Historic Sites of Manitoba: Sight Hill School No. 563 (Municipality of North Norfolk)

The Sight Hill School District was established formally in December 1888, in what is now the Municipality of North Norfolk. The first one-room frame school building was erected in 1890, in the southeast quarter of 4-11-1 west of the Principal Meridian, on land donated by farmer James Leckie, who also named the school. Replaced in 1954 with another one-room frame structure, it served as a site for meetings, recreational activities, and community picnics. The school closed in June 1968 and the district was merged into Pine Creek School Division. A monument was dedicated at a ceremony on 30 June 1991.

The teachers who worked at Sight Hill School included: Mary E. Allen (1894), Nellie Collier (1895), M. L. Pickering (1896), A. E. Moore (1897), Alexander Irvine (1898), James Elston (1898-1901), May Collier (1905-1907), Arabella Maxwell (1906), Daisy B. Tingley (1908), Gertrude Campbell (1908-1909), John J. Murphy (1910), Matilda E. Armstrong (1901-1911), Bertha Collier (1911-1913), Irene O. Morris (1913-1914), Mildred Olga Boddy (1915-1917), Letitia C. Gair (1917), Edith Gair (1918), Mildred Merrick (1918-1919), Isabel McGregor (1919), Eleanor Nichols (1919-1921), Florence McKellop (1921-1923), Gertrude A. Crowe (1923), Annie F. McKillop (1924-1925), Mary C. Campbell (1925-1926), Mary I. Morris (1926-1928), Kathleen M. Robinson (1928-1930), Margaret E. McKinnon (1930-1931), Dorothy Elizabeth Hunter (1931-1934), Margaret F. Donald (1934-1936), Barbara Iris Campbell (1936-1940), Irene Elizabeth Brown (1940-1942), Claire Margaret Allison (1942-1943), Della Gwendolyn Billings (1943-1944), M. Myrtle Dennison (1944-1945), Ruth May Lewarne (1945-1946), Grace E. Pattinson (1946-1947), A. Sametz (1948), Florence L. Sims (1948-1949), Isobel Lepesko (1949-1950), Ruth Zertsee (1950), Ritz J. Zertner (1951), Inez E. Bray (1951-1952), Colleen A. Johnston (1952-1953), Susan I. Godfrey (1953-1954), Shirley M. Anderson (1954-1955), Barbara V. Lamb (1955-1958), Myrtle H. Byram (1958-1961), Margaret L. Leland (1961-1963), Sharon G. Wilks (1963-1964), E. Diane Todd (1964).

Sight Hill School commemorative monument (September 2010) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.88686, W98.90407 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

A Rear View Mirror: A History of the Austin and Surrounding Districts by Anne M. Collier, Altona: Friesen Printing, 1967.

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.

Through Fields and Dreams: A History of the Rural Municipality of North Norfolk and MacGregor by The History Book Committee of the North Norfolk-MacGregor Archives, 1998, page 1165.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 6 February 2021

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