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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.
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
Daniel Frederick “Fred” McNeill (c1879-1956)
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
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.
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 GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.77778, W100.47160
denoted by symbol on the map above
“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: 5 November 2023
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