Historic Sites of Manitoba: Holmfield School No. 699 (Holmfield, RM of Killarney-Turtle Mountain)

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

In May 1892, the Holmfield School District was established formally and classes were held in the home of George Armstrong in the village of Holmfield in the Rural Municipality of Turtle Mountain. By 1901, it had become overcrowded and local ratepayers authorized the construction of a new schoolhouse at a cost of $3,500. Work by contractor D. Barlow began that summer and was completed by September. It was a two-storey stone structure with three classrooms, a large meeting room, and a basement.

Demolished in 1951, the stone school was replaced by a one-storey building, constructed at a cost of $24,000 and opened officially on 3 April 1951. In January 1959, the district consolidated with Hazeldell School No. 611 and West Derby School No. 194 to become Holmfield Consolidated School No. 699. The high school closed in June 1959 and the school as a whole closed in June 1974. The building was later demolished and its bell sits atop the Bank of Toronto Vault.

Some records for the school are held at the Messner Store Museum.

Principals

Period	Principal
1906-1908	Hugh Clarke Fairfield (1877-1961)
1908-1913	David Smith Tod (1870-1937)
1913-1914	Robert B. Masterton
1914-1916	John D. Sutherland
1916-1918	Clarence Record
1918-1921	Duncan Scott McIntyre (1899-1975)
1921-1922	Edith Ann Fingland (1877-1957)
1922-1924	Ida J. Finnen
1924-1926	Alfred James Struthers (1889-1979)
1926-1928	John Macgregor Wilkie (1904-1991)
1928-1933	James Thomas Hulme (1864-1938)
1933-1936	Charles Edward Clare Durnin (c1903-1974)
1936-1939	Robert Cameron Mulligan (1889-1976)
1939-1942	Walter Thorvaldur Fredrickson (1907-1974)
1942-1943	Oliver Clayton Bricker (1900-1992)
1943-1959	Hugh Arthur Johnson (1910-1967)
1959-1969	?
1969-1970	William Sanford “Bill” Kirbyson (1908-1995)

Teachers

The other teachers of Holmfield School were: Frances Balfour (1892-1893), James C. Butchart (1893-1894), Joseph McKee (1894-1895), R. W. E. Preston (1895), A. G. Lanigan (1895-1896), J. D. Nicol (1896-1899), Marnie E. Sargent (1899-1900), James G. Dunlop (1900-1901), Louis McKinn (1901-1902), Henry G. Heasman (1902-1903), Miss Greenway (1903), Robert Moir (1905-1906), Grace L. Hicks (1905-1907), Lillian Coulter (1906-1908), Nellie Martin (1908-1911), Cecelia A. Cresswell (1910-1911), Laurinda Martin (1911-1912), Janet A. Pritchard (1911-1915), J. A. Peadon (1914-1916), Frances M. Porter (1916-1917), Retta Davis (1916-1918), Winnifred W. Collis (1917-1918), Mildred A. Bateman (1917-1919), Ilo M. Nelson (1918-1919), S. Estella Carruthers (1918-1919), Marjorie Davidson (1919-1920), Jessie Knox (1919-1920), Helen F. Wiechman (1920-1922), Cora L. Hefford (1920-1922), Edith H. Gee (1921-1923), Fern Morden (1922-1924), Mary E. McMillan (1923-1924), Mary R. Wiechman (1923-1924), Maude E. Rutherford (1924-1926), Elsie R. Jones (1924-1926), Elsie B. Fisher (1925-1926), Evelyn H. McPherson (1926-1929), Mildred A. Lousley (1926-1927), Hilda M. Huddlestone (1927-1943), Christina D. Hunter (1929-1931), Isabella M. Jamieson (1931-1938), Charlotte I. Lynch (1938-1940), Dorothy H. Dutton (1940-1941), Eva M. Lyons (1941-1945), Dorothy McMillan (1943-1945), Florence Clucas (1945-1947), Margarette B. McNabb (1945-1946), Frances E. Havard (1945), Mary Rankin (1946), Ila T. Cockriell (1947-1949, 1950-1955), Jessie H. Neufeld (1947-1948), Sigrun B. Sigurdsson (1948-1949), Sarah B. Steel (1949-1952), R. L. Duane Duff (1949-1950), Mabel E. Sabad (1952-1953, 1957-1965), Enid I. Cobbledick Brogden (1953-1956), Marilyn P. Gusdal (1955-1957), Tena Moffat (1956), Elizabeth Grierson (1957-1968), Harry F. Tiessen (1964-1965), Leanore E. B. Knight (1965-1967), Alice I. McKnight (1965-1967), Patricia B. Porter (1967-1969), Marlene L. McKelvey (1967-1968), Shirley M. Langan (1968-1974), Jill Gwynne (1968-1969, 1971-1972), Jessie H. Duerksen (1968-1970, 1971-1972), William S. Kirbyson (1969-1970), Dale W. Armstrong (1969-1970), Owen J. Wallis (1970-1971), Joseph A. Mayers (1970-1972), Trudy Grey (1971-1972), and Robert F. Renshaw (1972-1974).

Photos & Coordinates

Holmfield School (no date) by W. J. Parr Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 111. Holmfield School (no date) Source: Audrey & Duncan Waddell Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.13445, W99.48651 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Bank of Toronto Vault (Holmfield, RM of Killarney-Turtle Mountain)

Personal Memoirs: Memories of Teaching at Holmfield School (1949-1950) by Duane Duff

Sources:

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

“Holmfield, Man”, Western Canada Fire Underwriters’ Association map, 1919, Archives of Manitoba.

“Holmfield school to close,” Brandon Sun, 20 June 1974, page 3.

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.

By the Old Mill Stream: A History of the Village of Holmfield & District by Holmfield History Book Committee, 1982.

We thank Nathan Kramer, Duane Duff, and Audrey & Duncan Waddell for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 5 September 2021

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