The Tales School District was established formally in September 1892 and a school building was erected the following year, in the southeast quarter of 20-18-18W, in what is now the Municipality of Clanwilliam-Erickson. A new school building was constructed in 1911. It closed in January 1965. At the time of a 2011 site visit, the school building was largely intact, with pressed metal panels on the interior walls and ceiling. It appeared to have been used as a granary in the past. A commemorative monument stood along the nearby roadway.
Among the teachers of Tales School were Duncan A. Matheson (Spring-Fall 1893), R. Davies (Spring-Fall 1894), G. M. Robertson (Spring 1895 - Fall 1896), John C. McArthur (Spring-Fall 1897, Spring-Fall 1899), Maxwell Wallace (Spring-Fall 1898), did not operate (Spring 1900), Malcolm Campbell (Fall 1900), L. Robertson (?), Henry Edwards Bewell (Spring-Fall 1901), H. S. Sharpe (Spring-Fall 1902), A. Keippen Cates [Coates?] (Spring 1903 - Fall 1904), Sara Hanson (Spring-Fall 1905), Nell Belle Raye [Rae?] (Spring-Fall 1906), A. K. Cameron (Spring-Fall 1907), Wilfred B. Singleton (Spring-Fall 1908), Millicent B. Ducklow (Spring-Fall 1909), Olive Frazer [Fraser] (Spring-Fall 1910), Anna McDougall [Anna MacDougall] (Spring-Fall 1911), Henry E? Neilson (Spring-Fall 1912), Clara Nelson (Spring 1913), Leah Zinger (Fall 1913), Bertha Cohen (Spring 1914), Miss Tesley Nettie Blough (Spring 1915), Mrs. N. Wood (Fall 1915), Evelyn Aikenhead (Spring 1916 - Spring 1917), did not operate (Fall 1917), Clara Nelson (Spring 1918), Cora Lee (Fall 1918 - Spring 1919), Fanny Rusoff (Fall 1919), Viola McPherson (Spring 1920), Grace Frame (Fall 1920 - Spring 1922), Elizabeth Craig (Fall 1922 - Spring 1923), Ethel P. Miller (pt Fall 1923), Miss Balfour (pt Fall 1923), Isabelle Lee (pt Fall 1923 - Spring 1925), Laura Patterson (Fall 1925 - Spring 1926), T. Coutts (Fall 1926), Dora Patterson (Spring 1927), Leonard Neva (Fall 1927 - Spring 1941), A. J. Dickson (Fall 1941 - Spring 1942), Emma Carlson (Fall 1942 - Spring 1943), Mamie Challborn (Fall 1943 - Spring 1944, Fall 1945 - Spring 1947), Phyllis Rushton (Fall 1944 - Spring 1945), V. Hamilton (Fall 1947 - Spring 1948), T. Prefontaine (Fall 1948 - Spring 1949), A. W. Shalay (Fall 1949 - Spring 1950), Verna Hood (Fall 1950 - Spring 1951), Norma Mack (Fall 1951 - Spring 1952), M. Woychyshyn (Fall 1952 - Spring 1953), D. W. Smith (Fall 1953 - Spring 1955), F. C. Larwood (Fall 1955 - Spring 1956), Mary Gusdal (?-?), ? (Fall 1956 - Spring 1959), and Leona Mackedenski (Fall 1959-1963).
Tales School (no date) by W. C. Hartley
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 114.
Tales School grounds surrounded by spruce and pine trees (circa 1936)
Source: Education Department Report, 1936, Manitoba Legislative Library.
Former Tales School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 235.
Former Tales School building and commemorative monument (August 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Former Tales School building and commemorative monument (July 2019)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Former Tales School building (September 2020)
Source: Rose Kuzina
Interior of former Tales School building (August 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Interior of former Tales School building (September 2020)
Source: Rose KuzinaSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.55027, W99.91560
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.
Forest to Field: Centennial History of Rural Municipality of Clanwilliam and Village of Erickson, Manitoba, Canada by Clanwilliam History Book Committee, 1984, pages 128-132.
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Tales School District No. 721 - Registers of Attendance, GR2063, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank David Ford, Nathan Kramer, and Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 6 May 2024
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