Historic Sites of Manitoba: Buckingham School No. 604 (RM of Wallace-Woodworth)

The Buckingham School District was organized formally in August 1889, named for local resident Bill Buckingham. A one-room schoolhouse operated at NE3-11-28W on the banks of Gopher Creek in what is now the Rural Municipality of Wallace-Woodworth. In 1929, the building was moved a mile west, then in 1937 another mile west to SE8-11-28W. There it remained until permanent closure in June 1965. The district was dissolved later that year and its catchment area became part of the Elkhorn Consolidated School District. The building was sold and moved to a farmyard where it was destroyed by a lightning strike. A commemorative monument at the former site was dedicated at a ceremony on 28 June 1987.

Among the teachers of Buckingham School were Sarah Ann Sproat, Florence Langrill (1908), Susie Rodgers (1909), Mrs. Jennie Thomson (1910-1916), Florrie Good, Elaine McLeod, Miss Hanna, Edith Gee, Ella Sinclair, Miss Thordarson, Verlie Metcalf, Catherine Gibbings, Elsie Lennon, Beth Wilson, Mary Gardiner, Violet Tapp, Phyllis Day, Alice Wickham, Edith Mitchell, Elveretta Thomson, Mary Veasy, Lillian Richardson, Bessie Montgomery (9 years), Stanley Sokalski, Lois Leigh, Betty Lou Finney, Ede Chappel, Gladys Scramstead, Jo Stonehouse, Violet Switzer, G. E. Morris, Cecile Stevenson, Joy Chambers, and Gladys Snyder (1962-1965).

Buckingham School (no date) by W. R. Beveridge Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 95. The remodelled Buckingham School (no date) by W. R. Beveridge Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 95. Buckingham School commemorative monument (June 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Buckingham School commemorative monument (May 2022) Source: Rose Kuzina Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.90130, W101.24022 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.

Binding Our Districts by History Book Committee, 1989. [Legislative Library of Manitoba, F5648.H374 Bin]

We thank Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 20 July 2022

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