Historic Sites of Manitoba: Miami School No. 74 (Miami, RM of Thompson)

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

The Miami School District was organized formally in January 1879. Four years later, a log school building was constructed at NW32-4-6W, one mile south of the present-day Miami, in what would later become the Rural Municipality of Thompson. Called Blair School, it closed in 1889 and a disused Presbyterian Church building was used as a school until 1893.

With the arrival of a railway in the area, in 1893, the town site for Miami was laid out and a two-storey, two-classroom wood frame school building was erected there. Known as the “Red School,” it was expanded in 1903 with two more classrooms, although one of the new classrooms was not used until 1908.

In 1912, a two-storey, four-classroom bridge structure replaced the “Red School,” at a cost of $15,425. In August 1917, it became Miami Consolidated School No. 74, consolidating with Morton School No. 652 and Nobleton School No. 1119.

The present elementary school was constructed in 1954. It became part of the Midland School Division in 1961 and the Miami Collegiate for grades 9 to 12 was built.

Principals

Period	Principal
1898-1901	Thomas Edgar Argue (1869-1927)
1901-1903	F. W. Turnbull
1903-1904	Henry Gledhill “Harry” Heasman (1870-1955)
1904-1906	Melvin L. “Mel” Hooper (1881-1971)
1906-1907	W. H. King
1907-1909	Elbridge Doty Parker (1884-1981)
1909-1910	Winfred Elmore Marsh (1872-1932)
1910-1911	?
1911-1916	Angus McNevin (1862-1923)
1916-1918	Grace Frances Huntley (1891-1977)
1918-1919	Florence Smith
1919-1920	John William Morris (1891-1959)
1920-1925	Duncan Scott McIntyre (1899-1975)
1925-1926	Dorothy Ivy Mudge Jones (c1904-?)
1926-1933	James Alvin Leslie (?-1973)
1933-1934	John Clayton Stewart (1906-1990)
1934-1938	John Adrian Ashley (1902-1987)
1938-1940	M. R. Thompson
1940-1942	Ross Laverne Donald (1907-1992)
1942-1944	Alex Cummings
1944-1945	?
1945-1948	William Harold Copeland (?-?)
1948-1950	George Oswald Hinds (1906-1969)
1950-1956	John Lyzun (1913-1984)
1956-1959	Donald Melvin Muir (1924-1997)
1959-1961	Maurice Wesley “Moe” Cryderman (1909-1991)
1961-1963	Joseph Watson Kachor (1923-1985)
1963-1968	Grenville Warren Scott (1928-1988)
1968-1972	David Edwin “Dave” Simpkin (?-1987)
1972-?	Donald James Alexander (1932-2009)

Teachers

Among the teachers of Miami School were Dorothy Irene Madill Hudson, Marjorie Ann Dewar, Carolyne Alexandra McBean, and Agnes Brownlee “Lee” Brown (c1941).

Photos & Coordinates

The “Red School” (no date) Source: Miami & R. M. of Thompson Chronicles Postcard view of the “Red School” with its 1903 addition (no date) by W. J. Bates Source: Rob McInnes, MN0889 Postcard view of Miami School (no date) Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 31. Postcard view of Miami School (no date) Source: Rob McInnes, MN0253 Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.37246, W98.23932 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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.

Miami & R. M. of Thompson Chronicles by Thompson History Book Committee, c1998. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5649.M50Mia]

Obituary [Agnes Brownlee “Lee” Treilhard], Winnipeg Free Press, 29 May 2021.

We thank Nathan Kramer and Rob McInnes for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 29 May 2021

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