Historic Sites of Manitoba: Eagleton School / Tilston School No. 1437 (Tilston, Municipality of Two Borders)

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Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

The Eagleton Consolidated School District was established formally in August 1907 and, in 1908, a temporary classroom was built at this site in the village of Eagleton, as Tilston (in what is now the Municipality of Two Borders) was known at that time. The village was renamed the following year, but the school name remained unchanged.

In January 1910, the original building was replaced by a two-storey, two-room brick veneer structure, built on a stone basement on a two-acre property at a cost of $7,000. Accommodating students in grades 1 to 11, it became Tilston Consolidated School in 1920. The present one-storey, four-room school was built in 1947, on a design by Winnipeg architect Ewart Fitz Munn, and the old building was demolished.

Over time, as student enrollment declined, grades were closed: grade 11 in June 1963, grades 9 and 10 in June 1966, and grades 7 and 8 in June 1968. The school was taken over by the Antler River School Division in January 1968. By June 1987, there were 17 students from Kindergarten to grade 6 and the school was finally closed.

A commemorative monument, with the original school bell and a replica of the former school building, was erected during a school reunion held on 5 August 1990. The school building now stands vacant, containing scattered household items.

Principals

Period	Principal
1914	Clarence Moore (1884-1977)
1914-1915	Charles Millard Hoar (1885-1969)
1915-1916	J. Irving Herkes
1916	Olga L. Clee
1916-1917	John Barry de Bediak Saunderson (c1877-?)
1917-1920	Leon LeRoy Nichols (1886-1983)
1920-1924	Jean “Jeannie” Brown
1924-1929	Violet M. Adams
1929-1930	Anna Angell
1930-1931	John Blain Stewart (1882-?)
1931-1933	John Alfred Hammond (1898-1988)
1933-1934	Florence Irene Robinson Hayter (?-1948)
1934-1935	Alys Danton Hunter “Alice” Robertson (1912-1995)
1935-1936	Jean L. McLeod
1936-1937	Walter Fahrig (1889-1937)
1937-1938	Jean E. McLeod
1938-1940	Robert William “Bobby” Bend (1914-1999)
1940-1941	James R. Nicol
1941-1947	William Henry “Bill” Bradley (1909-1977)
1947-1948	?
1948-1950	Frederick James Hall (1892-1977)
1950-1951	William John “Bill” Dutka (?-2008)
1951-1954	?
1954-1956	Ronald E. Stacey
1956-1957	Willard Ervin Rife (1890-1970)
1957-1960	George Ivan McBurney (1929-2019)
1960-1962	Robert B. Land
1962-1964	R. Bawtinhimer
1964-1966	Larry Verner Moldowan (1940-2013)

Teachers

Among the early teachers of Eagleton School were Miss Lilly LaPointe (1908), Miss Myrtle Shaw (Spring-Fall 1909), George Edgerton Snider (Spring-Fall 1910), and George W. Hurst (Spring 1911 - Spring 1913).

Period	Teachers
1913-1914	Lilly LaPointe [LaPoint] (junior grades, Spring), Clarence Moore (all grades, Fall; senior grades, Spring)
1914-1915	Eleanor E. Hanlen [Hamlin?] (grades 1-4, Spring), Charles Millard Hoar (grades 5-9), Lilly M. LaPointe [LaPoint] (grades 1-5, Fall)
1915-1916	Olga L. Clee (grades 5-10, February-June), Eleanor E. Hanlen [Hamlin?] (grades 1-4), J. Irving Herkes (grades 5-10, August-February)
1916-1917	Olga L. Clee (grades 1-4), John Barry de Bediak Saunderson (grades 5-10)
1917-1918	Leon LeRoy Nichols (grades 5-10), Janet Louisa May More (grades 1-4)
1918-1919	Leon LeRoy Nichols (grades 5-9), Janet Louisa May More (grades 1-4)
1919-1920	Leon LeRoy Nichols (grades 4-10), Janet Louisa May More (grades 1-3)
1920-1921	Jean “Jeannie” Brown (grades 6-10), Elvira Collen (grade 1, August-December; grades 1-2, January-June), Elizabeth Pearl McDonald (grades 2-5)
1921-1922	Jean “Jeannie” Brown (grades 7-11), Janet Lees (grades 1-3, August-December), Elizabeth Pearl McDonald (grades 3-7, August-December; grades 3-6, January-June), Wilda Manson (grades 1-3, January-June)
1922-1923	Jean “Jeannie” Brown (grades 7-11), Elizabeth Pearl McDonald (grades 4-6), Gertrude E. McRae (grades 1-3)
1923-1924	Jean “Jeannie” Brown (grades 7-11), Gertrude E. McRae (grades 1-2), Lena Morden (grades 3-6)
1924-1925	Violet A. Adams (grades 7-11), Gertrude E. McRae (grades 1-2), Lena Morden (grades 3-6)

