Historic Sites of Manitoba: Franklin Union School No. 780 (Franklin, RM of Rosedale)

Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

A monument commemorates Franklin School at Franklin, in the Rural Municipality of Rosedale. There were three school buildings at a site across the road, the first built around the time that the school district was established, in September 1893. The second building served from 1909 to 1953, and the third and final building occupied the site from 1953 to June 1968, when the school closed and the district was dissolved. The remaining students were bused to Neepawa or Minnedosa.

The former school building is no longer present at the site. Its enamel sign and some photographs are displayed in the Franklin Memorial Hall.

Principals

Period	Principal
1908-1910	George Henry Blackwell (1864-1941)
1910-1912	?
1912-1915	Pearl Nama Broadworth (1885-?)
1915-1917	Ethel V. Foxwell
1917-1918	J. M. McCormick
1918-1920	Edward Stockley
1920-1922	L. D. McLeod
1922-1924	James McNeil (1866-1954)
1924-1925	Kenneth Donald Bruce (1892-1968)
1925-1937	R. J. MacKenzie
1937-1940	Muriel Douglas
1940-1942	Frank Edward White (1915-1994)
1942-1943	Robert Cameron Mulligan (1889-1976)
1943-1945	Gloria E. Ward
1945-1946	Jean Ritchey
1946-1947	Dorothy Allen
1947	C. M. Davidson
1948	William G. Fleeting
1949	D. V. Dobbin
1950	John Osborn Wilson
1950-1952	Rudolf Ewald “Rudy” Mehmel (1918-2013)
1952-1953	Raymond B. Keynes
1953-1954	Gudmundur Bjorgvin Arilius “Arli” Isfeld (1913-1994)
1954-1958	Ruth Annie Fairlie Henderson (1904-1992)
1958	John Henry Doughty (1900-1958)
1958-1959	Joseph “Joe” [Szezygol] Shygol (c1928-1974)
1959-1968	Donald Garton

Teachers

Among the other teachers of Franklin School were Maggie McLaren (1894), Emma McKinney (1897), Winnifred Mills (1906), J. E. Nunn (1907), Winnifred Fraser (1909), L. Maude Webster (1911), Pearl Shuttleworth (1912), E. Kilpatrick (1914), J. N. Leckie (1915), J. M. Sinclair (1916), M. A. Forsythe (1917), F. C. Matheson (1917-1919), V. H. Hugo (1918), T. C. Matheson (1918), Olive J. Taylor (1920-1922), Nettie King (1920), V. Simpson (1923), E. R. Foreman (1921-1922), W. Grant (1922), Ellen Fraser (1923-1924), K. Arthur (1925-1926), D. C. Clark (1925), G. D. Cusack (1926-1927), R. I. McJannet (1927-1930), Mary Ellen Scott (1930-1931), Margaret Coutts (1931-1936), Audrey Heney (1936-1938), M. Audrey Dewart (1938-1940), Mrs. Nellie Greenaway (1940-1945), Doris I. Gray (1945-1947), Clara L. Knipe (1947), Irma Shorey (1948-1950), Violet J. Burke (1950), Mrs. Jean M. Witter (1951-1952), Iva May Eros (1952), Mrs. Raymond Keynes (1953), Alice A. Kolesar (1953), Bernice McConnell (1953-1955), G. Norsworthy (1954), Mrs. A. G. Clarke (1955-1956), Jennie Len (1955), Muriel Garton (1956-1960), Don Garton (1956-1959), Mrs. D. M. McConnell (1960-1963), and Mrs. Mary V. McLaughlin (1963-1968).

Photos & Coordinates

The second Franklin School used from 1909 to 1953 (no date) by W. C. Hartley Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 125. The third Franklin School building used from 1953 to 1968 (no date) Source: S. J. McKee Archives, Minnedosa Womens Institute, Village History 1878-1956. Franklin School commemorative monument (2010) Source: Allan Drysdale Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.24038, W99.66628 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

“The Indian famine fund,” Winnipeg Tribune, 4 March 1897, page 4.

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

Marriage and death registrations [Iva May Eros], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Rosedale Remembered, 1984, pages 174-175.

The Beautiful Plains Story: 1983-2008 by Neepawa and Area History Committee, 2008, page 162.

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.

We thank Nathan Kramer and Glen Gibbons for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Allan Drysdale.

Page revised: 3 October 2022

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