Historic Sites of Manitoba: Morning Star School No. 1531 (RM of Coldwell)

The Morning Star School District was established in May 1910, the following year, a one-room schoolhouse was constructed at NE14-20-3W in the Rural Municipality of Coldwell. The original school building was destroyed by fire in 1965. Classes were held in a nearby vacant house until the vacant Cook School building was bought and moved to the site. It closed permanently the following year. The district was dissolved in 1967 and its area became part of the Lakeshore School Division. Some years later, after the former school building had been severely vandalized, it was moved to Lundar where it was used as a classroom temporarily until an addition was added to the Lundar School. The building was later used for storage.

Among the teachers who worked at Morning Star School through the years were Rannveig Thorsteinson (Mrs. B. Gudmundson), S. B. Stefansson, Alda Jones, A. Westman, V. Lauman, E. Stow, W. Kristjansson, L. Sìgurjonson, E. A. Johnson, Olaf Sigurdson (1921), Harold Arthur Whitfield (1922), W. P. Donaldson, Jean McNiven, Rae Scott, B. M. Sova, H. Sair, M. Gillespie, M. Geer, Mrs. C. Tait, A. Hordal, Edith Carlson, Ella Martin, K. Stefanson, S. Swanbergson, Mary Morris, Mary Bunting, Virginia Caruso, Jcssie Glover, Marion Smith, Kristjana Stefanson, Marion Simpson, Muriel Fortune, Loreen Cochran, John Roed, Bob Drain, Ninna Austfjord, lrene Irwin, Mundi Austfjord, Charles Obzarski, Evelyn Jacobsen, Kari Vigfusson, Pat Bonnell, Hazel Snowdon, Joyce Yetman, June Danielson, Jean Waraksa, Mary Nespor, Dave Bahrey, Andy Minarak, Mrs. Connors, Steve Naherniak, Karen (Thorkelson) Lindal, Donald Caldwell, and Ken Smìth.

Morning Star School (no date) by M. Hall-Jones Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 134. The former Morning Star School building, originally the Cook School (circa 1990) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 247. Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.72025, W97.76404 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.

Wagons to Wings: History of Lundar and Districts, 1872-1980 compiled by Lundar and District Historical Society, 1980.

School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.

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 Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 8 October 2020

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