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The Silberfeld School District first was established in January 1888; however, the district never operated a school and, by 1905, both the district name and No. 523 designation were removed from the Board of Education’s registers.
In June 1911, it re-formed by the Council of the Rural Municipality of Rhineland and the Silberfeld School District No. 1590 was created. Even then, it remained without either school and teacher until as early as autumn 1919 when temporary quarters were established. In 1922, a $5,000 debenture was issued to both acquire land and build a new one-room schoolhouse in the village of Silberfeld (SW22-1-1W). In 1968, the district became part of the Gretna Consolidated School District and later the Rhineland School Division. The school was moved to Gretna to be used as extra classroom space. The yard and teacherage were bought by the last teacher to be used for a livestock-growing operation.
Among the teachers of Silberfeld School were William S. Buhr (Fall 1919 - Spring 1923 & Spring 1924 - Spring 1927), Peter S. Buhr (Fall 1923), David Sigfried Schellelberg (Fall 1927 - Spring 1928), Cornelius Calvin Neufeld (Fall 1928 - Spring 1929), Peter Jacob Unrau (Fall 1929 - Spring 1930), Jacob Janzen (?-?) and Alfred George Enns (1965-1966, grades 1-8).
Silberfeld School (no date) by G. G. Neufeld
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 145.
Silberfeld School (no date)
Source: Benno and Mary Loewen (Altona and District Heritage Research Centre)
The renovated Silberfeld School building (no date)
Source: Benno and Mary Loewen (Altona and District Heritage Research Centre)
Aerial view of the Silberfeld School site, with the associated teacherage, garden, and barn (no date)
Source: Benno and Mary Loewen (Altona and District Heritage Research Centre)Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.04526, W97.50504
denoted by symbol on the map above
Board of Education registers (A 0050), GR7643, Archives of Manitoba.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
Corporate Security registered documents (ATG 0089), #8 School District of Silberfeld, GR12576, Archives of Manitoba.
School division and school district formation files (E 0027), Silberfeld School District No. 1590, GR1688, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Silberfeld School District No. 1590, GR1630, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Silberfeld School District No. 1590 - Daily Registers, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.
Altona East topographic map, 62H/4 East, Edition 1, Series A743 [UFS Reference Collection].
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.
The Rural Municipality of Rhineland, 1884-1984 by Gerhard J. Ens, 1984. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.R45 Ens]
Silberfeld 1878-2008, One Hundred and Thirty Years of Change by Benno and Mary Loewen, Rosenort: Country Graphics and Printing Ltd., circa 2009.
We thank Benno Loewen, Mary Loewen, and Marie Dueck for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Al Schmidt (Altona and District Heritage Research Centre), Gordon Goldsborough, and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 22 January 2024
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