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Known originally as the Acheson School District when it was established in May 1893, named for a family who homestead in this area, a one-room, 22-foot by 28-foot schoolhouse was built at a cost of $590 in the village of Rosenfeld (NW9-3-1W) in what is now the Municipality of Rhineland. The first teacher of Acheson School was Peter Dyck. Discussions began in 1902 about replacing it with a two-storey, two-classroom building. Nothing happened until around 1912 when the new school with a bell tower opened. It was renamed Rosenfeld School in 1921, hosting classes in grades 1 to 9. By 1933, classes up to grade 12 were available although the higher grades were held on the second floor of a nearby hatchery and an annual tuition fee of $10 had to be paid by students.
The two-storey school with the bell tower, constructed in 1912, was torn down after the construction of a third school building in 1937. Its bell, weighing about 600 pounds, was sold for $18 to the congregation of the Lutheran church at Greenwald.
The 1937 building was named Coronation Rosenfeld Public School, for the coronation of King George VI that year. The school had a total of five classrooms: two on either side of a hallway on the main floor with stairs leading up to a staff room (an area directly above the inside stair entrance to the school) plus one classroon in the southwest corner of the basement. Both washrooms were along the south side of the basement with the auditorium/gymnasium along the north side of the basement which included a stage area at the west end. A custodian's room (containing supplies such as sweeping compound, toilet paper, and paper towels) was underneath the stairway going down to the basement with a furnace room directly across from it, approximately in the middle of the basement and on the west side of the basement hallway), which also served as a science laboratory.
In 1966, when Rhineland School Division built W. C. Miller Collegiate at Altona, the Division moved high school students from Rosenfeld to it. In 1971, the Rosenfeld School District became part of the School Division but the facility continued to be used for grades 1 to 8 until 1977, when grades 7 and 8 were moved to Altona to a Parkside Junior High School.
The present Rosenfeld Elementary School building was designed by architect Rudolf Paul “Rudy” Friesen and built by Winkler Building Supplies between 1981 and 1982, adjacent to the grounds of the previous building, which was removed.
Period
Principal
1922-1923
Julius George Toews (1893-1981)
1923-1933
?
1933-1935
John G. Feller
1935-1938
Gerhard J. Siemens
1938-1948
Carl Leo Pokrant (1908-1992)
1948-1950
H. M. Friesen
1950-1953
John J. Bergen
1953-1954
?
1954-1956
Edmond Dyck
1956-1959
Gustav “Gus” Pokrant (1907-1981)
1959-1962
A. G. Toews
1962-1964
Edgar J. Enns
1964-1965
Rudolph Thiessen
1965-1968
Herman Kuhl
1968-1969
Menno Hildebrand
1969-1971
Jake Martens
1971-1972
Keith Wiebe
1972-1976
Bruno Mekelburg
1976-1984
Jacob Hildebrand
1984-1992
William Arthur Wiebe
1992-1997
Edwin Klassen
1997-2007
William Arthur Wiebe
2007-2009
Lane Curry
2009-2016
Jason Pilkington
2016-2017
Kathy Friesen Schroeder
2017-present
Barbara Rempel Unger
Teacher
Grade(s)
Year(s)
Donald Bergen
5-6
1969-1970, 1971-1972
John J. Bergen
9-11
1950-1954
Helen Braun
3-5
1960-1962
Eva Derksen
1-4
1946-1947
Ken Doell
5-6
1963-1964
Anne Driedger
3-5
1950-1954
George Driedger
