The Roaring River School District was organized formally in October 1902. A wood frame school building operated at SW17-36-26W in what is now the Municipality of Minitonas-Bowsman until it was replaced in 1951. The school served the educational needs of the area, and was also the site of various religious and recreational activities. In March 1912, the founding meeting of the Roaring River Suffrage Association, one of the first groups in the province to lobby on behalf of the vote for women, was held here by founder Gertrude Twilley Richardson. The district became part of the Swan River School Division and the school closed in June 1967. The former school building is no longer present at the site but a stone monument, unveiled in the fall of 1994, commemorates it.
Among the teachers of Roaring River School were Charles H. Spicer (1905), Bessie Watson (1905, fall 1915, Nov 1920 - Jun 1921), Maggie McGaw (Feb-Jun 1908), Lydia Froggart (Aug-Sep 1908), Sadie J. Osborne (Oct-Dec 1908), Miss E. M. Armistead (Feb-Aug 1911), Kathleen McKay (Sep 1911), Phyllis Heyes (Oct 1911), Grace E. Shaw (Nov 1911 - fall 1913), Miss E. Leah Zinger (spring 1914), Greta Victoria Nelson (spring 1916), E. Pearl Walker (1917-1918), ? (1918-1919), Alva M. Murphy (fall 1919), Bert L. Mills (Jan-Mar 1920), Margaret Fulton (Apr 1920), A. E. Anderson (May-Jun 1920), Ivy M. Holden (Aug-Oct 1920), Grace A. Ferguson (1923-1924), Gladys M. Henderson (1924-1925), Stella S. Fraser (1927-1928), Laura May Westaway (1930-1931), Muriel Stella Nixon (1932-1934), Phyllis McLeish (1934-1935), Linnie Young Koons (1941-1943, 1954-1955), Bruce M. Leary (1943), James Shaw (1944), Phyllis Marie Hiller (1944), Vera Ruth LeDrew (1948-1949), John Donald Cox (1949-1950), Keith Donald Boughton (1950-1951), James Donald Stewart Hall (1951-1952), Miss G. R. Nelson (1953-1954), Ella Mae Johner (1955-1956), William Kublick (1956-1959), Myrna Ann Gray (1959-1961), Donald Gary Hooper (1961-1963), Wilbert Klatt (1963-1964), Margaret Ann Curtis (1964-1965), Katherine Janet Hansen (1965-1966), and Shirley Leith Bell (1966-1967).
The first Roaring River School building (no date) by J. S. Peach
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 78.
Roaring River School commemorative monument (July 2012)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N52.08543, W101.15052
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
“Give us our due!” How Manitoba Women Won the Vote by Harry Gutkin and Mildred Gutkin
Manitoba History, Number 32, Autumn 1996Memorable Manitobans: Gertrude Matilda Twilley Richardson (1875-1946)
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.
Manitoba Heritage Council Commemorative Plaques and Manitoba Community Commemorative Plaques, Fiscal Year 1994-1995, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Citizenship, page 40.
Boots, Buggies & Buses: Swan Valley Schools in Quest of Education, Swan Valley School Division No. 35, circa 1998.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Roaring River School District No. 1215 Daily Registers, GR2053, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Roaring River School District No. 1215 Daily Registers, GR2058, 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: 15 April 2021
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