Many of the early settlers to this district, on the east side of Lake Winnipeg, were descendants of former Hudson’s Bay Company employees. In the early 1900s, they took up homesteads here and many found employment in nearby lumber camps. In 1921, Henry George Thomas donated land on SW6-17-7 east of the Principal Meridian, in the Rural Municipality of St. Clements, for a school. The Stony Point School District was formally established in June 1921. A one-room frame building, constructed by Norman Thomas, opened in 1926 for grades 1 to 8. It functioned until 1967 when jurisdiction for the area became the responsibility of the Lord Selkirk School Division.
The teachers of Stony Point School were Helen Isbister (1922-1925), Clifford George Williamson (1926-1927), Kathleen Muriel Windet (1927-1928), Linda Jones (1928), Kathleen Harriet Grier (1929-1933), Bodvar Jon Skuli Bodvarsson (1932), Ellen Gwendoline Pruden (1933-1934), Ella Sharp (1935), Hazel Elizabeth Penrose (1935-1936), Evelyn Margaret Flett (1936-1938), Margaret Ann Young (1939), Mrs. Jean C. Howey (1939), Esther Pearl Smith (1940-1941), Florence V. Ritchey (1941-1942), Miss Evelyn Burnett (1942-1943), Annie Eugene Cline (1943), Annie Eugene Thomas (1944), Elsie Irene Kitchen (1944-1945), Marie Antoinette Kipling (1945), Marie Antoinette Thomas (1946), Mr Ervin Rattai (1947), Mervin Benjamin Polvi (1947), Annie Isabell Duffy (1948), Bernice Jennie Skrypetz (1948-1949), Agnes Dyck (1949-1950), Emma Massicotte (1950), Vera Ruth LeDrew (1951-1952), Beverly Ann Marquardt (1952-1953), Michael Lloyd Balitsky (1953-1954), Steve Zastawny (1954-1957), Peter Kubas (1957-1958), Anne Dueck (1958-1959), Raymond Michael Faryna (1959-1960), Orville Strand (1960-1962), Archille A. Vermeulin (1962-1963), Mary Ramsey (1963-1964), Brian Norman Orvis (1964-1966), and Kenneth J. Germain (1966).
In October 1978, the Patricia Beach Community Club was built near the former school building, which was demolished in 2003 or 2004. The club was subsequently renamed the Stony Point Community Club. Through the efforts of local residents Orval and Marcell Vezina, and Gertrude and Douglas Klatt, a plaque on a monument near the former school site, unveiled in 2005, contains the names of early area settlers. The monument was built by Art Brown, Orval Vezina, and Glen Williams.
Stony Point School (no date)
Source: East Side of the Red, page 278.
The former Stony Point School building shortly before demolition (2003-2004)
Source: Dusty Molinski
Stony Point School commemorative monument (May 2011)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.41515, W96.60747
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.
The East Side of the Red, A Centennial Project of the Rural Municipality of St. Clements, 1884 to 1984 by St. Clements Historical Committee, 1984.
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
We thank Liam Viznaugh, Nathan Kramer, Dusty Molinski, Holly Vezina, and Marcella Vezina for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 15 May 2023
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