T. Cresswell (pt Spring 1905), Bertha Hicks (Fall 1905 - Fall 1906), Florence Campbell (Spring-Fall 1907), Amy Wilson (Spring-Fall 1908), Jean Steel (Spring 1909 - Fall 1910), Bessie M. Williamson (March-December 1911), Selina Halland (April-December 1912), Lily Smith (March-July & August-December 1913), Mrs. C. Geeson (March-June 1914), Cornelius Friesen Barkman (September 1914 - June 1915), William L. Kruschel (October 1915 - June 1916), Ivy Duncan (October-December 1916), Jennie Ritchie (January-June 1917), May Chalmers (Fall 1917 - Spring 1919 & January-June 1920), Christy A. Keating (September-October 1919), Helen A. Steel (November-December 1919), Vera Bergman [Bregman?] (September-December 1920), Margaret Annie Unger (January-June 1921 & Fall 1921 - Fall 1924), Margaret Rempel (January-April 1925), Annabel T. Sloan (April-June 1925), Henry M. Kreutzer (Fall 1925 - Spring 1928), Abram. A. “Abe” Toews (Fall 1928 - Spring 1941), Dorothy L. Summerton (Fall 1941 - Fall 1942), E. Summerton (January-February 1943), Edith M. Wiebe (March-June 1943), Margaretha Friesen Reimer (August-March 1943), Helen Toews (March-June 1943), Margaret Enns (August-December 1944 & January-? 1945), Annie Harder (?-June 1945), Lena Goosen Penner “Helen” Schinkel (Fall 1945 - Fall 1946), Elizabth Giesbrecht (Spring 1947, Fall 1948 - Spring 1949, & Fall 1950 - Spring 1951), Catherine Enns (Fall 1947 - Spring 1948), Annie Bergmann (Fall 1949 - Spring 1950), Lawrence Wilbert Guenther (Fall 1951 - Spring 1953), Johanna Helena Holtmann (Fall 1953 - Spring 1955, Elizabeth Loewen Rempel (Fall 1955 - Spring 1957), Phyllis Blandina Brown (Fall 1957 - Spring 1959), Ruth Irene Hiebert (Fall 1959 - Spring 1960), Elizabeth Phyllis Anderson (Fall 1960 - Spring 1961), Lorne Plett Kornelsen (Fall 1961 - Spring 1962), Helen Penner (Fall 1962 - Spring 1963), Helena Marguerite Snead (Fall 1963 & January-March 1964), Helen Kornelsen (April-June 1964), Rudy Fast (Fall 1964 - Spring 1965), and Irene G. Wallace (Fall 1965 - Spring 1966).
Clearsprings School (no date) by James Tod
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 23.
Clearsprings School commemorative sign (November 2020)
Source: Rose KuzinaSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.56008, W96.68553
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Clearsprings Cemetery (RM of Hanover)
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.
Schools - Our Heritage: From 46 School Districts to Hanover Unitary School Division (1878-1968) by John K. Schellenberg, The Board of The Hanover School Division No. 15, May 1985, ISBN 0-919673-93-7.
Board of Education registers (A 0050), GR7643, Archives of Manitoba.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
Board of Education meeting minutes and office files (A 0052), GR1622, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Clearsprings School District No. 85 - Daily Registers, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Clearsprings School District No. 85 - Cash Book, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Clearsprings School District No. 85 - Miscellaneous Records, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Glen Klassen and Ernest Braun (EastMenn Historical Society) for providing information used here.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 7 September 2023
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