Historic Sites of Manitoba: Kemnay School No. 444 (Kemnay, RM of Whitehead)

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

The Kemnay School District was established in July 1885, with a one-room schoolhouse situated a mile east of Kemnay in the Rural Municipality of Whitehead. In 1897, a two-storey, two-classroom brick school was built in the village, with the first floor used for elementary grades and the second floor for high school classes. This building was replaced in 1949 by the present one-storey structure, which served students in grades 1 to 9, with senior students bused to Brandon. The district became part of the Brandon School Division in 1967 and, in June 1968, the school closed permanently. The school building continues to be used as a community centre.

Principals

Period	Principal
1912-1921	William Ambrose Evans (c1884-1954)
1921-1933	John J. Jackson
1933-1937	?
1937-1939	Jonathan Hughes Arnett (1879-1953)
1939-1941	Alexander McLaren Baxter (1907-1994)
1941-1942	Myrtle Christina Evans Witherspoon (1906-1998)
1942-1944	Mrs. Marie MacDonald

Teachers

The other teachers of Kemnay School were Asenath Way (1894), Ethel Alida Paisley (1894), Miss S. J. Evans (1895), John Anderson (1896), G. A. Colquhoun (1900), W. G. Bobland (1901), Miss J. E. Struthers (1904), L. M. Ford (1905), T. C. Gerrom (19060, Hinson Best (1908), Leonard Wilson (1909), Florence Elliott (1910), Alice Millar (1911), Louise Brown (1911), Miss McKay (1912), Miss Buckley (1912), Marjory Stewart (1912), Agnes Cruikshank (1913), John D. Sargent (1913), Coralie Milne (1914), Birdie Barnes (1915), Marjorie Rife (1916), Gladys Berry (1916), Alice Good (1917), Bertha Mattick (1918), Isabelle Allen (1919), Mrs. G. Jackson (1921), Georgina Aylsworth (1933), Jeff Wolfe (1933), John Dickison (1934), Betty Strange (1938), Allan Anderson (1938), Ann Willman (1940), Mrs. Iola Armstrong (1940), Elizabeth McFarlane (1941), E. J. Elliott (1941), Helen Brown (1942), Gertie Simpson (1944), Phoebe Belcher (1944), Marjorie Chestnut (1945), Agnes Thiessen (1947), Joseph Szczgol (1948), Alice Hayward (1949), Iza Waiser (1950), Elizabeth Hamilton (1951), Julia Johnston (1953), Mrs. Hrushowy (1954), Mrs. B. Fuhr (1954), Bernice MacLean (1955), Roxy Stebeleski (1959), Mrs. Helen Dyer (1962), Mrs. E. Elliott (1963), Diane Stuart (1964), and Elaine Berglund (1966).

Photos & Coordinates

Kemnay School, used from 1897 to 1949 (no date) Source: Whitehead Wanderings, 1883-1983 by Whitehead-Alexander Centennial Committee, 1983. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.W53 Whi] Kemnay School (1940) Source: Archives of Manitoba, George Harris Fonds, Acc. 1979-141, P7454, Album 22, Page 10. The former Kemnay School building (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1465. The former Kemnay School building, now a community centre (July 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.84296, W100.13005 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

“The city,” Brandon Daily Sun, 1 June 1917, page 2.

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

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.

Whitehead Wanderings, 1883-1983 by Whitehead-Alexander Centennial Committee, 1983. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.W53 Whi]

A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.

We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 8 August 2021

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