Among the other teachers of Tilston Consolidated School were Elizabeth Pearl McDonald (1927-1930), Elvira Collen (1927-1928), Doris Bulloch (1925-1926), Violet Kerr (1925-1927), Florence Taylor (1926), Ethel Robertson (1926-1927), Ruby Wood (1926-1927), Ida Jane Finnan (1926-1927), Gladys Muir (1927-1928), Donna Mae Curry (1928), Anne Mary Smith (1928), Mae Berry (1929), Pearl Riddell (1929-1934), Edna Sheir (1929-1934), Ruth Bradley (1930-1931), Ted Armstrong (1932-1934), Gertrude Dobbyn (1933-1937), Edith King (1934-1936), May Pollock (1937-1939), Frances Peacock (1937-1940), Harold A. Mouritsen (1939-1940), Jean Armstrong (1941-1942), Janet Wilson (1941-1942), William McMurchy (1941-1942), Elsie Stowe (1942-1943), Mary Graham (1942-1943), Jean E. Donald (1944-1946), Marie Brydon (1944-1946), Marjorie Spencer (1946-1950), Gwen Tooth (1946-1950), Betty Munro (1946-1950), Ellen Schellenbergh (1946-1950), Mary Thomas (1946-1950), Georgene Lucy (1960), Hazel Adams (1960), Lila Garrett (1960), Berna Adamson (1960), Betty Birch (1960), Lila Wheelans (1962-1963), C. W. Anderson (1962-1963), Robert Krein (1962-1963), Lynn Switzer (1963-1967), Marian Switzer (1963-1967), Grace Nolan (1963-1965), Lila Wheelans (1963-1965), Lorraine Pelletier (1963-1965), Gertrude Bateman (1963-1970), Joyce Marcino (1963-1965), Glenn Tweed (1963-1965), Hazel Lamport (1965-1967), Mike Gavezer (1965-1967), Mary Chalmers (1965-1967), Grace Hall (1965-1970), Ruth Land (1968-1970), R. W. Huestis, W. F. Dzadow, Beatrice Siska, John Albrecht, Denise Olivier, Mrs. Ann Careme, Mrs. Velma MacDonald, Olga Zemlack, M. Lysack, Miss McQuaig, Mrs. Hutton, Mrs. Metcalfe, Eugene Burtnyk, Loretta Berkis, Valerie Smith, Sheila Clark, Ted Allan, Beverley Redshaw, Movis Halls, Darcie Herbert, Miss J. Gibb, and Beth Curtis.

Photos & Coordinates

Tilston (Eagleton) Consolidated School (circa 1912) Source: Consolidation of Rural Schools in Manitoba, Special Report of the Department of Education for the Year 1912, Manitoba Legislative Library. Tilston School (1920s) by George Hunter Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 117. Tilston School monument, replica and building (October 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Tilston School (circa 1986) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 11. The former Tilston School building (October 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Interior of the former Tilston School building (October 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Interior of the former Tilston School building (September 2021) Source: Rose Kuzina Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.39528, W101.31339 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

Board of Education registers (A 0050), GR7643, Archives of Manitoba.

Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.

Board of Education meeting minutes and office files (A 0052), GR1622, Archives of Manitoba.

School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.

Consolidation of Rural Schools in Manitoba, Special Report of the Department of Education for the Year 1912, Manitoba Legislative Library.

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.

Reflections of Time: A History of the RM of Albert by RM of Albert History Book, 1984. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.A43 Ref]

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

We thank Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.

Page revised: 24 May 2023

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