9
1959-1960
Dorothy Dyck
6-8
1954-1956
Edmond Dyck
9-11
1954-1956
Frances Dyck
1-3
1954-1957
Anne V. Elias
1-4
1923-1927, 1928-1936
A. J. Enns
1-3
1921-1922
Anne H. Enns
1-2
1950-1954
Edgar J. Enns
9-10
1960-1964
Sarah D. Enns
1-3
1923-1924
Helen Epp
5-6
1965-1967
Miss A. Fehr
2-4
1969-1971
John G. Feller
5-12
1929-1935
Joan Fisher
1-2
1963-1964
H. M. Friesen
9-11
1948-1950
Esther Froese
1-2
1966-1968
M. Froese
6-8
1954-1955
Lorna Giesbrecht
1-2
1960-1961
Susan Giesbrecht
5-6
1972-1973
Lorna Harder
4-6
1957-1958
Miss R. J. Heimann
6-8
1954-1955
Esther Heinrichs
5-6
1971-1973
A. Hildebrand
6-7
1970-1971
Clara Hildebrand
1-2
1972-1973
Ken Hildebrand
3-5
1970-1973
Menno Hildebrand
7
1968-1969
Katie Hildebrandt
3-4
1963-1964
Sarah Janzen
1-3
1957-1960
Frieda Krahn
1-4
1948-1950
Herman Kuhl
6-9
1959-1964, 1965-1969
Luella Lenzman
1-2
1961-1963
Gerta Loewen
4-5
1954-1957
Mildred Loewen
1-4
1944-1946
Eva Martel
1-4, 7-8
1947-1948, 1963-1964
Jake Martens
5-6, 8
1966-1971
Bruno Mekelburg
7-8
1972-1973
Anne Penner
7-8
1963-1964
Dorothy Penner
3-4
1958-1959
Anne W. Peters
1-4
1927-1928
Ruth L. Peters
3-4
1967-1969
Carl Leo Pokrant (1908-1992)
9-11
1933-1934, 1938-1948
Gustav “Gus” Pokrant (1907-1981)
5-8,11
1933-1947, 1956-1959
Louis Pokrant
5-8
1947-1954
Tina Redekop
3-4
1949-1950
Joe Reimer
7-8
1956-1958
M. A. Rempel
3-5
1961-1962
Elmer Sawatsky
7
1967-1968
Delores Schellenberg
1-2
1968-1970
Marlene Schellenberg
4-5
1964-1966
Susan Schroeder
6-8
1959-1960
Gerhard J. Siemens
9-11
1935-1938
Ruth Siemens
1-3
1964-1966
Erica Sommer
K-1
1970-1971
J. E. Suderman
4-8
1923-1929
Rudolph Thiessen
6-8
1964-1965
A. G. Toews
9-11
1956-1960, 1961-1962
Helen Toews
3-5
1959-1960
J. G. Toews
3-9
1921-1923
June Vanderburgh
3-5
1962-1963
Tina V. Warkentin
1-4
1936-1939
Agnes Wiebe
1-3
1922-1923
Anne Wiebe
1-4
1941-1944
Keith Wiebe
7-8
1971-1972
Anne Zacharias
1-2
1971-1972
The second Rosenfeld School, built around 1911 (no date) by G. G. Neufeld
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 120.
The third Rosenfeld School, built in 1937 (no date) by G. G. Neufeld
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 120.
The third Rosenfeld School, built in 1937 (no date)
Source: Arthur Wiebe
The third Rosenfeld School, built in 1937 (no date)
Source: Arnold Mekelburg
Rosenfeld School (1981)
Source: Arthur Wiebe (Altona and District Heritage Research Centre)
Rosenfeld School (November 2021)
Source: Rose Kuzina
Rosenfeld School (February 2024)
Source: Art Wiebe
Rosenfeld School (February 2024)
Source: Art Wiebe
Rosenfeld School commemorative plaque (February 2024)
Source: Art WiebeSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.20071, W97.54842
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Manitoba Communities: Rosenfeld
Altona East topographic map, 62H/4 East, Edition 1 ASE, Series A743 [UFS Reference Collection].
Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.
[Acheson School], The Morris [Manitoba] Journal, 22 November 1967, page 16.
“First Rosenfeld village” by Elizabeth Bergen, Red River Valley Echo, 28 June 1972.
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.
We thank Jacob Hildebrand, Rose Kuzina, Arnold Mekelburg, and Barbara Rempel Unger for providing information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough, Al Schmidt (Altona and District Heritage Research Centre), and Art Wiebe.
Page revised: 14 April 2024
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