Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources
In May 1892, the Holmfield School District was established formally and classes were held in the home of George Armstrong in the village of Holmfield in the Rural Municipality of Turtle Mountain. By 1901, it had become overcrowded and local ratepayers authorized the construction of a new schoolhouse at a cost of $3,500. Work by contractor D. Barlow began that summer and was completed by September. It was a two-storey stone structure with three classrooms, a large meeting room, and a basement.
Demolished in 1951, the stone school was replaced by a one-storey building, constructed at a cost of $24,000 and opened officially on 3 April 1951. In January 1959, the district consolidated with Hazeldell School No. 611 and West Derby School No. 194 to become Holmfield Consolidated School No. 699. The high school closed in June 1959 and the school as a whole closed in June 1974. The building was later demolished and its bell sits atop the Bank of Toronto Vault.
Some records for the school are held at the Messner Store Museum.
Period
Principal
1906-1908
Hugh Clarke Fairfield (1877-1961)
1908-1913
David Smith Tod (1870-1937)
1913-1914
Robert B. Masterton
1914-1916
John D. Sutherland
1916-1918
Clarence Record
1918-1921
Duncan Scott McIntyre (1899-1975)
1921-1922
Edith Ann Fingland (1877-1957)
1922-1924
Ida J. Finnen
1924-1926
Alfred James Struthers (1889-1979)
1926-1928
John Macgregor Wilkie (1904-1991)
1928-1933
James Thomas Hulme (1864-1938)
1933-1936
Charles Edward Clare Durnin (c1903-1974)
1936-1939
Robert Cameron Mulligan (1889-1976)
1939-1942
Walter Thorvaldur Fredrickson (1907-1974)
1942-1943
Oliver Clayton Bricker (1900-1992)
1943-1959
Hugh Arthur Johnson (1910-1967)
1959-1969
?
1969-1970
William Sanford “Bill” Kirbyson (1908-1995)
The other teachers of Holmfield School were: Frances Balfour (1892-1893), James C. Butchart (1893-1894), Joseph McKee (1894-1895), R. W. E. Preston (1895), A. G. Lanigan (1895-1896), J. D. Nicol (1896-1899), Marnie E. Sargent (1899-1900), James G. Dunlop (1900-1901), Louis McKinn (1901-1902), Henry G. Heasman (1902-1903), Miss Greenway (1903), Robert Moir (1905-1906), Grace L. Hicks (1905-1907), Lillian Coulter (1906-1908), Nellie Martin (1908-1911), Cecelia A. Cresswell (1910-1911), Laurinda Martin (1911-1912), Janet A. Pritchard (1911-1915), J. A. Peadon (1914-1916), Frances M. Porter (1916-1917), Retta Davis (1916-1918), Winnifred W. Collis (1917-1918), Mildred A. Bateman (1917-1919), Ilo M. Nelson (1918-1919), S. Estella Carruthers (1918-1919), Marjorie Davidson (1919-1920), Jessie Knox (1919-1920), Helen F. Wiechman (1920-1922), Cora L. Hefford (1920-1922), Edith H. Gee (1921-1923), Fern Morden (1922-1924), Mary E. McMillan (1923-1924), Mary R. Wiechman (1923-1924), Maude E. Rutherford (1924-1926), Elsie R. Jones (1924-1926), Elsie B. Fisher (1925-1926), Evelyn H. McPherson (1926-1929), Mildred A. Lousley (1926-1927), Hilda M. Huddlestone (1927-1943), Christina D. Hunter (1929-1931), Isabella M. Jamieson (1931-1938), Charlotte I. Lynch (1938-1940), Dorothy H. Dutton (1940-1941), Eva M. Lyons (1941-1945), Dorothy McMillan (1943-1945), Florence Clucas (1945-1947), Margarette B. McNabb (1945-1946), Frances E. Havard (1945), Mary Rankin (1946), Ila T. Cockriell (1947-1949, 1950-1955), Jessie H. Neufeld (1947-1948), Sigrun B. Sigurdsson (1948-1949), Sarah B. Steel (1949-1952), R. L. Duane Duff (1949-1950), Mabel E. Sabad (1952-1953, 1957-1965), Enid I. Cobbledick Brogden (1953-1956), Marilyn P. Gusdal (1955-1957), Tena Moffat (1956), Elizabeth Grierson (1957-1968), Harry F. Tiessen (1964-1965), Leanore E. B. Knight (1965-1967), Alice I. McKnight (1965-1967), Patricia B. Porter (1967-1969), Marlene L. McKelvey (1967-1968), Shirley M. Langan (1968-1974), Jill Gwynne (1968-1969, 1971-1972), Jessie H. Duerksen (1968-1970, 1971-1972), William S. Kirbyson (1969-1970), Dale W. Armstrong (1969-1970), Owen J. Wallis (1970-1971), Joseph A. Mayers (1970-1972), Trudy Grey (1971-1972), and Robert F. Renshaw (1972-1974).
Holmfield School (no date) by W. J. Parr
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 111.
Holmfield School (no date)
Source: Audrey & Duncan WaddellSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.13445, W99.48651
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Bank of Toronto Vault (Holmfield, RM of Killarney-Turtle Mountain)
Personal Memoirs: Memories of Teaching at Holmfield School (1949-1950) by Duane Duff
Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.
“Holmfield, Man”, Western Canada Fire Underwriters’ Association map, 1919, Archives of Manitoba.
“Holmfield school to close,” Brandon Sun, 20 June 1974, page 3.
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.
By the Old Mill Stream: A History of the Village of Holmfield & District by Holmfield History Book Committee, 1982.
We thank Nathan Kramer, Duane Duff, and Audrey & Duncan Waddell for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 5 September 2021
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