Historic Sites of Manitoba: Arden School No. 341 (Arden, Municipality of Glenella-Lansdowne)

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

The Arden School District was formally established in October 1884 and a school building was erected three years later, in June 1887, at this site in the village of Arden, in the Rural Municipality of Lansdowne. It burned in 1890 and was replaced.

As settlement in the Arden area hastened through the early 20th century, a second school building was erected in 1909. As the consolidation movement continued, the school became Arden Consolidated School No. 341, in October 1919. Another building, known as the “Little School,” was built in 1920 on a design by Winnipeg architect E. D. Tuttle. By 1939, the school comprised three buildings, with grades 1 and 2 in the Little School, grades 3 to 5 in the “Middle School”, and grades 6 to 12 in the “High School”.

A new school building opened in 1954 and the Little School was moved to its present location on the south side of the Arden municipal office as a Seniors Centre. The Middle School became a private residence, first at Neepawa and later at Onanole. The High School building fell apart when an attempt was made to move it, and its parts were incorporated into several buildings around Arden. The new school operated until June 2001 when students began to be bused to Neepawa.

A monument commemorating the Arden school was dedicated at a ceremony on 14 October 2007. Its base is constructed from locally made concrete blocks recovered from a nearby derelict farmhouse.

Principals

Period	Principal
1906-1907	J. H. Marsh
1907-1910	George Wesley Bartlett (1876-1950)
1910-1912	?
1912-1913	H. P. McPhail
1913-1915	Frederick H. Burkholder (1888-?)
1915-1917	Victor Harvey Hugo (1888-1972)
1917-1918	John E. Gillanters
1918-1919	Kathleen Farrell
1919-1920	Edward Sandford Lord (1869-1922)
1920-1921	Louise Anne Foreman Elliott (1894-1974)
1921-1923	J. E. Ridd
1923-1925	Percival Beresford Bennett (1884-1954)
1925-1927	James Clark Whenham (1896-1970)
1927-1928	Hazel A. Vandecar
1928-1929	Vivian Clarkson “Clark” Hardy (1897-1982)
1929-1936	Walter Fahrig (1889-1937)
1936-1939	George Scott Belton (1904-1967)
1939-1945	Elmenia Jean Mollard (1901-1991)
1945-1948	Henry Lambert Williams (1890-1976)
1948-1951	Abiah Davies Morgan (1899-1967)
1951-1952	Bodvar Jon Skuli Bodvarson (1911-1972)
1952-1955	Benjamin Foreman (c1898-1981)
1955-1956	Glenn Homer Turner (1912-1987)
1956-1957	Frederick C. Mongeon
1957-1958	Peter Jacob Olchowecki (1911-2011)
1958-1961	Harold Edgar Woods
1961-1962	Irma Sirett
1962-1965	Joseph Grodecki (1925-2011)
1965-1966	E. Dunsmore
1966-1969	Cecil McCullough
1969-1973	L. Boychuk

Teachers

Among the other teachers at Arden School were Hugh McCamis (1887), Jean Isabel Wellwood, John E. Ridd (1920s), Karl E. Chambers (late 1920s), John Maxwell “Jack” McGilvray (1930-1934), Margaret Eames (early 1940s), Mrs. H. Thompson (1953), A. E. N. Carnochan (1956-1957), and Ruth Emisch (1967-1973).

Photos & Coordinates

Arden School (circa 1908) Source: Rob McInnes, MN0633. The Arden School consisted of the three building to the right of the church at left (circa 1930) by C. K. Rogers Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 32. Arden School monument (July 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.27739, W99.26704 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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

“Arden, Man”, Western Canada Fire Underwriters’ Association map, July 1918, Archives of Manitoba.

“Langruth news,” Portage la Prairie Leader, 3 September 1953, page 11.

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.

“Keep in touch” by Keith Boughton, Retired Teachers Association of Manitoba, Winter 2008, www.ardenmb.ca/history/schoolcairn.htm.

We thank Tracey Winthrop-Meyers, Rob McInnes, Nathan Kramer, Edith Burnside, and Bob McCamis for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 19 May 2023

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