Historic Sites of Manitoba: Griswold School No. 425 (Griswold, RM of Sifton)

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

Griswold School District was formally established in September 1885, in Griswold in the Rural Municipality of Sifton. The present brick building dates from 1897, built of a design by Brandon architect W. H. Shillinglaw. In 1959, grades 5-8 of the three-room school were transferred to Oak Lake’s Assiniboine School. It operated as a two-room school until 1968. From 1973 to 1976, the facility hosted only grades 1 to 3 and a private kindergarten class prior to the Fort la Bosse School Division offering the kindergarten option at Assiniboine School. The school closed its doors following the 1975-1976 school year. The building was renovated for use as a community hall. A minute book for the school district, from 1907 to 1943, is held at the S. J. McKee Archives of Brandon University.

Principals

Period	Principal
c1894-1899	Allan Bowerman (1844-1923)
1899-1901	George P. Bawden
1901-1903	Alfred White (1869-1955)
1903-1904	W. A. Beynon
1904-1907	Charles T. Cresswell (1872-1961)
1907-1908	James Erron Stanley Dunlop (1882-1945)
1908-1909	Maggie R. Stewart
1909-1910	John Stanley Hollies (1889-1916)
1910-1912	?
1912-1914	Florence Carnduff
1914-1923	Sidney Irvine Mott (1871-?)
1923-1926	D. F. McNeill
1926-1928	Samuel Stewart Bryan (1889-?)
1928-1929	Walter Fahrig (1889-1937)
1929-1941	John Clarence “Kelly” Williamson (1903-1981)
1941-1951	John Henry Doughty (1900-1958)
1951-1952	?
1952-1954	Michael John Makowski (1924-2002)
1954-1958	J. A. Sawatsky
1958-1959	S. Livingston

Teachers

School Year	Teachers
1920-1921	M. Thomson

Among the other teachers of Griswold School were William John McComb (1887), Frederick Leopold Johnston, Mary Isbister Wilson, Reba Wallace McManes, Fanny Hitchcock Hollies, and Lillian Hatch Brownlee.

Photos & Coordinates

Postcard view of Griswold School (circa 1910) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2013-0031 The former Griswold School building (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1243. The former Griswold School building (September 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.77778, W100.47160 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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

“Teachers at the convention,” Brandon Sun, 15 October 1920, page 6.

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

“Griswold grads hold reunion,” Brandon Sun, 1 September 1976, page 31.

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.

Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950 by Robert G. Hill, Toronto.

We thank Andrew Cunningham and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 3 October 2022

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