The Pleasant Valley School District was formally established in August 1895 and a school building located at SE34-5-1W in the Rural Municipality of Morris. Around 1909, a new school site was founded at SW3-6-1W. After the school closed, the building was sold and moved to Sperling where it was used as a Masonic Lodge. The school district was dissolved in 1967 and its catchment area was added to Rosenort Consolidated School District No. 2455. In September 2015, a sign commemorating the school was erected at its later site.
Among the teachers of Pleasant Valley School were Herbert H. Springford (Spring 1896 - Fall 1898), Alexander Todd (Spring 1899 - Spring 1901), Beatrice Ainslie (Spring - Fall 1902), Margaret Craig (Spring 1903), Beatrice Ainslie (Fall 1903), Elmer Ivey (Spring - Fall 1904), E. Gillespie (January-April 1905), A. Myrtle Laurie (April 1905 - March 1906), John S. Huff (April-October 1906), Russell Keys (November 1906 - May 1907), A. Edna Pope (June 1907 - June 1908), Bertha Coupland (January-June 1909), George Dyck (August 1909 - June 1910), Anna Hollins Muckle (September-October 1910), Bertha Coupland (November 1910 - June 1911), Laura O’Neill (August 1911 - June 1912), Eliza Moore (October 1912 - June 1913), Edna M. M. Kemp (August-December 1913), Laura O’Neill (January-June 1914), Janet E. Carphin (August-October 1914), M. N. Carter (October-December 1914), Louise “Lou” Blight (January-December 1915), Anna Eaton (January 1916), Myrtle Dunsmore (February-June 1916), Ethel Hunter (August-December 1916), Cordelia A. “Cordie” Peden (April 1917 - December 1917), Gladys Watson (January-June 1918), Myrta C. M. Ross (September-November 1918), Closed due to Spanish Influenza (November 1918 - April 1919), Winnifred Stevenson (May-July 1919), Sadie E. Harvey (September-December 1919), Helen T. Warkentin (January-April 1920), W. Claude Hodkinson (May-June 1920), Jessie A. Young (September-December 1920), G. Victoria Thordarson (January-December 1921), Kath T. Toews (January-March 1922), ? (April 1922), E. A. Rice (May-June 1922), Margaret Toews (1922-1923), Blanche H. Molloy (September 1923), Helen S. Schellenberg (October 1923 - June 1925), Lorne Penman (1925-1926), Harry Topnick (1926-1927), Jacob P. Friesen (1927-1928), Martin James Hamm (1928-1929), George Gerard Siemens (1929-1934), Cornelius L. Toews (1934-1935), Frank Unrau Dyck (1935-1938), David Peters (1938-1940), Marian Smith (1940-1943, wife of Anthony Isaacs), Susie Nilsson (1943-1944), Linda Banman (1944-1945), Irene Penner (1945-1946), Anna Hendricks (1946-1948), Peter U. Dueck (1948-1950), Cornelius Boldt (1950-1952), Erdman Kroeker (1952-1957), Ulrich Janz (1957-1958), ? (1958-1962), Mr. G. P. Goossen (1962-1963), and Lorne Plett Kornelsen (1963-1967).
Pleasant Valley School (no date) by A. J. Manning
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 13.
The former Pleasant Valley School building at Sperling (October 2013)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Pleasant Valley School commemorative sign (September 2015)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Pleasant Valley School commemorative sign (November 2023)
Source: Rose KuzinaSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.44364, W97.51662
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Sperling Masonic Lodge (Sperling, RM of Morris)
Manitoba Organization: Morris-Macdonald School Division School District No. 19
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.
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
Furrows in the Valley: A History of the Municipality and its People compiled by the Morris History Book Committee, edited by Lenore Eidse, 1980.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Pleasant Valley District No. 862 Attendance Registers, GR0638, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Pleasant Valley District No. 862 Daily Registers, GR0638, Archives of Manitoba.
Aerial photograph A11638-95 [1948], Manitoba Air Photo Library.
We thank Mariette Allen for assistance in locating an aerial photograph of Pleasant Valley School, and Henry Esau, Margaret Friesen, and Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 12 November 2023
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