Historic Sites of Manitoba: McKenzie School No. 235 (Municipality of Pembina)

The McKenzie School District was established formally in 1882 and a one-room schoolhouse operated at SE20-2-9W in the Rural Municipality of Pembina. The original school building was destroyed by fire on 5 June 1905. The replacement school operated until in closed in June 1962. The district was dissolved later that year and its area was merged with La Riviere Consolidated School No. 516. The former school building was used as a community centre until late 1970. It was sold and moved away. The monument at the site commemorates the school as well as McKenzie Church that operated nearby from 1900 to 1963. A cemetery associated with the church is located here too.

Among the teachers of McKenzie School were Miss McLennan (1882), Miss Ethel Seed (1890), Miss Lottie Brooks (1891-1892), W. N. Denike (1893), Sam Brown (1894), W. P. Olds (1894), Charles Vrooman (1895), Ed Vrooman (1896-1897), E. B. Steele (1898), Miss Ella Flanagan (1899-1903), Miss Lily Gayton (1905-1908), Sadie Ferguson, Nellie Shewfelt, Bert Durham, Miss McFadden, Hilda Evett, Miss Christie, Miss Kinley, Miss Hicks, Evelyn Louise Kirkpatrick (1936-1937), Albert Walter Wurham (1937-1938), Mary Aileen Dale (1939), Kennetha Louise Statham (1939-1940), Edna May McDowell (1940-1941), Muriel Cook (1941), Mrs. May Penman (1942-1945), Dorothy Aileen Richards (1945-1946), Dorothy Mae Milljour (1946-1947), Donna Ellen Lusignan (1947-1948), Janet Margaret Peckover Cousins (1948-1952), Iris Merle Reeves (1952-1953), Fern Agnes Finnen (1953-1954), Marion Alice Dyck (1954), Margaret Irene Bergner (1955), Frank Froese (1955-1958), Joyce Hazel Gardiner (1958-1959), and Lois Ellen McKinney (1959-1960).

McKenzie School (no date) by G. G. Neufeld Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 83. McKenzie School and Church commemorative sign (April 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.13331, W98.62801 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: McKenzie Cemetery (Municipality of Pembina)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Mackenzie School / Dauphin Composite High School / Dauphin Collegiate (212 First Street NE, Dauphin)

Sources:

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.

Turning Leaves: A History of La Riviere and District by La Riviere Historical Book Committee, c1979. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5649.L38 Tur]

Manitoba School Records Collection (GR5330), McKenzie School District No. 235 Daily Registers, Archives of Manitoba.

We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 7 February 2021

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