The Marsden School District was formally established in October 1903 but a school building was not erected until five years later, on a hill along the Firebreak Trail (at SW26-1-22W in what is now the Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester) that made it visible for miles around, with a small lake to the east that became known as Schoolhouse Lake. Named by local settler Samuel Marsden, the district was long and narrow, with the Turtle Mountain Forest Reserve on its east margin and Lake Metigoshe to the south. Eventually, students who lived too far from the school were accommodated when Marsden School #2 was built in 1938, and operated by the same school board. Marsden School #1 closed in June 1966 and its remaining students were bused to Deloraine Consolidated School No. 2448. The school building was destroyed by fire during the summer of 1979.
Teachers at Marsden School #1 through the years included the following: Mr. Edwards, H. Ferguson, Earl Scarlet, Alma MacDougal, Hazel Thomas, Marjorie Burnett, June Winham, Ethel Wilde, Marj Ross, Ann Hathaway, Mr. Lewis, Elsie Stalker, Mary Finlay, Mary Geldof, Elizabeth Lewarton, Bernice Lee, Eunice McKenzie, Irene Jones, Mr. Morris, Grace McNabb, Mrs. McNish, Maurice Boychuk, Selena Harlton Christianson, Susan Hildebrandt, Helen Klassen, Arnie Shareski, Ivy Northcot, Irene Cummings, Margaret Hourie, Harvey Kroeker, Bob McCaulley, Mary Sokoluk, Donelda Cooke, Wallace La Haye, Leila Roby, Ernest Shelvy, Mildred Bennett, Mrs. Christopherson, Mrs. Evelyn Keyes, Karen Christianson, Jobin McNeil, Mrs. Stewart, Marg Fehr, Dale Peters, and Edna Wintle.
Marsden School #1 (no date) by George Hunter
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 84.
Former site of Marsden School #1 (May 2020)
Source: Janice McClellandSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.06625, W100.33124
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Marsden School #2 No. 1247 (Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester)
Marsden School No. 1, Turtle Mountain - Souris Plains Heritage Association
Cummin’s Rural Directory Map for Manitoba published by the Cummins Map Company, 404 Chambers of Commerce, Winnipeg, 1923. [Copies held by Edward M. Ledohowski and Gordon Goldsborough]
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.
Deloraine Scans a Century: 1880-1980 by Deloraine History Book Committee, 1980, pages 142-143.
We thank Janice McClelland for providing information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 25 May 2020
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