Known as the Byersville School District when it was established in November 1901 in what is now the Municipality of Swan Valley West, commemorating the local Byers family. In the summer of 1904, a one-room schoolhouse was built at NE32-34-27W, said to be the “the driest spot which could be found.” Its name was soon changed to Pretty Valley School District. The district was dissolved in 1967 and its area became part of the Swan Valley School Division. The former school building was destroyed by fire on 13 March 2006.
Among the teachers of Pretty Valley School were Walter McCullough (1905), Miss M. Elliott (1905), Miss Ruth Mittan (1908), Florence Anderson (1910), Phyllis Heyes (?), Grace Barker (?), Chrissy Thomas (?), Nora Singleton (?), Mable Andrews (?), Annie Elizabeth Metcalfe (?), Thelma Netherton (?), Ivy Holden (?), Edna Chalmers (?), Edna Corbett (?), Mary Cowan (?), Edith McArthur (1928-1931), Jean M. Stewart (1931-1934), Lillian McArthur (1934-1940), Mildred Mayer (1936), Janet D. Smith (1940-1941), Euphemia Frazer (1941-1942), Dorothy Sargent (1942-1943), Mary Jean Pattison (1943-1944), Doris E. Gratton (1944-1945), Louise Cotton (1945-1946), Edith Craig (1946-1947), Maurice Rubenuik (1947), Charles Rogozinsky (1948), Helen Derzak (1948-1950), Lionel Clench (1950-1952), Laura Stringer (1952-1959), May Horwood (1959-1960), Margaret Greenley (1960-1963), and Vincent Skulmoskie (1963-1965).
Pretty Valley School (no date) by J. S. Peach
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 69.Site Coordinates (lat/long): N51.96814, W101.24749
denoted by symbol on the map above
Kenville, Ruby, Mt. Crest, Davidson, Harlington, Square Plains, Pretty Valley by Kenville Reunion Committee, July 1977.
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.
Boots, Buggies & Buses: Swan Valley Schools in Quest of Education, Swan Valley School Division No. 35, circa 1998.
“Remembering Pretty Valley School,” Swan Valley Star and Times, 4 April 2006, page 25.
We thank Ed Dubray for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 15 September 2023
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