Historic Sites of Manitoba: Cavendish School No. 1866 (RM of Armstrong)

In 1917, Cavendish School was built on this western portion of land on 25-19-1E, in the Rural Municipality of Armstrong. For 50 years, it served the educational needs of the surrounding area, teaching children in grades one to eight. It closed in June 1967 due to declining enrollment and the drive to bus students to larger centres for better educational opportunities. The school building was sold to a Mr. Welchinski, who moved it to Fraserwood for use as a store.

A plaque at the former school site, dedicated on 14 August 1993, lists teachers at the school between 1917 and 1967: Miss Emmond (1917), Alice Higginbotham (1917), Samuel Percy Waddell (1919), Gladys Coates (1921), Chloe Kline (1924), Minnie Slipachuk (1925), Violet May Thorsteinson (1926), Ethel Rose Cornish (1927), Doris Smeeton (1928), Jean Boux (1930), Ethel O. Fines (1932), John Mueller (1937), Anne Schlichting (1947), Fred Becker (1948), Edward Earl Skabar (1949), Thirga Eleanor Smith (1950), Richard S. Lanham (1951), Helen Katherine Klowak (1951), Walter Kohut (1954), Jack Becker (1955), Walter Kohut (1956), Olive Pearl Gula (1958), Niels Annell (1962), Donald Norman Hrehoruk (1964-1965), and Dennis Harry Chartrand (1966).

Cavendish School and Teacherage (no date) by H. D. Cumming Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 56. The former Cavendish School building (circa 1990) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 87. The former Cavendish School building at Fraserwood, about N50.64018, W97.20743 (June 2013) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Cavendish School commemorative sign (May 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.66145, W97.34655 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

A History of Education in the Evergreen School Division by John C. Gottfried, MA thesis, University of Manitoba, 1965.

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.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 22 January 2021

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