Historic Sites of Manitoba: Rosamond School / McCreary School No. 1348 (McCreary, Municipality of McCreary)

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

The Rosamond School District was established formally in May 1905 and the first schoolhouse in McCreary had a single classroom. In 1917, a larger school building was constructed at the site and the original one was moved elsewhere to be used as a movie house and hardware store before being dismantled. The new two-storey Rosamond building had two classrooms on its main floor, with cloakrooms and an assembly area. There were two classrooms on the second floor and a small laboratory. In 1936, it became McCreary Municipal School No. 1348. A new four-classroom elementary school was constructed beside it in 1952 and both structures were used until being closed in 1979, although senior students had moved out in 1959 when a five-classroom collegiate was built at another site. The two buildings were demolished by 1983. The old school bell (restored in 1987) tops a stone monument that was unveiled at the original site on 31 July 1994, along with a plaque listing other rural schools that operated in the McCreary region:

School	Period of Operation	Location(s)
Armstrong School No. 1833	1916-1967	SW21-20-13W
Bower School No. 1860	1917-1964	NE28-20-14W
Bracken School No. 2099	1922-1965	SE33-21-15W
Budka School No. 1717	1914-1956	SE34-19-13W
Canadaville School No. 836	1895-1921	NE17-21-15W
Canal School No. 1718	1913-1960	SE12-21-15W
Glencairn School No. 1149	1901-1966	NW23-19-14W
Glenhope School No. 1861	1917-1940	SE8-21-13W
Marshall School No. 2013	1919-1933	NW31-21-13W
Mountain Eve School No. 1152	1899-1962	SW27-20-15W
Norgate School No. 807	1898-1966	NE34-20-15W and SE3-20-15W
Reeve School No. 2325	1941-1962	SE24-20-15W
Royal Oak School No. 1354	1905-1959	SW18-21-16W
Sunrise School No. 1926	1918-1962	NE29-21-14W
Turtle Plains School No. 1568	1911-1964	SW6-20-14W

Principals

Period	Principal
1917-1919	?
1919-1923	Robert Cameron Mulligan (1889-1976)
1923-1925	Harvey Richard Brown (1895-1962)
1925-1926	George Gilbert Perry (1892-1971)
1926-1931	David Smith Tod (1870-1937)
1931-1935	Earl Duncan McKellar (1902-1984)
1935-1953	William Meldrum (1884-1959)
1953-1956	Harry Piniuta (1910-1990)
1956-1958	William Meldrum (1884-1959)
1958-1960	Ray E. Lavack
1960-1961	John Peter Tutkaluke (1914-1994)
1961-1962	A. H. Butler
1962-1963	George Papas
1963-1964	Oliver Glen Olmstead (?-1997)
1964-1965	Michael “Mike” Posmituck (1918-1996)
1965-1969	?
1969-1979	John Hildebrand

Teachers

Among the early teachers of McCreary School were Fred Palmatier, Roy Watson, F. M. Thompson, and Marie Louise Trottier.

School Year	Teachers
1906-1907	Miss Clara Love
1907-1917	?
1917-1923	Miss Campbell, Mr. C. J. Gillespie, Mr. Mulligan, Miss Sarah P. Strong
1920s	J. M. McDonald, J. M. Riddell
1927-1936	I. H. Beggs, Miss R. Betts, M. Delmage, J. F. Ennis, B. Gorby, K. O'Neill, C. Shewfelt, E. Steen, M. Steen, E. Tedford, Etheldreda Tucker
1938-1939	Irene Bell, Violet Edwards, J. F. Ennis, Elizabeth Telford
1940s	Miss Bourbonnais, L. Brister, Miss Brock, J. Bryer, M. Collins, V. Copeland, J. Dale, J. Dickie, V. Edwards, Dreda Ennis, J. F. Ennis, Anna Fox, D. Hartley, Miss Little, Michael “Mike” Posmituck, E. Shepherd, Anne Sims, B. Tedford, E. Thompson
1947-1956	Lois Blair, Olga Code, M. Collins (grade 3), Joyce Cook, A. Delveaux, E. English, M. Galanchuk, M. Getz, T. Hall, J. Henderson, A. Hendy, N. Houston, M. Hykaway, E. Jackson, Marj. Johnson, H. Kliman, M. Lloyd, E. Lysack, R. Mooney, M. Morton, O. Muloin, Juliet Noiseux, Leona Poole, Michael “Mike” Posmituck, S. Rehaluk, E. Rinn, V. Roy, B. Soucy, L. Sumner, M. Thierry, M. Thompson, Annette Turko, I. Wilson, J. O. Wilson
1957-1966	E. (Shura) Armstrong, F. Armstrong, J. Buchanan, H. (Bishop) Bunka, Olga Code, E. Dunning, Dreda Ennis, R. Hoehn, H. Magnusson, P. (McGorman) Mulligan, Leona (Poole) Murphy, M. Spurway, R. Virtue
1967-1976	Elizabeth Armstrong, Lois Arthur, H. Bunka, B. Chorneyko, G. Christie, Olga Code, E. Dunning, E. M. (Dreda) Ennis, M. Hanau, G. Haverstick, I. Jarko, J. Lindsay, R. Lofgren, S. Majury, V. Marciski, M. Mellquist, L. Oke, L. Paterson, J. Perchaluk, S. Savard, R. Slade, B. Smith, L. Sodomlak, C. Spewak, C. Stewart, L. Stewart, E. (Cantin) Tardiff, M. Totte
1976-1979	Elizabeth Armstrong, Lois Arthur, Floyd Clark, Olga Code, Gloria Haverstick, David Katsma, Viola Marciski, Linda Paterson, M. Totte

Photos & Coordinates

Rosamond School (no date) by C. K. Rogers Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 102. McCreary schools commemorative monument beside a model of Rosamond School (June 2013) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.77291, W99.49713 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: McCreary Collegiate / McCreary School (Third Avenue, McCreary, Municipality of McCreary)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: McCreery School No. 797 (Municipality of Norfolk-Treherne)

Sources:

“The local round,” Dauphin Herald, 20 October 1938, page 9.

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.

“Add one position in Turtle R.,” Dauphin Herald, 6 September 1978, page 2.

McCreary: Milestones and Memories by McCreary History Book Committee, 1987, pages 139-147.

Manitoba Heritage Council Commemorative Plaques and Manitoba Community Commemorative Plaques, Fiscal Year 1994-1995, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Citizenship, page 33.

We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 5 August 2022

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