Historic Sites of Manitoba: Bunclody School No. 383 (Municipality of Grassland)

The Bunclody School District was established in March 1885, occupying a small wood frame school building that had been constructed the previous year by local carpenters Tom Wilson and Mr. Carrothers. The first teachers were Miss Sproule and Miss Douglas. It was used until 1921 when a new wood structure was built immediately west of the first one, at SE34-6-20W in what is now the Municipality of Grassland. The contractor was Daniel Kitchen of Souris using plans drawn by architect Carter Brindle. It had a full basement and was heated by a oil-burning furnace.

Student enrollment dwindled during and after the Second World War. In 1947, the school closed and students were transported to Carroll School. It reopened the following year but attendance was never higher than 14 students. It closed permanently in 1966. The district was dissolved two years later as the area became part of the Souris Valley School Division. The building was sold to the Bunclody Willing Workers and, as of 1970, was being used as a community centre. It was apparently later moved to SW6-7-19W in the RM of Oakland and used as a workshop.

The teachers who worked at Bunclody School in the early years, from 1908 to 1921, included Miss Matheson, Miss McConachy, Miss Seveille, Miss Anderson, Miss Shannon, Miss Moore, Miss Miller, Miss Proury, Miss Carver, Miss McCauley, Mr. A. Anderson, Miss Helen Rose, Miss Davidson, Miss McDonald, Miss M. Rose, Miss B. Rose, Miss Montgomery, A. J. Kennedy, and Miss B. Carlson. Teachers from 1922 to 1966 included Miss Gray, Jean Fairhall, Miss Leathers, Beaulah Hoddinot, Jean Livingston, Effie McCaskill, Ina McFadden, Myrtle Blackwell, James Cowan, Miss M. E. Bradley, Muriel Thompson, Muriel Christie, Margaret Skuce, Dorothy Archibald, Evelyn Goodwill, Marguerite Mastin, Edith Lee, Shirley Rose, Margaret MacDonald, Doris Lund, Joy Chapman, Anne Skuce, Bessie Marie Hill, Lorna Anderson, Janet McRuer, Marjorie Grossart, M. Gail Marriott (1960), R. J. Munro, Helen McGill, Joyce Burnett, G. Budd, and Mrs. E. Maxwell.

The original Bunclody School built in 1884 (no date) Source: Bunclody Community: 1879-1970 by D. F. Rose, 1970. [Copy at Manitoba Legislative Library, F5649.B85Bun] The second Bunclody School building, constructed in 1921 (no date) by George Hunter Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 36. The former Bunclody School building (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1496. Former site of Bunclody School (August 2014) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.51804, W100.08349 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Bunclody Commemorative Monuments (Municipality of Souris-Glenwood)

Memorable Manitobans: Daniel “Dan” Kitchen (1865-1930)

Sources:

“Teachers at the convention,” Brandon Sun, 15 October 1920, page 6.

Cummin’s Rural Directory Map for Manitoba published by the Cummins Map Company, 404 Chambers of Commerce, Winnipeg, 1923. [Copies held by Edward M. Ledohowski and Gordon Goldsborough]

Bunclody Community: 1879-1970 by D. F. Rose, 1970. [Copy at Manitoba Legislative Library, F5649.B85Bun]

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.

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

We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 16 August 2020

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