The Wigton School District was formally established in March 1885 and a school building was erected on the southwest corner of 6-4-13 west of the Principal Meridian, in the Rural Municipality of Argyle. The school closed in January 1960 and merged with Glenora School No. 736 and Excelsior School No. 449 to form Glenora Consolidated School No. 736. The building was moved to the Glenora School site and attached to it, but a monument commemorates its former site, along with pioneers of the Wigton district.
Among the teachers who worked at Wigton School were Mr. Babington, Mr. Chris Lawrence, Mrs. Richardson, Fred Stevens (c1888), D. A. Ross, Jack Tisdale, Albert Edward Buttress (1893, 1917-1918), Miss Lina Publow, Miss Grace Van Alstyne, Bert McGregor, Miss Maude Playfair, Miss Emma Stewart, Annie B. Fraser (1911-1912), Ada Bolton (1913), Ada Kelso (1914), Lillabelle McEwan (1915), Belle Smith (1916), G. C. Simpson Jr. (Spring 1919), Laura Blanks (August-September 1919), Edna E. Bowman (September-December 1919), Benjamin Franklin “Frank” Privat (January-June 1920), Sigurborg Oliver (Fall 1920 - Spring 1921), Carrie M. Lyall (August-December 1921), Edna Burr (January-June 1922), Bessie Haliday (Fall 1922 - Spring 1923), Nellie Hamblin (Fall 1923 - Spring 1925), Edith Annie Easterby (Fall 1925 - Spring 1926), Edith Helen Thompson (Fall 1926 - Spring 1927), Florence Hicks (1928), Clara Luella Bell (Fall 1929 - Spring 1930), Hannah Balfour (Fall 1930 - Spring 1935), George Nelson Hawn (Fall 1935 - Spring 1938), Kathleen Cynthia Mayhew (Fall 1938 - Fall 1939), Ingiborg “Inga” Bjornson (Spring 1940), Lionel Clinch (1940), Ellen Beatty (1941), Ruth Lowe (1942), Norah Boyle (1944-1945), Carl Wanless (1946), Phyllis Lundgren (1948), Katherine E. Klassen (1949), Raymond Boyd (1950), Mildred B. Van Damme (1951 - Spring 1955), Ruth McKay (Fall 1955 - Spring 1956), Zennovia Daria Pawlik (Fall 1956 - Spring 1957), and Ella Cooney (1957).
Wigton School (no date) by G. H. Robertson
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 36.
Wigton School commemorative monument (October 2011)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.27389, W99.22374
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Baldur District Schools (RM of Argyle)
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.
Come Into Our Heritage: RM of Argyle, 1882-1982 by the Rural Municipality of Argyle, 1981, page 262.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Wigton School District No. 381 - Daily Registers, GR13491, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Brian Frederickson for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 3 January 2024
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