The first Gillespie School, named for George Gillespie, was built in 1900 on the southwest quarter of 10-13-12 west of the Principal Meridian, in what is now the Municipality of WestLake-Gladstone. A larger school was opened on NW10-13-12W in 1948. The school closed in January 1968. As of the 1980s, the former school building was at SE16-13-12W being used as a private residence. A monument at the school site was dedicated in July 1991.
Among the teachers of Gillespie School were Ed W. Poole (1906-1907), H. M. Brownlee (1908), Anna MacDonald (1908), Dora C. Gilman (1909-1912), Mabel C. Andrews (1912-1913), Mary I. Hunter (1913-1914), Eva M. Fahrner (1918-1919), Flora Davidson (1919-1920), Verna Sissons (1922-1923), Bessie Comrie (1929), Alexanderina Walker (1930), Shiela Mae Blair (1932-1933), Dorothy Isabel Murta (1933-1937), Ellen M. Hunter (1937), Madeleine Ruth Brown (1938), Mary Isabel Hunter (1938-1940), Margaret Alice Staples (1940-1941), Margaret A. Young (1941), Florence Dorothy Armstrong (1942-1945), Fred Veenbaas (1945-1946), Michael Romaniuk (1946-1947), Esther Grace Patterson (1947-1948), Leonlime Colé (1948), Sarah Ann Arthur (1948-1949), Mike Klym (1949-1950), Nellie Mac Kuzyk (1950-1951), Eva Shirley Tabolotney (1951-1952), Vigdes Peterson (1952-1953), Marjorie Gurtrun Lambert (1953-1954), Mrs. G. Blankhorne (1954), Stella C. Lobb (1954-1960), Lyla Jennie Murdoch (1963-1964), Edith Patricia Wright (1964-1965), and Mary Ruth Beaudin (1965-1967).
Gillespie School (no date) by C. K. Rogers
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 47.
Gillespie School commemorative monument (September 2010)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.08741, W99.04166
denoted by symbol on the map above
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.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Gillespie School District No. 1050 Daily Registers, GR3152, Archives of Manitoba.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 18 February 2021
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