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The Poplar Grove School District was established in February 1892 and, for some time, classes were held in the home of William Howden. Later that year, a school building was erected at SW14-14-21 on land donated by Howden. The school closed in June 1962, after which students from the area went to Cardale Consolidated School No. 1763 or Rivers Consolidated School No. 1484. The district was dissolved in December 1964 and its area was later added to the Rolling River School Division. The building was sold to a local farmer and moved for use as a garage. A monument at the former school site was erected by Russell Wiltsey, Ellwood Wiltsey, and Fred Clack, on land donated by Allan Wiltsey.
The Poplar Grove School yell was:
Zilica zee, zilica zee,
Poplar Grove scholars, yes are we.
Are we proud of it? Well, I guess.
Poplar Grove scholars, yes! yes! yes!
The teachers who worked at Poplar Grove School through the years included Martha J. Ireton (1892-1894), Thomas D. Brown, Robert Gill (1896-1897), Allison E. Adams, Caroline Emily Short (1899), Belle Riddell, Sarah Reid Haacke, J. Brethour, Rupert Welands, Lillian Hunter, John Wesley Peters (1905-1907, 1921-1925), Maude Howden, Grace McLean, Helen Winstone, Amy Champan, Enid Elliott (1913), Dorothy Winslow, D. E. Wilson, E. L. Aikinhead, Ada L. Bridge, A. McKinnon, Mina McGuffin, Mrs. Primmer, Jessie Elizabeth Dayton (1919), Margery Donegh, Vera L. Buchanan (1926-1927), Frances Girling, Marjory Graham (1927), Muriel G. Cunningham (1928), Connie M. Averill (1929), E. Muriel Dodge (1930), D. V. Smeeton, Hazel Short Patmore (1935-1936), R. N. Currie, Eleanor Wareham (1938-1939), Mrs. Bowles, E. E. Hennan, D. H. Primmer, H. G. Peterson, Joyce McFarland, Zetta Switzer, Evelyn Downey, Mary Adams, W. G. Armstrong, Ruth Greenaway, Arthur Peters, Ethel Fortune Wyatt (1947-1948), Shirley M. Seater, Pearl Louise Young, Lucy M. McConaghy, Hazel Ingram, Sylvia Sobkaw, Mildred C. Longstaff (1953-1955), Robert A. Walton (1955-1958), and Heather Mundell Moore (1958-1959).
Poplar Grove School (1920s) by W. C. Hartley
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 108.
Poplar Grove School commemorative monument (August 2014)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.18183, W100.25365
denoted by symbol on the map above
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.
Leaves of the Past: Poplar Grove S.D. No. 686, 1892-1964 by The Book Committee, circa 1980.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 20 February 2021
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