Historic Sites of Manitoba: Minnetonka School No. 659 (RM of Portage la Prairie)

A monument in the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie commemorates Minnetonka School, which was established in the northwest quarter of 14-14-5 west of the Principal Meridian in June 1891. It is alleged that the school name came from an Aboriginal word meaning “many waters.” In 1962, the school trustees bought the building from the former Nora School and moved it across Lake Manitoba. The original school building was sold and moved a quarter mile away for use as a private residence. The school district was dissolved in April 1967 and the school building continued to be used as a community hall for a period of time. It is now gone from the site.

The teachers who worked at Minnetonka School through the years included H. G. Elliott, Lizzie Cooper, Marion McKay, Mabel Gray, B. Lang, Isabel Stewart, Nellie R. Farmer, Grace Findlay, Clementine Schofield, Christina McCorrister, J. Dudley McLeod, Margaret L. Fletcher, Edith F. Bowler, Bessie Harcus, M. J. Inkster, Suna M. McPherson, Isabelle Sutherland, Helen H. Harper, Anna Eaton, Ruth Swanson, P. P. Shrier, Jean T. Hayes, T. Sigurdson, Laura Whitman, Olive Bowes, Annie C. Campbell, E. Bernice Whitman, Marilla R. Whitman, Clara Langreth, Florence Fahey, R. Ruth Cox, Louise Toits, M. Windsor, Clarence D. Voigt, Isabelle McKay, Ellenor Nichol, Hester Armstrong, Kathleen Denton, Una McDonald, Marie Preteau, Jean Halliday, Alice Spraggs, Mary Ingram, Bernice Poff, Stella Hiebert, Barbara Peterson, Elmer Beddome, Zetta Kuzyk, Elizabeth Goods, John Wherrett, Bohdan Balla, Elizabeth Bees, Kenneth Smith , Joyce Atkinson, Jean Scott, Genevieve E. Brown, William Badiuk, and Terence Fairhall.

Minnetonka School (no date) by A. B. Fallis Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 104. Minnetonka School commemorative monument (November 2010) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.19637, W98.05529 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Nora School No. 1551 (RM of Westbourne)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Minnetonka School (200 Minnetonka Street, Winnipeg)

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.

Rural Schools of Portage la Prairie School Division #24 by Muriel Wright, 1996.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 10 February 2021

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