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The Austin School District was established formally in May 1884 and it began operation the next year. A school building was located about one and a half miles southeast of Austin, in the Rural Municipality of North Norfolk. In 1891, a one-room schoolhouse was built in town. It was replaced in 1905 by a two-storey, two-classroom brick building, built on a design by Brandon architect William Nicholson Lailey.
The school had expanded to three classrooms by 1923 and another room was added in 1931. The school expanded again in the 1950s with another classroom, with a teaching staff of eight. It became a consolidated school when, in 1965, it merged with rural schools from the surrounding vicinity: Forestville School No. 656, Norfolk School No. 897, Orangeville School No. 1011, Ravenshoe School No. 1261, and Springbrook School No. 566. The consolidated school became part of the Pine Creek School Division in 1968.
The old brick school was closed in June 1974, having accommodated students in kindergarten to grade 6 for the last six years of its operation. The building was demolished later that year. During demolition, the building caught fire and burned. A monument, constructed by John Seaman (whose wife Marjorie had taught at the school), was erected on the former school site around 1980. It was replaced by a plaque affixed to a boulder in 2015.
Period
Principal
1893
?
1894-1898
W. A. Ross
1898-1899
William Thomas Daniel Lathwell (1876-1932)
1899-1900
Neil Livingstone
1900-1901
Francis Henry “Frank” Belton (1869-1936)
1902-1904
?
1905
Albert E. Smith
1906
Chester C. McClellan
1906-1910
Henry Johnston “Harry” Everall (1877-1933)
1910-1913
James Hugh Cameron (1890-1981)
1913-1914
Gertrude “Gertie” Macdougall (1885-?)
1914-1915
Robert Williamson
1915-1916
Grace Frances Huntley (1891-1977)
1916-1917
Arthur Edward Cooke
1917
L. C. Anderson (?-?)
1917-1919
Myrtle McQueen
1919-1921
Edith L. Cusack
1921-1923
Jean Marion Avery (1899-1987)
1923-1924
James Thomas Hulme (1864-1938)
1924-1927
Ida Christine Graham (1901-1982)
1927-1929
Robert MacLaren Keswick (1894-1938)
1929-1931
Keith Alexander Booth (1907-1984)
1931-1937
William Fogel (1903-1991)
1937-1939
David S. Shellenberg (?-?)
1940-1941
Walter George Crane (1906-1979)
1941-1946
Frederick James Hall (1892-1977)
1946-1962
Clarence Earl Cole (1895-1970)
1962
Mr. Backewich
1962-1963
Menno R. Hamm
1963-1964
Peter Frederick Kutcher (1918-2013)
1964-1965
Marguerite A. Willis
1965-1967
Mrs. Gertrude Tait
Among the early teachers who worked at Austin School were: Miss Baird (1884, wife of William Cairns), D. W. Broadfoot (Spring-Fall 1885), John McLean (Spring 1886), Caroline Sparling (Fall 1886), Lauchlin McQuarrie (Spring 1887 - pt Fall 1888, died before term end), Margaret Campbell (Spring-Fall 1889), D. C. McKillok (Spring-Fall 1890), Kate Cox (Spring 1891), Fannie Walls (Fall 1891), and Annie Baird (Spring-Fall 1892).
Period
Teachers
1893
John McIntyre (all grades, Spring; ? grades, Fall), B. M. Mawhinney (? grades, Fall)
1894
Maggie Van Alstein (all grades, Spring; junior grades, Fall), W. A. Ross (Fall, senior grades)
1895
Margaret Emily Buchanan (junior grades, Fall, wife of John Bremner Craig), W. A. Ross (all grades, Spring; senior grades, Fall)
1896
Margaret Emily Buchanan (junior grades, Fall), W. A. Ross (all grades, Spring; senior grades, Fall)
1897
Margaret Emily Buchanan (junior grades, Fall), Edna A. Oliver (junior grades, Spring), W. A. Ross (senior grades)
1898
Margaret Emily Buchanan (junior grades), William Thomas Daniel Lathwell (senior grades, Fall), W. A. Ross (senior grades, Spring)
1899
Margaret Emily Buchanan (junior grades, Spring), William Thomas Daniel Lathwell (senior grades, Spring), Neil Livingstone (senior grades, Fall), Flora E. Wilson (junior grades, Spring)
1900
Francis Henry “Frank” Belton (senior grades, Fall), Neil Livingstone (senior grades, Spring), Flora E. Wilson (junior grades)
1901
Francis Henry “Frank” Belton (senior grades), Grace E. Smale (junior grades, Fall), Flora E. Wilson (junior grades, Spring)
1902
records not available
1903
records not available
1904
records not available
1905
Olive M. Oswald (junior grades), Albert E. Smith (senior grades)
1906
Frances H. Creighton (grades 1-4, Fall), Henry Johnston “Harry” Everall (grades 5-9, Fall), Chester C. McClellan (grades 5-9, Spring), Olive M. Oswald (grades 1-4, Spring)
1907
Frances H. Creighton (junior grades), Henry Johnston “Harry” Everall (senior grades)
1908
Henry Johnston “Harry” Everall (senior grades), Laura J. Ronrig? (junior grades)
1909
Kate S. Ball (junior grades, Fall), Henry Johnston “Harry” Everall (senior grades), Laura J. Ronrig? (junior grades, Spring)
1910
Kate S. Ball (junior grades, Spring), James Hugh Cameron (senior grades, Fall), Henry Johnston “Harry” Everall (senior grades, Spring), Gertrude “Gertie” Macdougall (junior grades, Fall)
1911
James Hugh Cameron (senior grades), Gertrude “Gertie” Macdougall (junior grades)
1912
(January-June only): James Hugh Cameron (senior grades), Gertrude “Gertie” Macdougall (junior grades)
1912-1913
