Historic Sites of Manitoba: Oakner Consolidated School No. 290 (Oakner, Municipality of Hamiota)

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

The Oakner Consolidated School was formed in August 1918 by the consolidation of Scotia School No. 290 with Eden School No. 510, at Oakner in what is now the Municipality of Hamiota. The four-classroom brick structure, designed by Winnipeg school architect Eldred Dodsworth Tuttle and built in 1919 by the Sigurdson brothers, operated from January 1920 until 1968 when it closed and was sold to a local farmer for use as a granary. It has since been demolished.

The building is commemorated by a stone monument erected in 1997. It contains the datestone from the original school building that is engraved with the name of the architect and members of the school board at that time: John Strachan, James Anderson, William Watt, G. Y. Rankin, A. Cowan, and A. Smith (Secretary-Treasurer). Also noted on the monument is Oakner United Church, which operated from 1909 to 2000.

Principals

Period

Principal

1920-1921

Mr. Hindle

1921-1924

G. H. Dyson

1924-1932

Willard Ervin Rife (1890-1970)

1932-1933

Charles Raymond Slawson (1900-1933)

1933-1935

John Osborn Wilson (1900-1972)

1935-1937

Janet Louisa May More (1896-1986)

1937-1944

Donald Roderick “Don” McLennan (1910-1990)

1944-1947

Ralph Ernest Mayes (1891-1969)

1947-1954

Peter Frederick Kutcher (1918-2013)

1954-1957

H. B. Weinmaster

1957-1958

Frank Veregin (1931-2001)

1958-1960

C. Glenn

1960-1965

?

1965-1968

Mary Joan Foxton

Teachers

School Year

Teachers

1920

Miss Andrew (grades 1-2), Miss Burrows (grades 3-6), Mr. Hindle (grades 7-11)

Photos & Coordinates

Oakner School

Oakner School (circa 1920)
Source: Education Department Report, 1920, Manitoba Legislative Library.

Oakner School

Oakner School (no date) by G. W. Bartlett
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 4.

The former Oakner School building

The former Oakner School building (circa 1986)
Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 522.

Oakner School commemorative monument

Oakner School commemorative monument (September 2011)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough

Oakner School commemorative monument

Oakner School commemorative monument (September 2023)
Source: Kathryn Hyndman

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.09189, W100.58871
denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Memorable Manitobans: Eldred Dodsworth Tuttle (1878-1965)

Sources:

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.

A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.

“School closes,” Brandon Sun, 2 October 1968, page 17.

Hamiota: Grains of the Century, 1884-1984 by Hamiota Centennial History Committee, 1984, pages 103-104.

We thank Murray Cumming, Kathryn Hyndman, and David Ford for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 7 November 2023

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