Historic Sites of Manitoba: Minitonas School No. 1102 (Minitonas, Municipality of Minitonas-Bowsman)

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

The Minitonas School District was organized formally in April 1901. A school building, erected later that year at SE13-36-26W, was later turned into a barn (for horses rode by students attending the school) in 1909, when a new two-storey, four-classroom wood building was built, using a design by Dauphin architect J. H. Bossons, in the town of Minitonas. The school opened in the fall of 1909 with W. J. Henderson as Principal. Only the classrooms on the lower floor were used, as enrollment did not warrant use of the upper two rooms. The building was demolished in 1953 and replaced with the present structure at a different site.

Principals

Period	Principal
1905-1906	Robert Gardner Taylor (1874-1949)
1906-1909	David Scott Woods (1885-1966)
1909-1913	William James Henderson (1876-1945)
1913-1914	Archibald Macdonald Headlam (1872-1943)
1914-1915	Clarence Record
1915-1918	A. H. Plummer
1918-1919	J. R. Williams
1919-1921	?
1921-1923	George Robert Farrar Prowse (1860-1946)
1923-1924	Margaret Thompson
1924-1925	Margaret Gertrude Dudley (1888-1980)
1925-1926	Dorothea C. Peter
1926-1927	Francis Kethel “Frank” Coleridge (1865-1944)
1927-1929	Norman Robson (1900-1978)
1929-1930	John Blain Stewart (1882-?)
1930-1932	Stanley James Weatherley (1902-1975)
1932-1940	Sanford Stephen Harvey (1911-1980)
1940-1944	John Lorne Wright (1913-1996)
1944-1945	Teresa Moloney (1899-1983)
1945-1947	John Nathan Robert Clark (1912-1990)
1947-1949	Clifford P. Hansen
1949-1950	Anne Sims Crichton (1910-1994)
1950-1953	Harold Arthur Bathgate (1904-1983)
1953-1956	William Hugo Rentz (1926-2017)
1956-1970	Clifford Peter Hansen (1905-1986)
1970-1972	L. Harapiak
1972-1973	H. Jersak

Teachers

School Year	Teachers
1963-1964	John R. Fawcett, Garry D. Finlay, Mrs. Marilyn A. Hooper, John F. Orchard, Stewart Tuningley

Some of the other teachers who worked at Minitonas School included Janetta Crerar (1914-1915), Janet Braser (1915), L. C. Anderson (1916-1917), A. E. Anderson (1921), R. Pearlman (1922), Mary Koons (1921-1922), J. R. Williams (1921-1922), G. R. Prouse (1921-1922), Margaret G. Dudley (1923-1924), E. Turner (1923-1924), M. Thompson (1923-1924), H. Hassett (1923-1924), Ursula Koons (1929), Ada Till (1930), Ruth Voight (1932), Millicent Johnstone (1932), Jean Marr (1940), Dorothy Marie Slaughter (1943-1944), Norma Fulford (1944), Adena Tulman (1945), Jean Fulford (1949), John Wright (?-1944), John Park (1945-1946), Ruth Emisch (1975-?), John W. Carroll, and Stella Howelko.

Photos & Coordinates

Minitonas School (circa 1909) Source: Education Department Report, 1909, Manitoba Legislative Library. The first Minitonas School building (no date) by J. S. Peach Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 58. The present Minitonas School building, erected in 1953 at N52.08738, W101.04267 (July 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N52.08500, W101.03699 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

“Minitonas, Man”, Western Canada Fire Underwriters’ Association map, 9 September 1916, Archives of Manitoba.

The Development of Education in Swan River Valley by J. N. R. Clark, MEd thesis, Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba, 1949.

“3800 pupils enrolled for 1963-1964 term,” Swan Valley Star and Times, 29 August 1963, page 1.

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.

Over the Rainbow: Memories of a Country School Teacher by Ruth Emisch, 1993.

Boots, Buggies & Buses: Swan Valley Schools in Quest of Education, Swan Valley School Division No. 35, circa 1998.

We thank Keven Van Camp and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 11 September 2023

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