The Cumming School District was formed on 7 April 1921 by By-Law 78 of the Rural Municipality of Kreuzburg. It was named for school inspector Hugh Duncan Cumming. In 1921, the predominantly Ukrainian and Polish settlers contracted Michael Gottfried (builder of the nearby St. Michael’s Archangels Church) to construct a school. A one-room frame building was erected on this site, at NW21-20-2 east of the Principal Meridian in what is now the Rural Municipality of Armstrong.
Opening in 1921, peak enrolment of the school was 78 in 1930-1931. It taught grades 1 to 8, with grade 9 being taken by correspondence. In 1959, the Evergreen School Division took over secondary education. Cumming School closed in 1960. The building was sold in 1966, moved to NW17-20-2E (about N50.72827, W97.29217) and converted into a home. A model of the original school building sits in nearby Meleb-Park-Cumming Schools Reunion Park. A monument was dedicated on 7 July 1990.
Among the teachers of Cumming School were Miss Stadnuck, Miss Malenchak, Mr. McKay, Mary Zroback (1943), Mrs. Doroschuk, Winnie Krushanko Andrusiak, John Keryluk, Joseph Shankowski, and Donald Bjornson.
Cumming School (no date) by H. D. Cumming
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 89.
Teacher Mary Zroback and students of Cumming School (1943)
Source: Bill Zroback
Cumming School commemorative monument (August 2010)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
The former Cumming School building (June 2013)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.74115, W97.27498
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Meleb-Park-Cumming Schools Reunion Park (RM of Armstrong)
Memorable Manitobans: Hugh Duncan Cumming (1879-1942)
A History of Education in the Evergreen School Division by John C. Gottfried, MA thesis, University of Manitoba, 1965.
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.
Obituary [Donald Bjornson], Winnipeg Free Press, 28 January 2023.
We thank Bill Zroback for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 28 January 2023
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