Historic Sites of Manitoba: Middleton School No. 404 (Municipality of Pembina)

Formed in May 1885, the Middleton School District was named in honour of General F. D. Middleton who had commanded Canadian troops during the 1885 North West Rebellion. The school began operations in late November 1886, in a building on the southeast quarter of 35-3-8 west of the Principal Meridian, in what is now the Municipality of Pembina. In 1900, the building was moved across the road, to NE26-3-8W. Local residents voted to close the school in mid-1962. The remaining students went to Manitou Consolidated School No. 314 or Darlingford Consolidated School No. 1228. Contents of the school building were sold at an auction that fall, and the building itself was sold to the congregation of the Full Gospel Mission who moved it to the nearby village of Darlingford for use as a meeting place. A monument was erected at the former school site in 1979.

Among the teachers of Middleton School were Miss Elizabeth Abbott (1887), J. E. Kimberly (1888), D. W. Kerchar (1889), Theodore G. Finn (1890-1892), Fred Morris (1893), C. E. Armstrong (1894), Helen Hobkirk (1895), T. Webster (1896), Lena J. Gayton (1897-1899), Albert J. Law (1900), Christina M. Ross (1901), Harry H. McIntosh (1902), Edith A. Martin (1902-1903), Kate Armitage (1904-1905), Elizabeth A. Cousins (1905), Mary Nicholson (1906-1907), Josephine MacLean (1908-1909), Amy Graham (1910), Bethel Graham (1911-1913), Florence Moores (1914), Ida Atkinson (1915), Ellen M. Richmond (1916-1917), Margaret Balfour (1918-1920), Alice L. Davis (1921-1922), Lila Campbell (1923), Nellie Armitage (1924-1925), Eva J. Wallcroft (1926), M. Ruth Blackwell (1927), Myrtle Scharf (1928-1929), Kathleen McLeod (1930-1933), Marguerite McDowell (1934-1937), J. E. McDonald (1938-1939), Catherine M. Slater (1939-1940), Evelyn J. Rosen (1941), Laura I. Vincent (1942-1945), Ruth Spearman (1946), Florence Trembath (1947), Mildred Neelin (1948), Jean Ferguson (1949-1950), Barbara Jamieson (1951), Alice I. Morrison (1952-1953), Vivian G. Kennedy (1954), Blanche Aldcroft (1955), and Jessie A. Mackintosh (1955-1962).

Middleton School (no date) by G. G. Neufeld Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 42. Middleton School (no date) Source: Memoirs of Middleton, 1972. Middleton School commemorative sign (April 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.25125, W98.43174 denoted by symbol on the map above

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.

Memoirs of Middleton by Middleton Ladies Club, 1972, pages 11-12.

Memoirs of Middleton by Middleton Ladies Club, 2000.

Middleton School file, Archibald Museum.

Obituary [Catherine Maria Thexton], Winnipeg Free Press, 5 March 2019.

We thank Pat Miles for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Ed Grassick and Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 7 December 2019

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