Historic Sites of Manitoba: Graysville Consolidated School No. 1493 (Graysville, RM of Dufferin)

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

The Graysville School District was organized formally in March 1909, and a schoolhouse was built in Graysville in the Rural Municipality of Dufferin. It operated for nine years until it merged with several schools from the surrounding district to form the Graysville Consolidated School District: Lintrathen School No. 1118, Orr School No. 343, Ravenswood School No. 437, Stephenfield Consolidated School No. 2048, and Tobacco Creek School No. 808. Erection of the present brick building began in late 1919 on a design by architects Tuttle and Reid, and opened in February 1920.

Eventually becoming part of Prairie Rose School Division, the school closed closed in September 2010 due to declining student enrolment and its building was sold to a company that planned to use it as a seed shipping facility. It was later converted into a private residence. A bronze plaque commemorating former students killed during the Second World War, that had been displayed inside the school, was removed and installed at the Carman Legion.

Principals

Period	Principal
1920-1922	James Corrigill (1857-1922)
1922-1924	Robert William Dunlop (1876-?)
1924-1927	Wilfred Almon Rideout (1878-1949)
1927-1930	Christopher Stow (1873-1933)
1930-1931	Sidney Irvine Mott (1871-?)
1931-1935	Beatrice Pearl Shunk Wiebe (1907-1992)
1935-1942	Earl Duncan McKellar (1902-1984)
1942-1945	Clair Edmond Dawson (?-1995)
1945-1950	Willard Ervin Rife (1890-1970)
1950-1954	David Langton MacDonald (1911-1957)
1954-1956	Ralph Ernest Mayes (1891-1969)
1956-1959	George Oswald Hinds (1906-1969)
1959-1960	Henry R. Schellenberg (?-?)
1960-1962	Stanley Corbett Henderson (1910-?)
1962-1965	James I. Refvik
1965-1966	Stanley Corbett Henderson (1910-?)
1966-1967	Hardy Velie
1967-1968	Jake Letkeman
1968-1971	Michael Geletchuk
1971-1974	?
1974-1978	Natalie Watt
1978-1998	Bill North
1998-2003	Elaine Owen
2003-2005	Sherry Zacharias & Betty-Ann Tiltman
2005-2008	Art Van Stellant
2008-2009	Jennifer Kolesar

Teachers

The other teachers of Graysville School were Mamie Craik (1920), Marion Cummings (1920-1921), Olive Jackson (1920-1921), Hattie Corrigal (1921-1922), Viola Bailey (1921), Inga Turgeson (1922), Nellie Morrison (1923-1931), Kathleen Walmsley (1922-1923), Eleanor Collier (1923-1929), Lily May Nevin (1923-1928), Edith Deacon (1928-1929), Laura Fraser (1929-1930), Leila Fraser (1929-1930), Eva Cram (1930-1931), Beatrice Shunk (1930-1931), Helen Ball (1931-1935), Florence Kuebler (1931-1933), Gladys Smith (1933-1934), Esther Hooper (1934-1939), Linnie Wilson (1935-1939), Bernice Wright (1939), Morley Horton (1939-1941), Mary Rankin (1940-1941), Annie Sprott (1941), Evelyn Russell (1941), Muriel Cook (1942), Dora F. Ritchie (1942), Marjorie Barclay (1942-1944), Nellie Bowes (1942-1943), Ida Fehr (1943-1944), Inez Abbott (1944-1948), Rosa Johnson (1945-1946), Ruby Gray (1946-1973), Dorothy Allen (1947-1948), Doreen Alvis (1948-1950), Harry Reimer (1948-1949), Don Eby (1949-1950), Gladys Bell (1950-1952), William Cook (1950-1952), Richard Paine (1952-1954), Leonard Harvey Goldsborough (1953-1956), Margaret Pollock (1954-1957), Robert Hobbs (1956-1957), Lillian Hirst (1957-1958), Dorothy Irene Madill Hudson (1957-1960, 1962-1963), Shirley Knight (1958-1959), Mr. Urquhart (1959), Bev Robertson (1960), Mrs. B. Linton (1960), Myrtle Refvik (1960-1961), Jim Refvik (1960-1961), Joan McIntosh (1961-1965, 1966-1989), Bernard Stobbe (1962), G. Scott (1962), John W. Gross (1962-1963), Bev Robertson (1962), Hardy Velie (1963-1966), Bev Stow (1963), Mary Hanischuk (1964-1966), Dave Friesen (1964-1966), Ramsay Gopaul (1964-1966), Harry Thiessen (1966), Natalie Watt (1966-1974), Margaret Atkins (1973-1976), Carrol Bruce (1974-1995), Doreen Ferris (1976-1977), Georgina McCullough (1977-1988), Lillian Middleton (1995-1996), Colleen Wareham (1996-1997), Alice Elias (1997-2000), Joanne Mont (1997-2000), Coreen Hart (2000-2002), Karen Friesen Dyck (2000-2003), Megan Pollard (2002-2004), Sherry Zacharias (2002-2003, 2005-2008), Lisa Pinkerton Baschuk (2003-2010), Pat Hamm (2004-2005), and Theresa Knox (2010).

Photos & Coordinates

Graysville School (no date) by A. J. Manning Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 127. Graysville School (1920s) Source: Laura Matychuk Graysville School and teacherage (1920s) Source: Laura Matychuk Graysville School (August 2010) Source: Gordon Goldsborough The former Graysville School building (July 2020) Source: Rose Kuzina Plaque that was once displayed inside Graysville School for former students killed during the Second World War (2011) Source: Ethel Hook Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.50750, W98.15819 denoted by symbol on the map above

Second World War Casualities

Name	Service	Rank	Birth Date	Death Date
Herbert Allan Baker [Carman, Graysville United]	Royal Canadian Air Force	Flying Officer	30 November 1917	29 January 1944
Frederick Colin “Fred” Duncan [Carman, Graysville United]	49th Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force	Warrant Officer	1 October 1917	28 February 1943
Joseph William “Joe” Fuller [Carman, Graysville United]	10th Armoured Regiment, Fort Garry Horse	Trooper	16 January 1917	9 June 1944
Harold John Glenn [Carman, Graysville United]	Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders	Private	19 October 1920	19 August 1942
Robert James “Jim” Kee [Carman, Graysville United]	61st Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force	Warrant Officer	27 March 1921	3 January 1943
Glen Mathew Kennedy [Carman, Graysville United]	Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders	Private	3 May 1922	29 July 1944
Robert James “Bob” McIntyre [Carman, Graysville United]	Royal Canadian Air Force	Flying Officer	22 July 1923	15 September 1946

Sources:

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

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.

Graysville: A Manitoba School and its Community, compiled by edited by the Graysville School Reunion Planning Committee, June 2011.

For the names of First World War casualities from Manitoba who do not appear on any physical monument in the province, see the Manitoba Historical Society War Memorial. If you know of a name that is omitted from this list, please contact the MHS War Memorial Researcher Darryl Toews (darryl@mhs.mb.ca).

Soldiers of the First World War - Canadian Expeditionary Force, Library and Archives Canada.

Canadian Virtual War Memorial, Veterans Affairs Canada.

Financial support for research reported on this page was provided by the Manitoba Heritage Grants Program (2015-2016).

We thank Ethel Hook, Nedra and Bob Burnett, Laura Matychuk, and Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 4 February 2023

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