Historic Sites of Manitoba: Lac du Bonnet School No. 1235 (Lac du Bonnet)

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

The Lac du Bonnet School District was established formally in May 1903 and, the following year, a one-room log schoolhouse built at NE7-15-11E in Lac du Bonnet. A June 1915 addition made it into a three-classroom school. As student enrollment grew, two teachers were employed by the district by 1913 and three teachers by 1921. A larger school building, designed by Gilbert Parfitt, was built in 1931 after which the old school building was sold and moved off the site. The second school was destroyed by fire on 24 February 1945 and a replacement, designed by the Winnipeg architectural firm of Moody and Moore, was opened in January 1947.

In 1961, a eight-classroom collegiate was constructed and opened officially on 24 November 1961. The district was dissolved in 1962, becoming the Lac du Bonnet Consolidated School District No. 2394.

A stone monument at the site of the first Lac du Bonnet School was erected in 2016 by the Lac du Bonnet Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee. Some records relating to school operations through the years are held by the Lac du Bonnet Historical Society.

Principals

Period	Principal
1921-1922	Mrs. G. Hamilton
1922-1923	?
1923-1924	Mrs. S. Burridge
1924-1925	Kristjan Bergthor “Kris” Sigurdsson (1899-1990)
1925-1926	?
1926-1927	John Houston
1927-1930	P. A. Frossais
1930-1931	Dorothy Clark
1931-1933	John Lorne McAllister (1907-1998)
1933-1937	Lawrence S. Smith
1937-1939	Henry Benjamin Bees (c1886-1968)
1939-1940	Frank Edward White (1915-1994)
1940-1942	George William Chidley (c1908-1972)
1942-1944	A. K. Paterson
1944-1947	Edward Alexander Mroz (1908-2001)
1947-1949	Marcel A. Bonneau
1949-1951	J. G. Patterson
1951-1952	William Murrell
1952-1958	Vivian Clarkson “Clark” Hardy (1897-1982)
1958-1959	William Gordon Rivers
1959-1962	H. K. Long
1962-1966	Robert F. Dyne
1966-1973	M. Okolita

Teachers

Among the other teachers of Lac du Bonnet School were Sarah McDougall (1904-1905), Agnes Curran (1905), J. H. Gallant (1905), Eva McRae (1908), Miss M. Grange (1909), F. Carriere (1909), Bertha Dymond (1909-1912), Mr. J. McGuiness (1912), Miss L. E. Swain (1916), Miss R. McKenzie (1921), Miss L. Pearlman (1921), Miss Silver (1923), Miss J. Simmie (1923), Miss A. F. Lachmance (1924-1926), Miss M. Levant (1924), Nellie Abrain (1926), Miss Feely (1929), Janet S. Reid (1930-1935), Miss F. Molloy (1930-1936), Margaret Scarfe (1930), Miss J. H. Fletcher (1936), D. L. Cameron (1938), J. Nyznyk (1940-1941), Aileen Small (1940-1942), Margaret Daley (1940-1941), J. Reid (1940-1941), Florence Coutts (1941), Mrs. H. Bees (1941), Jessie McConnal (1941-1942), Mrs. J. C. Bietting (1941-1942), W. M. Loader (1941-1942), A. Solar (1942-1944), D. G. Irwin (1942-1944), Mrs. A. K. Bietting (1942-1944), Catherine Slater (1942-1944), Mrs. C. M. Thorton (1943), Mrs. D. G. Kaatz (1943), Mrs. J. M. Kruyk (1943), Mary Hrynchuk [Hrenchuk] (1943), Annie Davidowski (1943), C. M. Whitworth (1944-1945), and Ignatius Joseph Zaborniak (?-?).

Photos & Coordinates

The first Lac du Bonnet School, built in 1903 and expanded in 1915 (circa 1930) by J. E. S. Dunlop Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 82. The second Lac du Bonnet School, built in 1931 and destroyed by fire in 1945 (no date) by J. E. S. Dunlop Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 82. The third Lac du Bonnet School, built between 1946 and 1947 and known as Park Avenue School (1949) Source: Lac du Bonnet Historical Society Lac du Bonnet School commemorative monument (August 2017) Source: George Penner Site Location (lat/long): N50.25543, W96.05887 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Manitoba Business: Moody and Moore / MMP Architects

Sources:

Lac du Bonnet School #1235 Ledgers (W. D. Halliday, Secretary-Treasurer), Lac du Bonnet Historical Society.

“Tender for school [Lac du Bonnet School],” Winnipeg Free Press, 25 March 1946, page 5.

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.

Obituary [Catherine Maria Thexton], Winnipeg Free Press, 5 March 2019.

We thank George Penner and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough, Terry Tottle, and Marlene Tottle.

Page revised: 13 July 2023

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