Historic Sites of Manitoba: Boissevain School No. 373 (Struthers Street, Boissevain, Municipality of Boissevain-Morton)

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

The Boissevain School District was formally established in March 1885, on Struthers Street in Boissevain, in what is now the Municipality of Boissevain-Morton. The first school building, a two-classroom structure, was built in 1889. Its replacement, two-storey stone building, was erected in 1894, apparently designed by Winnipeg architect Edward Lowery. It was supplemented by a second two-storey building, erected of brick in 1906, on an adjacent site.

Principals

Period	Principal
1889-1891	William Thomas Musgrove (1889-1902)
1891-1893	A. Hammon
1893-1896	John Archibald Campbell (1872-1963)
1896-1899	W. A. Turnbull
1899-1900	Duncan P. Clark (1862-?)
1900-1903	Alex L. McLean
1903-1905	Octavius T. Gamey (1877-1963)
1905-1907	David Smith Tod (1870-1937)
1907-1911	William Christopher Hartley (1869-1936)
1911-1913	Thomas Walter Halligan (1875-1934)
1913-1918	John Alexius Peterson (c1885-1959)
1918-1919	H. F. Field
1919-1922	James Ogel Beckstead (1883-1985)
1922-1929	John William Morris (1891-1959)
1929-1931	Albert Rae Smale (1897-?)
1931-1934	Clifford Garfield Saunders (1900-1991)
1934-1947	Thomas Melvin Whitley (1906-2000)
1947-1949	Walter Fredrickson (1908-1974)
1949-1950	John Saxby “Jack” Oliver (1910-1992)
1950-1960	Stanley Corbett Henderson (1910-?)
1960-1961	G. Scott
1961-1962	Charles H. Kester
1962-1966	John Dyck
1966-1973	Peter Stobbe
1973-1978	Jim York
1978-1979	John William Gross (1914-1994)
1979-?	Kennedy Cohoe

Teachers

School Year	Teachers
1889	William T. Musgrove, Miss A. Holden
1890-1919	?
1920-1921	J. Armstrong, F. M. Cochrane, D. Horton, D. M. Little, I. R. Nevin, A. M. Roe, L. M. Vodden

Among the other teachers at Boissevain School were Sara Elizabeth Buchanan, W. G. Hume, Frank C. Jacobs, and D. A. Downie.

Photos & Coordinates

Postcard view of both Boissevain School buildings (no date) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2012-0002 The second Boissevain School, erected in 1894 (1967) Source: Archives of Manitoba, Architectural Survey - Boissevain 7. The third Boissevain School, erected in 1906 (1967) Source: Archives of Manitoba, Architectural Survey - Boissevain 10. Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.23377, W100.05513 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

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

“Boissevain, Man,” Western Canada Fire Underwriters’ Association map, June 1911, Archives of Manitoba.

“Teachers at the convention,” Brandon Sun, 15 October 1920, page 6.

“W. T. Musgrove funeral rites on Wednesday,” Winnipeg Tribune, 23 December 1941, page 20.

Beckoning Hills by Boissevain 75th Jubilee Committee, 1956.

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.

Beckoning Hills Revisited: Ours is a Goodly Heritage, Morton-Boissevain, 1881-1981 by Boissevain History Committee, c1981, page 150.

We thank Nathan Kramer and Robert Hill for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 18 October 2020

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