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Photos & Coordinates | Sources
The Halbstadt School District was established in April 1896, named for the home village of the Molotchna Mennonite Colony in southern Ukraine. A one-room schoolhouse operated at SW10-1-1E in what is now the Municipality of Rhineland. After the community lost control to Trustee J. F. Greenway around 1918, over its failure to follow legal requirements for school operation, they sought and resumed local control in 1920. They issued a $1,700 debenture in July 1937 to finance construction of a new school and built it that year across the road at SE9-1-1E, opposite the Halbstadt Cemetery.
In 1960, efforts to consolidate the district with Houston School District and Strassberg School District failed to receive local support, but consolidation with Houston took place on 2 July 1964 under the name Halbstadt Consolidated School Disrtrict No. 214, thus preserving the Halbstadt name and the Houston district number. The school building was moved to the site of the Houston School. The yard with teacherage was sold and, as of 2014, the teacherage was occupied as a private residence. The district merged with Altona Consolidated School No. 333 in July 1967. Halbstadt’s former school building was sold to a local farmer for use as a workshop at E8-1-1E.
Among the teachers of Halbstadt School (1896-1964) were Heinrich Enns (Fall 1896), Heinrich Wiens (Spring 1897 - Fall 1898), Henry Cossen (pt Spring 1899), Jacob B. Hooge (pt Spring 1899 - Spring 1900), Leo. G. Heimanson? (Fall 1900 - Spring 1901), Jacob J. Sawatzki (Fall 1901), records not available (Spring 1902 - Fall 1904), Abram B. Wiebe (Spring 1905), Helen Wieler (Fall 1905 - Fall 1908), Jacob G. Voth (Spring 1909), Margaret M. Friesen (Fall 1909 - Spring 1910), Henry W. Epp (Fall 1910 - Fall 1911), Helena Siemens (Spring 1912), Jaroslaw [Jaroslava?] Neywara? (Fall 1912 - Spring 1913), Jacob Giesbrecht (Fall 1913 - Spring 1914), John W. Driedger (Fall 1914 - Spring 1916), did not operate (Fall 1916 - Fall 1918 & January-April 1919), William Lineham Logan (May-June 1919), Jacob J. Siemens (Spring 1920 - Spring 1921), David C. Neufeld (Fall 1921 - Fall 1924), A. L. Toews (Spring 1925), Helen S. Schellenberg (Fall 1925 - Spring 1926), Bernhard J. Schellenberg (Fall 1926 - Spring 1927), Jacob F. Friesen (Fall 1927), Anna W. Peters (Spring 1928 - Spring 1933), Peter J. Peters (Fall 1933 - Spring 1936, Fall 1937 - Spring 1941), Henry Dietrich Dyck (Fall 1936 - Spring 1937), Marie Louise Friesen (Fall 1941 - Spring 1942), Cornelius Bergen (Fall 1942), Frank F. Enns (Spring 1943), Cornelius Peter Zacharias (Fall 1943 - Spring 1945), Harvey Wilbert Toews (Fall 1945 - Spring 1946), Margaret Lundin (Fall 1946 - Spring 1947), Arthur G. Toews (Fall 1947 - Spring 1949), Anne Voth (Fall 1949 - Spring 1950), Jake Heinrichs (Fall 1950 - Spring 1951), Peter F. Klassen (Fall 1951 - Spring 1953, October 1953 - June 1954), Clara Peters (September-October 1953), Peter P. “Pete” Giesbrecht (Fall 1954 - Spring 1958), Harold Schulz (Fall 1958 - Spring 1961), Abe Toews (Fall 1961 - Spring 1963), and Dennis Gordon Siemens (Fall 1963 - Spring 1964).
For Principals and staff of Halbstadt Consolidated School District No. 214 from 1964-1967, see the former Houston South School No. 214.
The name sign from the second Halbstadt School building was later erected at the site in commemoration of it.
The Halbstadt School building, as it appeared after remodelling in 1915 (no date) by G. G. Neufeld
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 17.
Halbstadt School (1930)
Source: Dave Sawatzky (Altona and District Heritage Research Centre)
The second Halbstadt School building (no date) by G. G. Neufeld
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 17.
The second Halbstadt School building (1937)
Source: Dave Sawatzky (Altona and District Heritage Research Centre)
Halbstadt School commemorative sign (October 2015)
Source: Jake Rempel
Halbstadt School commemorative sign (May 2023)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.02159, W97.39238
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Halbstadt Monument (Municipality of Rhineland)
Emerson East topographic map, 62H/3 West, Edition 2 ASE, Series A743 [UFS Reference Collection].
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Municipal borrowing files (MA 0039), Halbstadt School District No. 886, GR1799, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Halbstadt School District No. 886 - Daily Registers, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Halbstadt Consolidated School District No. 214 - Daily Registers, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Halbstadt School District No. 886 - Minute Books, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Halbstadt School District No. 886 - Miscellaneous Records, GR2656, Archives of Manitoba.
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.
The Rural Municipality of Rhineland, 1884-1984 by Gerhard J. Ens, 1984. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.R45 Ens]
Halbstadt Heritage: 1879-2005 by the Halbstadt Heritage Book Committee, 2005. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.R45 Hal]
This page was prepared by Al Schmidt (Altona and District Heritage Research Centre), Jake Rempel, Gordon Goldsborough, and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 8 August 2025
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