Established in April 1919, the Spencer School District No. 1969 operated a one-room schoolhouse here in 11-5-5E within the Rural Municipality of Hanover. By the 1943, student enrollment had increased sufficiently that a second school was needed, so one was built at NW36-4-5E, one mile east and one mile south of this location. It was named Spencer South School and this one became Spencer North School. Both schools closed in June 1966 and the district was dissolved two years later, with its area becoming part of the Hanover School Division. The land and building were sold for $650. In 2013, a commemorative sign was erected here by the EastMenn Historical Society.
Among the teachers who worked at Spencer School / Spencer North School through the years were Andrew Rieger Sobering (1920-1921), John G. Kornelson (1921), Dietrich Penner (1922-1923), Tena F. Reimer (1923-1925), Cornelius Calvin Neufeld (1925), Lena Eidse (1926-1927), Rose Pearl (1927-1928), Waldon Barkman (1928), David Heinrichs (1928-1932), Hannah Lenora Keating (1932-1933), Jacob Pankratz (1933-1937), Jacob J. Wedel (1937-1942), John Dyck (1942-1943), Elfrieda Rempel (1943-1944, 1945-1948), Helen Koop (1944-1945), Katherine Loewen (1948-1950), Jacob P. Rempel (1950-1953), Dietrich Penner (1953-1955), John Mueller (1955-1959), Hilda Katherine Janzen (1959-1962), Nettie Wiebe (1962-1964), Judith Hildebrand (1964-1965), and Allan Giesbrecht (1965-1966).
Spencer North School (no date) by A. A. Herriot
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 69.
Spencer North School (June 1968)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, Manitoba School Records Collection, GR2656,
Hanover School Division Collection #92, Series 2, Spencer North School District #1969.
Spencer North School commemorative sign (May 2013)
Source: Ernest BraunSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.37035, W96.82609
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Spencer School No. 1969 / Spencer South School (RM of DeSalaberry)
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.
Schools - Our Heritage: From 46 School Districts to Hanover Unitary School Division, 1878-1968 by John K. Schellenberg, Steinbach: The Board of the Hanover School Division No. 15, May 1985.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Spencer School No. 1969 Daily Registers, GR1189, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Spencer School No. 1969 Daily Registers, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Glen Klassen and Ernest Braun of the EastMenn Historical Society for providing information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 27 March 2023
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