Historic Sites of Manitoba: Emmeline School No. 683 (Municipality of North Norfolk)

The Emmeline School District was established formally in April 1891, in what is now the Municipality of North Norfolk. The school building was constructed on the northeast corner of 23-11-11W, on land sold to the school district for $1 by farmer Thomas Cairns. In 1936, two land parcels immediately adjacent to the school were purchased for $20 and a shelterbelt of fir trees was planted around the entire site. The mature trees are still present. In 1959, the trustees decided to close the school and bus its remaining students to MacGregor School. The school building and site were sold to local residents and, in 1965, the catchment area became part of MacGregor Consolidated School District. A monument built in 1975, topped by the original school bell, commemorates students, teachers, and citizens of the Emmeline area.

The teachers who worked at Emmeline School included J. K. Green (1894-1896), Maude Mawhinney (1895), Fannie Watts (1897), E. J. Young (1898-1899), W. Van Dusen (1900), Thomas Peden (1900-1901), Richard Collier (1905), Margaret J. Bell (1906), Gertrude McElrea (1906), Donald J. MacMillan (1907), Jennie Graham (1908), Mattie C. Halliday (1909), Florence Keeping (1910), L. W. Lindrow (1910), Miranda Orillia Gutzke (1910-1911, mother of Edward A. “Ted” Poyser), Enid M. Griffin (1912), Theresa Lamb (1912-1913), Ruth Ames (1914-1915), Betsey H. Poyser (1916-1917), Eleanor J. Mackee (1917-1918), Annie Cuthbert (1918-1919), Cordelia Peden (1920), Kathleen Owens (1920-1921), Ethyle S. Halliday (1922-1923), M. A. Dodds (1922), Dorothy E. North (1923-1925), Jean Cowan (1925-1927), Mary E. Rathwell (1927-1928), Elsie A. Robinson (1928-1930), Ellen Grace Fulcher (1930-1931), Edna Knox (1931-1933), Mary I. Morris (1933-1935), John James Hills (1935-1938), Georgina Duncan (1938-1939), Edna Katherine Young (1939-1941), Rosemary Joan Mathews (1941-1942), Gertrude Pilkington (1942-1943), Mrs. Gertrude Tait (1943-1945, 1956), Mrs. Ruth Pearl McLoughry (1945-1947), Laura E. Giles (1947-1950), Hazel L. Boaz (1948-1949), Eva Nichol (1950-1952), Noreen Blaine (1952), Munroe Frampton (1952-1953), Miss Slavka Bejzyk (1953-1954), and Mabel J. Friesen (1954-1955).

Emmeline School (no date) by A. B. Fallis Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 108. Aerial view of the former Emmeline School shelterbelt (May 2018) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Emmeline School commemorative monument (May 2018) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.94542, W98.85862 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

A Rear View Mirror: A History of the Austin and Surrounding Districts by Anne M. Collier, Altona: Friesen Printing, 1967.

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.

Through Fields and Dreams: A History of the Rural Municipality of North Norfolk and MacGregor by The History Book Committee of the North Norfolk-MacGregor Archives, 1998, page 905.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 27 November 2020

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