Historic Sites of Manitoba: Manitou School No. 314 (Souris Avenue, Manitou, Municipality of Pembina)

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

The Manitou School District was organized formally in February 1884 and a schoolhouse operated in the community of Manitou, in what is now the Municipality of Pembina. Its first teacher was Leonard Wilson. The new high school was built at the site in 1910 and a replacement elementary school in 1913. The original school was renovated into a private residence.

The Manitou Consolidated School District was established in July 1912, and operated until May 1971 when it became part of Pembina Valley School Division. It consolidated several smaller rural schools, including New Haven School No. 78, Mount Carmel School No. 238, Mowbray School No. 245, Riverdale School No. 323, Pembina Crossing School No. 324, Middleton School No. 404, Kaleida School No. 433, Lore School No. 466, Hazel School No. 517, Stanley School No. 535, Overdale School No. 582, McFadden School No. 774, Midland School No. 845, Willow Bluff School No. 1334, Boundary School No. 1339, and New Haven School No. 2110. As of the early 1990s, the school building remained at the site. Now it has been replaced by a monument that incorporates shards from the 1913 school facade and its bell.

Principals

Period	Principal
?-?	Alfred Jackson (1858-1935)
?-1891	?
1891-1892	T. W. Shine
1893-1913	Edgar Burgess (1867-1954)
1913-1914	William Y. McLeish
1914-1915	Th. Jonasson
1915-1916	E. D. Richardson
1916-1918	George James Elliott (1869-1948)
1918-1925	Harold Ludlow Albright (1888-1955)
1925-1929	John Cunningham Anderson (1862-1929)
1929-1937	Wilhelm “Will” Kristjanson (1896-1979)
1937-1938	William Stanley “Bill” Dunlop (1912-1991)
1938-1942	William Alfred Lorne McFarland (1908-1990)
1942-1944	John Arthur Lionel Holmes (1913-1968)
1944-1946	Abiah Davies Morgan (1899-1967)
1946-1954	Charles Douglas Bollman (1917-1986)
1954-1956	J. L. Bridge
1956-1957	Orville Heachuk
1957-1959	Johann Edvald Sigurjonsson (1900-1972)
1959-1965	Kenneth Harold Charlesworth (1926-2004)
1965-1967	Oliver Glen Olmstead (?-1997)
1967-1971	D. F. MacIsaac

Teachers (partial list)

Among the early teachers of Manitou School were Daniel Willis McKerchar (1888-1890), Marshall Hall-Jones (?-?), Charles Carnaby Parker (1897), William Wallace Wright (1925-1927), Elizabeth Joan Twilley (1950-1951, daughter of Frederick Arthur Twilley), and Doris Penstock (1957-?).

School Year	Teachers
1963-1964	High School: Joseph Kozak, D. McIsaac, Mrs. D. McIsaac, Leo McGinn, Anatole Meush, Tim Ray

Photos & Coordinates

Postcard view of Manitou School (no date) Source: Archibald Museum Postcard view of Manitou School (circa 1914) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2013-0081 Postcard view of Manitou School (circa 1914) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2015-0083 Postcard view of Manitou School (no date) Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 22. Postcard view of Manitou Elementary and High Schools (circa 1965) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2012-0068. The former Manitou School (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1019. The former Manitou School (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1021. Aerial view of the former Manitou School (1987) Source: Manitoba Pool Elevators Collection, Calendar Photos, S. J. McKee Archives Manitou School commemorative monument (2010) Source: Ed Grassick Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.23800, W98.53765 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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

“Western news notes [Manitou High School],” Manitoba Free Press, 27 October 1910, page 3.

“Early life in Manitou recalled as “real, earnest” by pioneer,” Winnipeg Free Press, 8 November 1947, page 15.

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

“Pembina Valley SD Vote Sept. 27,” Winnipeg Free Press, 12 December 1963, page 5.

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.

We thank Pat Miles for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough, Nathan Kramer, and Ed Grassick.

Page revised: 4 September 2024

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