Historic Sites of Manitoba: Ridgewood School No. 274 / Ridgewood North School (RM of Ste. Anne)

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

The Ridgewood School District was established in 1882 and a school building was erected, at a cost of $700, on the southwest quarter of 19-7-7 east of the Principal Meridian, in the Rural Municipality of Ste. Anne. It opened for classes in June 1883 with Miss Elizabeth Nesbitt as teacher.

In 1920, local ratepayers issued debentures to cover a loan of $5,000 for the construction of a new school building at a site a half mile east of the former one. In the fall of 1941, with enrollment growing, a second classroom was opened in its basement. Eight years later, with still greater numbers of students, the decision was made to build a second school, to be called Ridgewood South, at NE6-7-7E. The older school became known as Ridgewood North, and a second classroom in its basement was opened in 1955.

The Ridgewood South School was destroyed by fire on 30 January 1957 and classes were held in the Clearsprings United Church building until a replacement could be erected later that year. Two years later, the overcrowded Ridgewood North School was replaced by a new structure, erected by the Steinbach Lumber Yards at a cost of just under $18,000.

Administration of the two schools was taken over by the Hanover Unitary School Division in December 1967 and they were closed, with students from Ridgewood North bused to Blumenhof School and those from Ridgewood South going to Steinbach School. The Ridgewood South building was moved to Blumenhof to accommodate the additional students and its site was sold. The Ridgewood North building and site was sold to an Evangelical Mennonite Church.

Principals (Ridgewood School / Ridgewood North School)

Period	Principal
1941-1945	Edith May Kelly (1916-1998)
1945-1947	Mary W. Klassen
1947-1948	Anne Klassen
1948-1949	Elizabeth Giesbrecht
1949-1950	Clifford Milton Reimer
1950-1955	no Principal
1955-1959	Bernhard Alfred Klassen
1959-1961	Cornelius Goertzen
1961-1964	Melvin Penner
1964-1967	Benjamin “Ben” Hiebert
1967-1968	Helen Kornelson

Teachers (Ridgewood School / Ridgewood North School)

Period	Teachers
1941-1942	Lottie Giesbrecht (grades 1-4), Edith May Kelly (grades 5-9)
1942-1943	Edith May Kelly (grades 5-9), Annie Toews (grades 1-4)
1943-1944	Alice Bernice Keith (grades 1-4), Edith May Kelly (grades 5-9)
1944-1945	Edith May Kelly (grades 5-8), Mary W. Klassen (grades 1-4)
1945-1946	Mary W. Klassen (grades 5-9), Anne Stoesz (grades 1-4)
1946-1947	Mary W. Klassen (grades 5-9), Anne Stoesz (grades 1-4)
1947-1948	Annie Bergmann (grades 1-4), Elizabeth Giesbrecht (grades 5-8, 1948), Anne Klassen (grades 5-8)
1948-1949	Elizabeth Giesbrecht (grades 5-10), Anne Neufeld (grades 1-4)
1949-1950	Jacob Bergen (grades 1-4), Clifford Milton Reimer (grades 5-10)
1950-1951	Clifford Milton Reimer (grades 1-9)
1951-1952	Andrew Rieger Sobering (grades 1-9)
1952-1953	John William Gross (grades 1-8)
1953-1954	John William Gross (grades 1-8)
1954-1955	Bernhard Alfred Klassen (grades 1-9)
1955-1956	Bernhard Alfred Klassen (grades 5-9), Martha Warkentin (grades 1-4)
1956-1957	Bernhard Alfred Klassen (grades 5-9), Martha Warkentin (grades 1-4)
1957-1958	Bernhard Alfred Klassen (grades 5-9), Martha Warkentin (grades 1-4)
1958-1959	Bernhard Alfred Klassen (grades 5-9), Martha Warkentin (grades 1-4)
1959-1960	Cornelius Goertzen (grades 5-9), Martha Warkentin (grades 1-4)
1960-1961	Cornelius Goertzen (grades 5-8), Martha Warkentin (grades 1-4)
1961-1962	Melvin Penner (grades 5-8), Martha Warkentin (grades 1-4)
1962-1963	Melvin Penner (grades 5-8), Hulda Plett (grades 1-4)
1963-1964	Melvin Penner (grades 5-8), Hulda Plett (grades 1-4)
1964-1965	Benjamin “Ben” Hiebert (grades 5-8), Hulda Plett (grades 1-4)
1965-1966	Benjamin “Ben” Hiebert (grades 5-8), Alice Ann Plett (grades 1-4)
1966-1967	Benjamin “Ben” Hiebert (grades 6-8), Linda Hildebrand (grades 1-3), (grades 4-5, see Ridgewood School South)
1967-1968	Helen Kornelson (grades 6-8), Hilda Anne Unger (grades 1-3), (grades 4-5, see Ridgewood School South)

