The Theobald School District was founded in 1879 through the the actions of Father Theobald Bitsche, parish priest of St. Leon, Manitoba. Named for him, a one-room wood frame school operated as of 1889 on the northwest quarter of 9-5-9 west of the Principal Meridian (on two acres of land donated by Edouard Labossiere) in what is now the Municipality of Lorne. A new schoolhouse erected in 1918 was used continuously until 1959, when it closed and henceforth students in the area went to St. Leon Village Consolidated School No. 1425 or Richard Consolidated School No. 1092. The former school building was moved to a museum in St. Leon but a monument, dedicated on 15 August 2004, commemorates it at the original site.
The second Theobald School building (no date) by G. H. Robertson
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 113.
The former Theobald School building at the St. Leon Interpretive Centre (October 2013)
Source: Alan Mason
Theobald School commemorative monument, at the base of which are crosses commemorating three murder victims in the Labossiere family who formerly lived nearby (October 2013)
Source: Alan MasonSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.38301, W98.63588
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: St. Leon Interpretive Centre (St. Leon, Municipality of Lorne)
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.
This page was prepared by Alan Mason and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 16 October 2021
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