James Hugh Cameron (senior grades), Gertrude “Gertie” Macdougall (junior grades)
1913-1914
Kathleen Johnson (junior grades), Gertrude “Gertie” Macdougall (senior grades)
1914-1915
Margaret A. Dixon (grades 1-4, January-June), Cordelia Mackay (grades 1-4, August-December), Robert Williamson (grades 5-10)
1915-1916
Edith G. Andrew (grades 1-4), Grace Frances Huntley (grades 4-8)
1916-1917
Arthur Edward Cooke (grades 4-9), Anna S. Stewart (grades 1-4)
1917-1918
L. C. Anderson (grades 5-10, August-October), L. M. Baldwin (grades 1-4, August-October), Ethel M. Colliere [Collier?] (grades 1-4, October-June), Myrtle McQueen (grades 5-10, October-June)
1918-1919
Zoa McIntosh (grades 1-4), Myrtle McQueen (grades 5-10)
1919-1920
Edith L. Cusack (grades 5-10), Zoa McIntosh (grades 1-4)
1920-1921
Frances E. Bansfield [Bowsfield?] (grades 4-6), Edith L. Cusack (grades 8-10), Dorothy Mutch (grades 1-3)
1921-1922
Jean Marion Avery (grades 9-11), Miss E. Buck? [Birch?] (grades 4-8, August), Edith Gair (grades 1-3), Mary A. Russell (grades 4-8, August-June)
1922-1923
Jean Marion Avery (grades 9-11), Olive Erickson (grades 4-8), Edith Gair (grades 1-3, August-December), Alice M. Peiper (grades 1-3, January-June)
Other teachers who worked at Austin School through the years included: Olive Erickson (1923-1924), Alice M. Pieper (1923-1924), Ida C. Graham (1924-1927), Wilfrid G. Booth (1924-1927), Frances M. Jones (1924-1926), Mary C. Campbell (1926-1927), Mary Cameron Cowan (1928-1938), Mary I. Morris (1928-1933), Keith Alexander Booth (1929-1931), Peter M. Livingstone (1933-1937), Phyllis C. Mitchell (1936-1937), John L. Holmes (1937-1938), Audrey M. Poyser (1937-1943, 1947-1948), Barbara Anna Robinson (1938-1942), Dorothy P. Fraser (1938-1939), Jean Gertrude Lennox (1939), Hannah Margaret Robinson (1939-1940), Eleanor Lavinea Brown (1941), Anita O. Heim (1942-1944), Margaret Anderson (1943), Jane Frances Fillmore BA (1943), Thelma Rose Irene Osman (1943-1946), Margaret Mary Brown (1943-1947), Alice P. Hardisty (1944-1945), Irene Rosemary Feher (1945), Eva Eileen Duncan (1945), Roland Gauntron (1946), Lois M. Harkness (1947), Jean D. Hotel (1948), Peter Black (1948-1951), Gerald Lionel Kuran (1949-1950), Lydia P. Harvey (1948-1950), Wilma Stock (1950), Patricia Duncan (1951-1954), Mary J. Roy (1951), Mary Stimpson (1952-1953), Doreen Miller (1952-1953), Sheena H. Williams (1953-1955), Robena S. Lowe (1953-1954), Edith Cronk (1954-1955), L. W. Stephens (1954-1955), A. J. Polz (1954-1955), Leona D. Riddell (1955-1956), Kathleen A. Dennis (1955-1957), Gilbert E. Brown (1955-1959), B. Trudeau (1955-1956), Christina Whyte (1956), John Naherney (1956), Mrs. Marjorie E. Seaman (1956-1960), C. Joan Whyte (1957-1959), G. Raymer (1957-1959), Nancy A. Wilson (1958-1961), Marguerite Willis (1958-1960), Norma Jorgenson (1959-1960), Myrna Peck Williams (1959-1965), Gertrude Tait (1959-1962), Ralph Rabinovitch (1959-1960), Marjorie E. Manns (1960-1964), Anne Zamrykut (1961-1962), Eunice Stephenson (1961-1962), Grace H. Hay (1962-1965), Beryl E. Dennis (1962-1965), Margaret M. Peacock (1962-1964), Miss Graham (1964), Glen Lowe (1964-1965), Gertrude McGregor (1964-1965), Miss Mary Jane Brewster (1965), Miss Karen Armstrong (1965), Miss Marlene Dilk (1965).
Postcard view of Austin School (no date)
Source: Walter Beatty
Postcard view of Austin School (1920s) by Charles I. Meyers
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 53.
Austin School (1967)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, Architectural Survey - Austin 7.
John Seaman with his newly-built model of Austin School (July 1985)
Source: Jacquie Jones
Austin School commemorative monument at the original building site (June 2012)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
The replacement Austin School commemorative monument (November 2015)
Source: Neil Christoffersen
The replacement Austin School commemorative monument (October 2024)
Source: Rose KuzinaSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.94884, W98.93258
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Austin Collegiate / Austin Elementary School (Austin, Municipality of North Norfolk)
Death registration [Lauchlin McQuarrie], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Board of Education registers (A 0050), GR7643, Archives of Manitoba.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
“The Indian famine fund,” Winnipeg Tribune, 4 March 1897, page 4.
“The Austin School re-opened [...],” MacGregor Herald, 4 January 1940, page 5.
Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.
A Rear View Mirror: A History of the Austin and Surrounding Districts by Anne M. Collier, Altona: Friesen Printing, 1967.
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.
Through Fields and Dreams: A History of the Rural Municipality of North Norfolk and MacGregor by The History Book Committee of the North Norfolk-MacGregor Archives, 1998, pages 841-844.
We thank Neil Christoffersen, Jacquie Jones, Gordon Booth, and Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 5 April 2025
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