Historic Sites of Manitoba: Woodnorth Consolidated School No. 1533 (Woodnorth, RM of Pipestone)

Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

The Woodnorth School District was established formally in April 1910, with a one-room frame schoolhouse constructed in Woodnorth, in the Rural Municipality of Pipestone. In May 1918, it became Woodnorth Consolidated School No. 1533 when it consolidated with Daybreak School No. 376 and Retloc School No. 1908.

As student enrollment rose, the original classroom was supplemented by two more so, by the time the school was in its heyday, it comprised three classrooms. During the 1960s, with the closure of rural schools in the surrounding area, Mayville School No. 375 and Elm Valley School No. 869, their students were sent to Woodnorth. The school closed in 1968 and the district was dissolved in 1970. A commemorative monument was erected in 1995 beside the former school building, which was stripped of its brick veneer in 1990.

Principals

Period

Principal

1918-1919

Miss P. G. Davis

1919-1920

Ada Pauline Herkes (1895-?)

1920-1926

William Stanley “Bill” Lockhart (1896-1978)

1926-1927

James B. “Jim” Smalley (1898-1990)

1927-1929

Joseph Edwin Murphy (1897-1973)

1929-1931

John Samuell Dickison (1906-1995)

1931-1933

James Cameron Martin (1910-1982)

1933-1936

Beulah Beryl McNevin (1896-1963)

1936-1937

Frederick Adam Hodgkinson (1912-2004)

1937

Charles William Howard Griggs (1909-1996)

1938-1939

Oliver Clayton Bricker (1900-1992)

1939-1941

Arthur Neilson (1908-1975)

1941-1942

Miss Campbell

1942-1944

Jessie M. Hannah

1944-1945

Katherine Isabella “Kay” Smith (1922-2011)

1945-1946

Gladys C. McLean

1946-1947

George Wesley Denstedt (1896-1979)

1947-1948

Gladys Webster

1948-1951

Mrs. Julia Johnson

1951-1953

Bohdan “Bud” Danylchuk (1926-2019)

1953-1954

Alma Elaine [Eileen] Newton Carnochan (1922-2011)

1954-1955

Clayton W. Allen

1955-1956

Victor Boldt

1956-1962

Dalton J. Burke

1962-1967

?

1967-1968

Mrs. Mildred Harkness

Teachers

Among the other teachers at Woodnorth School were Miss Hanna Jean Haw (1910-1911), Montague Shore (1911-1912), Miss Mary Jordan (1912-1914), Miss E. G. Martin (1914-1916), Miss Mary Muir (1916-1917), Miss L. Inkster (1918), Miss R. Rosenblat (1918-1919), Miss Myrtle Lang (1919), Miss Christie (1920), Miss E. E. McPhaden (1920), Miss H. Bray (1921-1922), Miss G. I. Gibson (1923), Miss Jeanette Turnbull (1924), Miss Sarah Ellen Cook (1924-1927), Miss I. E. Blakeman (1924-1925), Miss S. E. Blakeman (1924), Miss L. Mummery (1925-1926), Miss A. E. Dafoe (1926-1927), Miss D. E. North (1927), Miss Rae Bulloch (1927-1928), Miss E. Wilkins (1927-1928), Miss A. J. Reid (1928-1930), Miss H. Sheriden (1928-1931), Miss Kay Moore (1931-1933), Miss Mary Evelyn Greenway (1931-1933), D. J. Duncan (1933-1934), Miss E. Hanley (1934-1936), Miss Della Shoemaker (1936-1939), A. Hall (1939-1941), Miss Smith (1941-1942), O. Perlette (1942-1943), B. McAuley (1942-1943), Miss J. Campbell (1943), E. Wilson (1944), MIss Gladys C. McLean (1944-1945), Mrs. R. Caulfield (1944-1945), Miss Constance Halliday (1945-1946), Nancy Pittendreigh Gardiner (1946-1948), Miss Doreen Blackmore (1948-1949), Miss Pat Dybish (1949-1951), Mrs. Flora Danylchuk (1951-1953), Miss Yvonne Loiselle (1952-1953), Miss Viola Hill (1953-1963), Miss Olga Mazur (1953-1955), Miss Mary Van Den Bossche (1955-1956), Miss Heather Anderson (1956-1959), Miss Joan Wyllie (1959-1960), Miss Bertha Kramer (1960-1961), Marc Chisholm (1961-1962), and Miss Sylvia Cuthbert (1967-1968).

Photos & Coordinates

The original Woodnorth School

The original Woodnorth School (no date) by W. R. Beveridge
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 135.

Woodnorth School

Woodnorth School (no date)
Source: Pamela Forsyth

The former Woodnorth School building

The former Woodnorth School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1036.

Front exterior of the former Woodnorth School building, with brick veneer removed

Front exterior of the former Woodnorth School building, with brick veneer removed (October 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Rear exterior of the former Woodnorth School building showing the original classroom

Rear exterior of the former Woodnorth School building showing the original classroom (October 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Front exterior of the former Woodnorth School building

Front exterior of the former Woodnorth School building (September 2020)
Source: George Penner

Interior of the original Woodnorth School classroom

Interior of the original Woodnorth School classroom (October 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Woodnorth School commemorative monument

Woodnorth School commemorative monument (October 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.73276, W101.08074
denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

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.

Trails Along the Pipestone by Pipestone History Project, c1981, page 724. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.P56 Tra]

Obituary [James B. Smalley], Winnipeg Free Press, 6 February 1990, page 36.

A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.

The Sequel to Trails Along the Pipestone, RM Pipestone History Committee, 2008, page 38.

Obituary [Bohdan Danylchuk], Winnipeg Free Press, 30 April 2019.

We thank David Harkness, Nathan Kramer, and George Penner for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Pamela Forsyth.

Page revised: 5 November 2023

Historic Sites of Manitoba

This is a collection of historic sites in Manitoba compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. The information is offered for historical interest only.

Browse lists of:
Museums/Archives | Buildings | Monuments | Cemeteries | Locations | Other

Inclusion in this collection does not confer special status or protection. Official heritage designation may only come from municipal, provincial, or federal governments. Some sites are on private property and permission to visit must be secured from the owner.

Site information is provided by the Manitoba Historical Society as a free public service only for non-commercial purposes.


Send corrections and additions to this page
to the MHS Webmaster at webmaster@mhs.mb.ca.

Search Tips | Suggest an Historic Site | FAQ

Help us keep history alive!