Historic Sites of Manitoba: Lorndale School No. 228 (RM of Minto-Odanah)

This is the original site of Lorndale School, established in 1884 on SW2-14-17W, in what is now the Rural Municipality of Minto-Odanah. The one-room log building was destroyed by a fire and replaced by a frame structure in 1900. The new school had a full-sized basement of field stone and a bell tower, with a bell that could be heard for several miles. The building served the community as a school, church, and community centre for over 100 years. The school closed in June 1966 and students were then transported to Minnedosa. As of the early 1990s, the wood frame building was still present at the site. It is gone now. A monument, erected in 1990, was dedicated to pioneers of the Lorndale district.

Among the teachers of Lorndale School were I. L. Noble (1910), N. R. Betts (1910), A. Winnifred Peskett (1911), Willa M. Dorsey (1912), Margaret L. McKay (1913), Lottie Pearl Shuttleworth (1913-1915), Amy E. Sirett (1916-1917), Margaret K. Mallory (1918), Bessie Comrie (1919), Elizabeth Beaumont (1919-1920), Ena Bowles (1920), Florance Henderson (1921), Frances Chisholm (1922), Irene Beddome (1923-1925), Margaret Paterson (1925-1926), Gladys I. White (1926-1927), Florence Muriel Evitt (1927-1929), Lyla Jennie Barkley (1929-1930), Lyla Jennie Barkley Murdoch (1929-1931, 1951-1954), Marjorie Emma Pollock (1931-1934), Agnes Merle Lund (1934-1935), Marjorie Jean Stewart Walter (1935-1937, 1943), Mary Selina Haslen (1937-1938), Myfanwy Alice Jones (1938-1941), Marion Hannah Simpson (1941-1942), Edna Vivian Bennett (1942-1943), Lillian Beddome (1943-1946), Thelma Pearl Manns (1946), Edith Matilda Gill (1947), Bernice Gladys Hamilton (1947-1948), Evelyn May Marlow (1948-1949), Isobel Florence Chambers (1949-1950), Gordon Thomas Gibbons (1950-1951), Lillian Mary Adam (1954-1959), Janet Susan Malcolm (1959-1961), Sylvia Dorothy Gordon (1961-1962), Elizabeth Ellen “Beth” Nugent (1963-1965), and Cybel Couch Esplin (1965-1966).

Lorndale School (no date) by W. C. Hartley Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 79. The former Lorndale School building (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 938. Lorndale School commemorative monument (August 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.15219, W99.70539 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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.

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

The Beautiful Plains Story 1983-2008: The Municipalities of Langford, Lansdowne, Rosedale, Town of Neepawa by Neepawa and Area History Committee, 2008.

Manitoba School Records Collection, Lorndale School No. 228 Daily Registers, GR2063, Archives of Manitoba.

We thank Malcolm Bell for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.

Page revised: 6 February 2021

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