Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources
The Brandon Indian Residential School operated at this site north of the City of Brandon, in the Rural Municipality of Cornwallis, from May 1895 to June 1972.
A three-storey orange brick and Tyndall Stone school, measuring 54 feet 174 feet, was designed by Roland Guerney Orr (1888-1937), Chief Architect for the Department of Indian Affairs at Ottawa. Construction between 1929 and 1930 was supervised by local architect Walter Henderson Shillinglaw and built by Winnipeg contractor Joseph Henry Simmons at a cost of about $180,000. Subcontractors included Western Gypsum Products Limited and Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company (millwork), MacDonald Brothers Limited (sheet metal and roofing), Levvy Electric Company (electrical), Manitoba Bridge and Iron Works (structural steel), and Connechle and Forsyth (plastering). It was opened officially at a ceremony on 18 July 1930 attended by Reverend R. B. Cochrane, G. W. Mason, Reverend J. George Miller, Reverend S. Wilkins, Reverend C. S. Oke, and Reverend Thompson Ferrier.
Children were taught agricultural methods at a model farm located at the school. Operated originally by the Presbyterian Church in Canada, responsibility for the facility transferred to the Canadian government in March 1969. It closed in June 1972. The abandoned building remained here until August 2000 when it was demolished. There are also two graveyards nearby where some students who died while in residence were buried.
Period
Principal
1895-1899
John Semmens (1850-1921)
1899-1929
Thompson Ferrier (1856-1934)
1929-1941
John Allan Doyle (1871-1953)
1941-1944
Roscoe Tamner Chapin (1889-1988)
1944-1955
Oliver Bailey Strapp (1892-1988)
1955-1957
George Roy Inglis (1899-1979)
1957
Harry Atkinson (1882-1968)
1957-1959
Lachlan McLean
1959-1970
Ford Bond (1905-1982)
1970-1972
?
Period
Vice-Principal
?-1916
Hugh Hetherington (1885-1917)
School Year
Teachers
1933
Miss W. Bradley, Ernest McEwan, Miss L. Promstar
1934
?
1935
Mabel Ferris, Norman McEwan, Muriel Richardson
1936
?
1937-1938
Viola Daly, William Morrison Reid
Boys harvesting carrots at the Brandon Indian Residential School (1902)
Source: The Nor-West Farmer, 5 July 1902, page 591.
Postcard view of Brandon Indian Residential School (circa 1908)
Source: Rob McInnes, BR0053
Postcard view of Brandon Indian Residential School (circa 1910)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2012-0175
Postcard view of Brandon Indian Residential School (no date) by Ernest Jerrett
Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2017-0034.
Postcard view of Brandon Indian Residential School (no date)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2011-0027
Brandon Indian Residential School (1939)
Source: Archives of Manitoba, George Harris Fonds, Acc. 1979-141, P7456, Album 4, Page 72.
Brandon Indian Residential School (no date) by Ernest Jerrett
Source: Archives of Manitoba, George Harris Fonds, Acc. 1979-141, P7456, Album 4, Page 73.
Rubble from the former Brandon Indian Residential School (June 2013)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.86935, W99.98953
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: Walter Henderson Shillinglaw (1864-1957)
Memorable Manitobans: Joseph Henry Simmons (1875-1961)
Memorable Manitobans: Albert Levvy (1884-1950)
Manitoba Business: Manitoba Bridge and Iron Works / Manitoba Bridge and Engineering Works
A Cup of Cold Water: Alfred Kirkness and the Brandon Residential School Cemeteries by Anne Lindsay, Clare Cook, and David Cuthbert
Manitoba History, Number 78, Summer 2015Historic Sites of Manitoba: Brandon Indian Residential School (RM of Cornwallis)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Brandon Indian Residential School Cemetery (RM of Cornwallis)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Brandon Old Indian Residential School Cemetery (Brandon)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Birtle Indian Residential School (Birtle, Municipality of Prairie View)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Elkhorn Indian Residential School (Elkhorn, RM of Wallace-Woodworth)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: MacKay Indian Residential School (Opaskwayak Cree Nation)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Portage la Prairie Indian Residential School (Crescent Road West, Portage la Prairie)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Pine Creek Indian Residential School / Camperville Indian Residential School (Pine Creek First Nation)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Norway House Indian Residential School (Norway School)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Julia Clark School (611 Academy Road, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Residential School Totem Pole (Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Rupert’s Land Indian Industrial School / St. Paul’s Industrial School (Middlechurch, RM of West St. Paul)
Attestation papers [Hugh Hetherington], Canadian Expeditionary Force, Library and Archives Canada.
“Rev. T. Ferrier has resigned,” Brandon Daily Sun, 12 April 1929, page 1.
“Brandon Indian School to have new building,” Manitoba Free Press, 11 May 1929, page 30.
“Tenders,” Manitoba Free Press, 3 June 1929, page 17.
“Tenders,” Manitoba Free Press, 5 June 1929, page 19.
“Indian children to have fine new school,” Manitoba Free Press, 28 September 1929, page 27.
“Rushing work on Indian school,” Brandon Sun, 8 February 1930, page 1.
“Indian school to be formally opened July 18,” Brandon Sun, 23 May 1930, page 1.
“New residential Indian school formally opened,” Brandon Sun, 19 July 1930, page 6.
“Will start work on new Indian school at once,” Brandon Sun, 24 July 1930, page 1.
“Ford Bond is new Principal,” Brandon Sun, 8 August 1959, page 3.
“Tearing down a painful past,” Brandon Sun, 27 August 2000, page E1.
Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950 by Robert G. Hill, Toronto.
We thank Rob McInnes, Jack Stothard, Tom Mitchell, Katherine Nichols, Diane Haglund, Anne Lindsay, Gayle Strank, Nathan Kramer, Leona Devuyst, and Jordan Makichuk for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 8 June 2025
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