Link to:
Photos & Coordinates | Sources
The Hodgson School District was established in November 1913 in the Rural Municipality of Springfield and named for long-time Pine Ridge resident Henry Hodgson (1838-1913). Born in England on 3 August 1837, Hodgson moved to Canada around 1870. In 1871, he married Parish of St. James-born Esther Franks (1852-1926) and they had at least eleven children including Henry Hodgson (1874-1945), James Hodgson (1876-?), Ann Jane “Annie” Hodgson (c1877-?, wife of Robert James Hutner Cox), Christina Hodgson (c1880-?), Elizabeth Hodgson (c1881-?, wife of Samuel R. Sampson), Mary Ann Hodgson (1882-?, wife of John Prettie), William Robert Hodgson (1884-1897), Catherine Hodgson (1886-?), John Hodgson (1888-?), Alexander Hodgson (1890-?), and William Hodgson (?-?). In 1872, he acquired a farmstead at NE23-11-4E in the Pine Ridge School District and, in 1874, was granted a woodlot in part of the north half of 12-12-4E, the same section where over four decades later the Hodgson School District would later establish a school. He also owned the SW & SE quarter sections of 18-12-5E. He died at his Pine Ridge residence on 18 May 1913 and was buried in the Moose Nose Cemetery.
In 1914, the School District hired carpenter John Susla to build a one-room schoolhouse at NW12-12-4E, and classes commenced in September of that same year. Two years after the school opened, and upon the insistence from the Department of Education, the district was begrudgingly changed to avoid confusion with the community of Hodgson which had opened a post office (established in March 1912) and Canadian National Railway Station by that name, though the Hodgson School District No. 2044 would not be organized until August 1920. The Hodgson School District No. 1706 was renamed the Corona School District during the summer of 1916.
In 1957, an $11,000 bylaw was approved to build a new school, though it remains unclear if any new school was built. The district was dissolved in 1965 and its catchment area became part of the Oakbank Consolidated School District No. 2426 and later the Transcona Springfield School Division. The former school building was purchased by world-renowned sculptor Leo Mol who used it as his studio through the 1970s and 1980s. In 1995, it was moved to the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden in Assiniboine Park, where it was restored and opened to the public. A commemorative monument, located next to the doorway, details the building's history since the 1960s.
Among the teachers at Hodgson School / Corona School were John M. Dybeck (Fall 1914- Spring 1922), Stephen F. Arnett (Fall 1922 - Spring 1923), S. E. Radomsky (Fall 1924 - Spring 1926 & September-October 1926), David Kidd (October 1926 - June 1927), Lawrence Peter Roscoe (Fall 1927 - Spring 1944), Joseph Yatchew (Fall 1944 - Spring 1945), Naida Bisson Hosie? (Fall 1945 - Spring 1948), Mary Ewashko (Fall 1948 - Spring 1952), Edmee Lorraine Silverster (Fall 1952 - Spring 1953), George Gushuliak (Fall 1953 - Spring 1954), Paul Walter Yurkowski (Fall 1954 - Spring 1958), Janet Chubaty (Fall 1958 - Spring 1961), Mrs. R. H. Labay (Fall 1961 - Fall 1962), Vera Wylychenko (January-February 1963), Eleanor Karalash (March-June 1963 & Fall 1964 - Spring 1965), and Erwin Lloyd Chezick (Fall 1963 - Spring 1964).
A commemorative sign at the former school site was erected in 2020 by local resident Joe Nieckarz.
Corona School (1920s) by J. E. S. Dunlop
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 20.
Leo Mol Schoolhouse Studio (2010)
Source: City of Winnipeg
Leo Mol Schoolhouse Studio with monument (left) by the doorway (August 2020)
Source: Nathan Kramer
Corona School commemorative sign (October 2024)
Source: Jean McManusSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.00375, W96.92674
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Hodgson School No. 2044 / Hodgson Pioneers Monument (Hodgson, RM of Fisher)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Leo Mol Schoolhouse Studio (Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg)
Memorable Manitobans: Leo Mol (1915-2009)
1891 & 1906 Canada census, Library and Archives Canada.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Manitoba / Saskatchewan / Alberta, Canada Homestead Grant Register, Ancestry.
Birth, marriage, and death registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary [W. R. Hodgson, 13 years ...], Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 19 February 1897, page 8.
“From country points [Pine Ridge],” Winnipeg Daily Tribune, 29 December 1897, page 6.
“Nature offers plenty water,” Winnipeg Tribune, 2 March 1906, page 2.
Deaths and funerals [Henry Hodgson],” Manitoba Free Press, 22 May 1913, page 8.
Winnipeg estate files (ATG 0025A), #7266 - Henry Hodgson, GR0170, Archives of Manitoba.
“Springfield pioneer dies, aged 74 years,” Manitoba Free Press, 19 June 1926, page 5.
Obituary [Henry Hodgson], Winnipeg Free Press, 23 July 1945, page 4.
Springfield, 1st Rural Municipality in Manitoba, 1873-1973, Dugald Women’s Institute.
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.
Selkirk topographic map, 62I/2, Edition 2, Series A743 [Archives of Manitoba].
Manitoba School Records Collection, Corona School District No. 1706 Daily Registers, GR9480, Archives of Manitoba.
School division and school district formation files (E 0027), Hodgson School District No. 1706 / Corona School District No. 1706, GR1688, Archives of Manitoba.
School division borrowing files (MA 0038), Corona School District No. 1706, GR1798, Archives of Manitoba.
Sunnyside Cemetery burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
We thank Jean McManus for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 6 November 2024
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