Teachers (Ridgewood South School)

Period	Teachers
1956-1957	A. McNeill (grades 1-8, 1957)
1957-1958	Frank H. Toews (grades 1-8)
1958-1959	Frank H. Toews (grades 1-8)
1959-1960	Frank H. Toews (grades 1-8)
1960-1961	Lloyd Penner (grades 1-8)
1961-1962	Lloyd Penner (grades 1-8)
1962-1963	Frank Toews (grades 1-8)
1963-1964	Frank Toews (grades 1-8)
1964-1965	Janyce Marilyn Loewen (grades 1-8)
1965-1966	Charlotte Wiebe Quasso (grades 1-8, 1965), Lena St. Vincent (grades 1-8, 1966)
1966-1967	Elsie Hildebrand (grades 4-5)
1967-1968	Elvira Laise Dueck (grades 4-5)

Among the other teachers of Ridgewood School Elizabeth Nesbitt (1883-?), Ivorny M. Clyhorn (1893), S. Ga? (1893), Louis J. Loader (1894), W. H. Elliott (1895-1896), Annie W. McFarlane (1897-1899), Alonzo V. White (1900), Ernest T. Leech (1900), Olive E. Steel (1900), Linnie R. Kennedy (1901), Edith Shantz (1902), George A. McLelland (1903), Mildred A. Middleton (1904), Robert Adrian Borland (1905-1906), Mildred Bain (1907), Florence Campbell (1908), Christine Forrester (1909), Gladys Smith (1910), Albert H. McCorman [McGorman?] (1911), Jeanette Hamilton (1911), Velva V. Morrow (1912), Helen B. Corbett (1913), Dora Jonasson (1914), Eva G. Graham (1915), Christy Anne Keating (1915-1916, 1917), Rachel I. Hill (1916), Mary C. Unger (1918-1919), E. C. Keating (1919-1921), Nellie M. Glover (1921-1922), Winnifred C. Jeeves (1922), Anne E. Gilchrist (1923-1924), Anna G. Steel (1924-1925), Annabel T. Sloan (1925-1926), Lena F. Reimer (1926-1927), Alexander McNeill (1927-1930), Nellie Irene Keating (1930-1935), Anita Olympia Heim (1935-1936), Benjamin Unruh (1936-1939), and Edith May Kelly (1939-1941).

Photos & Coordinates

Students and teacher beside the old Ridgewood School (circa 1933) Source: Education Department Report, 1933, Manitoba Legislative Library. The new Ridgewood School building, erected at a cost of $6,000 (circa 1920) Source: Education Department Report, 1920, Manitoba Legislative Library. The former Ridgewood School building (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1215. The former Ridgewood School building (March 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.57451, W96.61632 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Ridgewood Evangelical Mennonite Cemetery (RM of Ste. Anne) 

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.

Schools - Our Heritage: From 46 School Districts to Hanover Unitary School Division, 1878-1968 by John K. Schellenberg, Steinbach: The Board of the Hanover School Division No. 15, May 1985.

A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.

Manitoba School Records Collection, Ridgewood School No. 274 Registers of Attendance, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.

Manitoba School Records Collection, Ridgewood School No. 274 Daily Registers, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.

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

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.

Page revised: 16 June 2021

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