Settlers began arriving in this area of western Manitoba, in the Rural Municipality of Pipestone, around 1882. When the Canadian Northern Railway passed through the region in 1907, a townsite was developed on land owned by William Scarth. Within a year, it had a general store and post office that remained in business until 1978.
In June 1910, the Scarth School District No. 1541 was established formally and a one-room school building was erected at this site, where it operated until 1964. At that time, it was consolidated with Fort La Bosse School Division No. 41. The building was used as a community centre until it was burned on 4 October 2007. A commemorative monument was unveiled the next year. It also commemorates the Scarth Homemakers Club, the Scarth Premiers fastball team, and the Scarth Curling Club.
The teachers of Scarth School were Miss Lottie Gibson (1910-1911), Miss Cora Palmer, Miss Florence Hepburn, Miss Margaret Gall (1918-1919), Miss Gladys Clark (1919-1920), F. C. Saunderson (1920), Miss Jessie McKenzie (1920-1922), Mrs. Jessie Porteous (1922, Mr. Lyman G. Porteous 1922), Miss A. Heritage (1922-1923), Mrs. L. G. Porteous (1923-1924), Miss Anne Tod (1924), Miss Hazel Haskett (1924-1931), Miss Myrtle Walls (1931-1933), Miss Jean Graham (1933-1935), Miss Gertrude Nicholson (1935), Miss Irene Davidson (1935-1938), Miss Lila Hogg (1938-1939), Miss Alice Garlick (1939-1940), Miss Muriel McIntosh (1940), Lorne A. Finkbeiner (1940-1941), Miss Olga Long (1941-1943), Mrs. Muriel Outhwaite (1943-1944), Miss Muriel McIntosh (1944), Miss Laura Campbell (1944-1945), Miss Georgina McIntosh (1945-1946), Miss June McMillan (1946), Miss Jean Hayhurst (1947), Miss Winelda Gardener (1947-1948), Miss Betty Jean Kerr (1948-1949), Miss Marlyne Whyte (1949-1950), Sheldon Kelly (1950), Miss Evelyn Newton (1952-1953), Miss Barbara Heddison (1953), Miss Barbara Feguson (1954), Mrs. Doreen Perrin (1954-1955), Miss Margaret Frame (1955-1960), Miss Doreen Smith (1960-1961), Richard Dow (1961-1962), Mrs. Gertrude Webster (1962-1963), Miss Bessie Montgomery (1963-1964), and Mrs. Hughes (1964).
Scarth School (no date) by W. R. Beveridge
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 136.
The former Scarth School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1033.
Burning of the former Scarth School building by firefighters (4 October 2007)
Source: Ed Arndt
Scarth commemorative monument (October 2011)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.73013, W100.95088
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.
Trails Along the Pipestone by Pipestone History Project, c1981, pages 627-628. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.P56 Tra]
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
“A final lesson: Schoolhouse teaches firefighters,” Brandon Sun, 5 October 2007.
We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 8 February 2021
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