Historic Sites of Manitoba: Franklin Union School No. 780 (Franklin, RM of Rosedale)

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

A monument commemorates Franklin School at Franklin, in the Rural Municipality of Rosedale. There were three school buildings at a site across the road, the first built around the time that the school district was established, in September 1893. The second building served from 1909 to 1953, and the third and final building occupied the site from 1953 to June 1968, when the school closed and the district was dissolved. The remaining students were bused to Neepawa or Minnedosa.

The former school building is no longer present at the site. Its enamel sign and some photographs are displayed in the Franklin Memorial Hall.

Principals

Period

Principal

1908-1910

George Henry Blackwell (1864-1941)

1910-1912

?

1912-1915

Pearl Nama Broadworth (1885-?)

1915-1917

Ethel V. Foxwell

1917-1918

J. M. McCormick

1918-1920

Edward Stockley

1920-1922

L. D. McLeod

1922-1924

James McNeil (1866-1954)

1924-1925

Kenneth Donald Bruce (1892-1968)

1925-1937

R. J. MacKenzie

1937-1940

Muriel Douglas

1940-1942

Frank Edward White (1915-1994)

1942-1943

Robert Cameron Mulligan (1889-1976)

1943-1945

Gloria E. Ward

1945-1946

Jean Ritchey

1946-1947

Dorothy Allen

1947

C. M. Davidson

1948

William G. Fleeting

1949

D. V. Dobbin

1950

John Osborn Wilson

1950-1952

Rudolf Ewald “Rudy” Mehmel (1918-2013)

1952-1953

Raymond B. Keynes

1953-1954

Gudmundur Bjorgvin Arilius “Arli” Isfeld (1913-1994)

1954-1958

Ruth Annie Fairlie Henderson (1904-1992)

1958

John Henry Doughty (1900-1958)

1958-1959

Joseph “Joe” [Szezygol] Shygol (c1928-1974)

1959-1968

Donald Garton

Teachers

Among the other teachers of Franklin School were Maggie McLaren (1894), Emma McKinney (1897), Winnifred Mills (1906), J. E. Nunn (1907), Winnifred Fraser (1909), L. Maude Webster (1911), Pearl Shuttleworth (1912), E. Kilpatrick (1914), J. N. Leckie (1915), J. M. Sinclair (1916), M. A. Forsythe (1917), F. C. Matheson (1917-1919), V. H. Hugo (1918), T. C. Matheson (1918), Olive J. Taylor (1920-1922), Nettie King (1920), V. Simpson (1923), E. R. Foreman (1921-1922), W. Grant (1922), Ellen Fraser (1923-1924), K. Arthur (1925-1926), D. C. Clark (1925), G. D. Cusack (1926-1927), R. I. McJannet (1927-1930), Mary Ellen Scott (1930-1931), Margaret Coutts (1931-1936), Audrey Heney (1936-1938), M. Audrey Dewart (1938-1940), Mrs. Nellie Greenaway (1940-1945), Doris I. Gray (1945-1947), Clara L. Knipe (1947), Irma Shorey (1948-1950), Violet J. Burke (1950), Mrs. Jean M. Witter (1951-1952), Iva May Eros (1952), Mrs. Raymond Keynes (1953), Alice A. Kolesar (1953), Bernice McConnell (1953-1955), G. Norsworthy (1954), Mrs. A. G. Clarke (1955-1956), Jennie Len (1955), Muriel Garton (1956-1960), Don Garton (1956-1959), Mrs. D. M. McConnell (1960-1963), and Mrs. Mary V. McLaughlin (1963-1968).

Photos & Coordinates

The second Franklin School used from 1909 to 1953

The second Franklin School used from 1909 to 1953 (no date) by W. C. Hartley
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 125.

The third Franklin School building used from 1953 to 1968

The third Franklin School building used from 1953 to 1968 (no date)
Source: S. J. McKee Archives, Minnedosa Womens Institute, Village History 1878-1956.

Franklin School commemorative monument

Franklin School commemorative monument (2010)
Source: Allan Drysdale

Franklin School commemorative monument

Franklin School commemorative monument (September 2023)
Source:

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.24038, W99.66628
denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

“The Indian famine fund,” Winnipeg Tribune, 4 March 1897, page 4.

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

Marriage and death registrations [Iva May Eros], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Rosedale Remembered, 1984, pages 174-175.

The Beautiful Plains Story: 1983-2008 by Neepawa and Area History Committee, 2008, page 162.

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.

We thank Nathan Kramer, Glen Gibbons, Kathryn Hyndman, and David Ford for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Allan Drysdale.

Page revised: 7 November 2023

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