The Bluff Island School District was established in February 1889 and a one-room schoolhouse operated at Harperville (32-16-2W) in the Rural Municipality of St. Laurent. In 1940, arrangements were made to rent a former site of the Franciscaines Missionaires de Marie, starting with the 1940-1941 school year, but for an unknown period. The east-facing, three-storey building was described as being on Lot 18 in the RM of St. Laurent. It measured 60 feet by 53 feet and had five classrooms, a lunchroom, and a sewing room.
Among the teachers of Bluff Island School were Charles A. de Simoncourt (Spring 1891 - pt Spring 1892), R. S. McMunn (pt Spring 1892), John H. Leeming (Fall 1892 - pt Fall 1893), Archie D. Sproule (pt Fall 1893 - Fall 1895), W. J. Montgomery (Spring-Fall 1896), Warren H. Lang (Spring 1897 - pt Fall 1898), E. Benson Steele (pt Fall 1898 - Spring 1899), Bessie Richard (Fall 1899), Agnes Grant (Spring-Fall 1900), George H. Measham (Spring-Fall 1901), records not available (Spring 1904 - Fall 1904), Francis R? E? Nash? (Spring 1905), Harriet E. Henderson (Fall 1905 - Spring 1907), Effie Vidal (Fall 1907), Bertha L. Lillies (Spring 1908), GladysE. Elliott (Fall 1908 - Spring 1909), John A. May (Fall 1909 - pt Spring 1910), Elsie E. Corrigan (pt Spring - Fall 1910), Herbert Storey (Spring 1911, Spring-Fall 1912, Spring 1914 - Fall 1915), school closed (Fall 1911), Alexander Greig? (Spring-Fall 1913), Sarah M. Connelly (Spring 1916 - Spring 1917), Emma Parenteau (October 1917 - May 1918), Millie Webster (June 1918), school closed (Fall 1918), William David Flatt (Spring 1919, September 1919 - May 1920, E. R. Gardner? (circa May? 1920), Mildred A. Olsen (June 1920, Fall 1920 - Spring 1921), school closed (Fall 1921), Mrs. A. Dufault (Spring 1922), George William Burrell (1922-1923), John A. Bell (1924-1925), K. M. Ralston (1925), Leonard A. Dowler (1926-1927), D. W. Finlayson (1927-1928), Elzear J. Lavoie (1930-1931), A. S. Connelly? (1931-1932), I. Beaudette, A. Kramer, G. Boudry, I. Jeffrey, A. Sosney, Dorothy Genest (1942-1943), John William Godsjhie? (1943-1944), Nicholas Rebenchuk (1944-1945), Lena Ruth Reimer (1945), Rudy Penner (1946-1947), Robert Gordon Waystaff (1949-1950), Julie Freda Sklepowich (1950-1951), Julie F. Chatfield (1951-1952), Evelyn Hallett (1952-1953), Nick A. Lebedoff (1953-1954), Fernand Lambert (1954-1955), Elsie Senkow (1955), Nettie D. Enns (1955-1956), Peter W. Solomon (1956-1957), Modiste E. Olynyk (1957-1958), school closed (Fall 1958 - Spring 1959), Victor Henry Abgrall (1959-1960), Manda Adella Linke (1960-1961), William Arnott Day (1961-1962), and Frank Reimer Martens (1962-1963).
The school closed in 1958, reopened the following year, then closed permanently in 1963. The students were bused to St. Laurent and later to Inwood. The former school building was sold.
Bluff Island School (no date) by M. Hall-Jones
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 94.
Students inside Bluff Island School (no date)
Source: Settlers, Rails and Trails MuseumSite Coordinates (lat/long): N50.40326, W97.66988
denoted by symbol on the map above
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
St. Laurent topographic map, 62I/5, Edition 1, Series A743 [UFS Reference Collection].
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.
The Interlake Beckoned: A History of Inwood and Surrounding Districts by Inwood History Book Committee, 1980. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.I59 Int]
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), GR1629, Bluff Island School District No. 597 Daily Registers, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), GR1629, St. Laurent School District No. 1416 Daily Registers, Archives of Manitoba.
Departmentally appointed school trustee files (E 0034), GR1629, St. Laurent School District No. 1416 Miscellaneous, Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Shayne Campbell (Settlers, Rails and Trails Museum) for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 8 January 2026
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