Florence School was built in the early 1880s, 3½ miles west and one mile south of Plumas, opposite the Florence Cemetery. A log structure, it was named for nurse Florence Nightingale (1820-1910). In 1900, a new school was built one mile south of the original location, on SW14-16-13 west of the Principal Meridian, in what is now the Municipality of Glenella-Lansdowne. The school closed in 1960 and the district was formally dissolved in January 1967. Its students went to Plumas Consolidated School No. 88. This plaque at the former school site was donated in 2001 by the Tomes family.
Among the teachers of Florence School were David P. Miller (1897), Ruth McConnell (1906), Berth Foster (1907), Geo. Rogers (1907), Maggie B. Snider (1907), Alice J. Fisher (1909), E. F. Jamieson (1909-1911), Ruth T. Boughton (1911-1912, daughter of M. E. Boughton), W. J. Corlett (1912), Mary Onhauser (1913), Amy J. Roe (1914), Florence L. Martin (1915), Bessie F. Thomson (1916), Edna M. Cross (1916), J. Myrtle Hanna (1917), Selena A. Whitman (1918), Olive E. Thompson (1919), E. Pearl Walker (1920), Agnes Stewart (1921-1923), Thelma Coleman (1923), Violet Tomes (1924-1925), Mae Nichol (1926), Clara Beswitherick (1926-1927), Ellen Lilian Harper (1928-1930), Lyall M. Robertson (1930-1936), Eileen Thelma Muir (1936-1937), Margaret Elizabeth Wilkinson (1937-1938), Dorothy Pearl Denson (1938-1941), Neta Rossmund Buschau (1941), Lorna E. Wood (1942), Kathleen M. “Kay” Stewart (1942), Marjorie Jean McLean (1942-1943), Hazel Marie Rogers (1944-1945), Florence Alice Hartnoll (1944-1947), Pauline Olivette Williams (1947-1948), Helen Lois Thomson (1948-1949), Agatha Esther Paetkau (1949-1950), Jacob “Jac” Klassen (1950-1951), Esther Georgina Sjovold (1951-1952), Carla Darlene Anne Cook (1952-1953), Verlie Brown (1953), Joan Mary Hertzog (1954), Katie Helen Enns (1954-1957), Shirley A. Walsh (1957-1958), and Joan J. Chastko (1958-1960).
Students and teacher of Florence School (June 1911)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Districts, Florence 203, N13550.
Florence School commemorative monument (August 2011)
Source: Allan DrysdaleSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.35870, W99.13928
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
TimeLinks: Florence School #203, Plumas
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Florence Nightingale School (31 Shaughnessy Street, Winnipeg)
“The Indian famine fund,” Winnipeg Tribune, 4 March 1897, page 4.
The Lansdowne Story: Grain, Gravel, Growth by A. F. McKenzie, 1967.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Florence School District No. 207 Daily Registers, GR3152, Archives of Manitoba.
Browsing Through the Years: Plumas and District, 1876-1976 by Plumas and District History Committee, 1976, pages 39-40.
This page was prepared by Allan Drysdale, Gordon Goldsborough, and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 11 August 2023
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