Historic Sites of Manitoba: Flee Island School No. 527 (RM of Portage la Prairie)

Formed in February 1888, classes at Flee Island School started in the following Fall. It remained in service until consolidation with High Bluff Consolidated School No. 2418 occurred in 1964, with the exception of the period from 1948 to 1950 when it was closed temporarily due to insufficient enrolment. The school was a single room for grades 1 to 9. Enrollment ranged from about 8 to 20 students. One of the Flee Island student went on to become a teacher at the school and, later, Premier of Manitoba: Douglas L. Campbell. This monument was erected in 2001.

The teachers who worked at Flee Island School included Miss Kate McKinley, D. R. Urquhart, Annie McLellan, Nellie Collier, Alice Cameron, Peter Hall, Maggie Van Alstyn, F. H. McVicar, J. A. McGuire, J. W. Smith, Kate McKinlay, William Burns, William A. McConkey, Nellie Farmer, Jean M. Baird, Maud Read, Jennie Wilton, Flora A. Hiltz, James A. McKenzie, Margaret B. Snider, Alex Armstrong, Esther Smale, Olive I. Rose, Laura Stanger, Miss R. Gillespie, Miss L. Shanser, Sybil Ellis, Douglas Campbell (1914), Jennie McMaster, Elsie Moggey, Myrtle Barron, Ruby Crealock, Agnes May Dawson, Alda Jones, Grace E. Shaw, Maud Campbell Owens (1920), Gertrude E. Morton, Grace Wheatley, Doris Craik (1903), Lillian Clements, Henry Herbert McKeen, Miss McCormick, Nora Gair Owens, Emma J. Haggarty, Daisy Switzer, June Anderson, Mrs. Earl MacDonald, Leona Usick, Marion Thomson, Lorna Dankesreiter, Mrs. Martha Meikle, and Nettie Fast.

Flee Island School (no date) by A. B. Fallis Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 82. Flee Island School commemorative sign (2010) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.12259, W98.17045 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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.

Rural Schools of Portage la Prairie School Division #24 by Muriel Wright, 1996.

We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 24 April 2020

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