The West Favelle School District was organized formally in September 1899, the first district in the Swan River Valley, and its opening ceremony was performed by school inspector T. M. Maguire. It operated a one-room wood frame school building on the southwest quarter of 1-37-26 west of the Principal Meridian in what is now the Municipality of Minitonas-Bowsman. The school closed in 1962. The former school building is no longer present at the site but a monument, erected in 1973, commemorates it. Items from the former school are held at the Swan Valley Historical Museum.
Among the teachers of West Favelle School were Douglas Durkin (1901-1902), Mrs. Florence Henderson, and Mrs. Grant Heyes.
The West Favelle School building (no date) by J. S. Peach
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 44.
Former West Favelle School student Philip McNeil, who attended it in 1903, by the school building (August 1959)
Source: Roberta Jensen
West Favelle School commemorative monument (July 2012)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N52.14368, W101.04867
denoted by symbol on the map above
The Development of Education in Swan River Valley by J. N. R. Clark, MEd thesis, Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba, 1949.
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.
Boots, Buggies & Buses: Swan Valley Schools in Quest of Education, Swan Valley School Division No. 35, circa 1998.
We thank Roberta Jensen and Yolanda Davidowich for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 3 February 2021
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