Historic Sites of Manitoba: Newdale School No. 431 (Newdale, Municipality of Harrison Park)

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

With the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in this area of Manitoba, in 1885, the community of Newdale moved from its former location (which later became known as Oldale) north to the railway line, in the Rural Municipality of Harrison. A school was established at this site and named Harrison School No. 431 because the school at Oldale, called Newdale School No. 265, remained in operation. This caused confusion so, in July 1917, Newdale School was renamed Oldale School, and Harrison School became Newdale Consolidated School, with the addition of several surrounding rural schools that closed around this time: Rosemount School No. 319, Pattison School No. 1376, and Lone Tree School No. 1597.

The two-storey, brick structure for Newdale Consolidated School building dates from 1911, when it was built on a design by Brandon architect W. A. Elliott. It operated until 1969 but all that remains at its site today is a cairn, dedicated in 1985, and its name plaque.

Principals

Period	Principal
1912-1914	Edward Stockley
1914-1916	John H. Snyder (c1874-?)
1916-1919	John Houston (1848-1938)
1919-1920	H. G. Lesson
1920-1921	Lewis Emmett Lynd (1876-1961)
1921-1922	John William Morris
1922-1925	Cecil James Hutchings (1897-1983)
1925-1928	F. H. Anderson
1928-1930	Albert Wallace Craigie (1891-1964)
1930-1939	Elmenia Jean Mollard (1901-1991)
1939-1941	Frederick Adam Hodgkinson (1912-2004)
1941-1942	Margaret Hawley Speers (1908-2008)
1942-1943	Joseph A. McCracken (1911-1991)
1943-1945	Ruth Annie Fairlie Henderson (1904-1992)
1945-1947	Jacob Truthwaite Norquay (1884-1976)
1947-1948	Verna A. Brown
1948-1949	Ruth E. Humeston
1949-1952	Albert Lionel “Ab” Richardson (1910-1982)
1952-1954	Guy William John Costley (1924-1988)
1954-1959	Michael John Makowski (1924-2002)

Teachers

Among the other teachers of Newdale School were William John Bates (1907-1908), J. W. Beckett, Agnes Ellen Martin (1910s), and Dorothy Mae Strath (1940s)

Photos & Coordinates

Newdale School (no date) by W. C. Hartley Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 50. Newdale School grade 8 room (no date) by W. C. Hartley Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 50. Newdale School commemorative monument (July 2011) Source: Allan Drysdale Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.35389, W100.20110 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.

Obituary [Agnes Ellen Sisler], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 August 1981, page 71.

Geographic Names of Manitoba, Manitoba Conservation, 2000.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough, Allan Drysdale, and Nathan Kramer.

Page revised: 16 July 2020

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