Historic Sites of Manitoba: Birkenhead School No. 1996 (Neuenberg, RM of Stanley)

The Birkenhead School District was organized in February 1920, and a school operated in Neuenberg in the Municipality of Stanley, from 1921. A second classroom was added in 1963 but it was closed from 1975 to 1985. After the school closed permanently around 1992, the building remained standing for a time, but is no longer present. It is commemorated at the site by a plaque affixed to a large rock.

Among the teachers who worked at Birkenhead School through the years were John B. Enns (1921-1923), J. N. Giesbrecht (1923-1926), Henry Krushel (1926-1927, 1928-1931), David A. Toews (1927), John P. Dyck (1931-1938), A. J. Fast (1938-1941), Philip Giesbrecht (1941-1945), Helen Penner (1945-1946, 1950-1951), Jake H. Driedger (1946-1948), Henry Schellenberg (1949-1950), John Suderman (1951-1953), George Krahn (1953-1956), Henry W. Hildebrand (1956-1959), John J. Janzen (1959-1962), Edward Derksen (1962-1964), Agnes Hildebrand (1963-1965), Bill Enns (1964-1966), Mary Derksen (1965-1966), John Derksen (1966-1967), Mary Elias (1966-1967), Abe Giesbrecht (1967-1968), Tina Warkentin (1967-1969), James Schellenberg (1968-1970), Tina Wiebe (1969-1972), Linda Peters (1970-1971), Helene Friesen (1971-1972), Louise Peters (1972-1973), Margaret Reimer (1972-1974, 1976-1977), Pat Elias (1973-1974), Peter Petkau (1974-1975), Laura Dyck (1974-1975), Abe Penner (1975), Mary Wiebe (1975-1976), John Loewen (1977-1979), Lorna Wiebe (1979-1981), Karen Derksen (1981-1982), Karen Klassen (1982-1983), Verna Nickel (1983-1984), Theodore Dyck (1984-1986), Lois Guenther (1985-1986), Elisabeth Schimke (1986-1988), Janice Gerbrandt (1987-1990), Jerry Sawatzky (1988-1991), Joanne Derksen (1990-1992), and Pauline Peters (1991-1992).

The original Birkenhead School building (no date) by G. G. Neufeld Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 74. The former Birkenhead School building (circa 1990) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1315. Birkenhead School commemorative monument (November 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.08920, W97.90872 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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.

Survival of a Community: A History of Neuenburg and Birkenhead School District by Henry Unger, Morden: unpublished, 2012, 250 pages.

We thank Marjorie Hildebrand, Henry Unger, and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 14 February 2021

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