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Photos & Coordinates | Sources
The Smalley School District was formed on 26 April 1916 by settlers in an area northeast of the railway station at Amaranth, in the Rural Municipality of Alonsa. A one-room frame schoolhouse was erected on NE26-19-10W, funded via two debentures: $1,500 in December 1916 for purchase of the school site and construction of a schoolhouse, and a further $500 in June 1917 to complete the schoolhouse and outbuildings, both being approved by local ratepayers with unopposed decisions of 10:0 and 7:0, respectively.
In March 1938, the district was amalgamated into the Amaranth Consolidated School District No. 1534. Smalley School continued to operate as part of this expanded district. Student enrollment, which peaked at 40 following the First World War, had fallen to such a level by 1941 that the school was closed temporarily. It reopened with eight students in 1947. In 1959, a new teacherage was added to the school grounds. The last classes were held here in October 1962, at which time attendance was again below the minimum threshold and local students were thereafter bused to Amaranth School. In 1967, its catchment area became part of the Turtle River School Division.
Among the early teachers of Smalley School were Myrtle Wellwood (Fall 1916 - Spring 1918), Gertrude Hearn (Fall 1918 - Spring 1919), W. Evelyn (?), Margaret Mustard (Fall 1919 - Spring 1921), L. Sorritch (Fall 1921 - Spring 1922), Miss Dotten (Fall 1922 - Spring 1923), did not operate? (Fall 1923), Edith May Gillespie (Spring 1924 - Spring 1925), Myrtle Wellwood Johnston (Fall 1925 - Spring 1929), Ethel May Brazier (Fall 1929 - Spring 1930), Lillian Cole (September 1930, substitute), Ernestine Marguerite Ablett (September 1930 - Spring 1933), Dorothy A. Dunn (Fall 1933 - Spring 1934), Miss J. Kjartansen (Fall 1934 - Spring 1935), Mary Martin (Fall 1935 - Spring 1936), Doris Ione Florence Reid (Fall 1936 - Fall 1938), Emily Goodchild (Spring 1939), Leonard Abraham Floyde (Fall 1939), and Jemima Florence Webster (Spring 1940 - Spring 1941). After remaining closed (Fall 1941 - Spring 1947), the later teachers between 1947 and 1962 were Ellen Rones, Clara Lee, Myrtle Phillips, Jake Braun, Edwin Isaac, Avis Mallard, Ted Fredbjornson, Leo Barkman, Sheila Napper, Leona Pushka, Judith Cairns, James Olson, S. W. Birch, Geneveave Brown, Lillian Zurbyk, Henrietta Audoorn, and Joyce Mackie.
The former school building still stands at the site, now converted into a private residence. A commemorative monument nearby was unveiled in 2007.
Smalley School (no date) by C. K. Rogers
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 53.
Smalley School commemorative monument (August 2012)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Yard site of the former Smalley School (August 2012)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.66833, W98.74324
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Amaranth War Memorial, Schools, and Churches (Amaranth, RM of Alonsa)
Corporate Security registered documents (ATG 0089), #22 School District of Smalley, GR12576, Archives of Manitoba.
Corporate Security registered documents (ATG 0089), #31 School District of Smalley, GR12576, Archives of Manitoba.
School division and school district formation files (E 0027), Smalley School District No. 1826, GR1688, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Smalley School District No. 1826 - Daily Registers, GR1629, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Smalley School District No. 1826 - Minute and Cash Book, GR1629, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Smalley School District No. 1826 - Cash Book, GR1629, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Smalley School District No. 1826 - Miscellaneous, GR1629, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), Smalley School District No. 1826, GR1630, Archives of Manitoba.
Trustee records regarding geographically remote schools directly administered by Department (E 0166), File 1534 - Amaranth - (Smalley) - Permanent , GR1206, Archives of Manitoba.
Trustee records regarding geographically remote schools directly administered by Department (E 0166), File 1534 - Amaranth - (Smalley), GR1206, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Seasons of Our Lives, A History of Amaranth and District, Manitoba, Canada by Amaranth Historical Society, 1985, pages 163-166.
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 Darryl Toews for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 17 April 2024
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