Historic Sites of Manitoba: Graysfield School No. 1708 (Lake Francis, RM of Woodlands)

The Graysfield School District was established formally in October 1913 and a school building was erected the next year, on two acres of land in the southwest corner of 27-15-3W, in the village of Lake Francis in the Rural Municipality of Woodlands. It was used as a community centre for dances, concerts and church services until 1925, when the Women’s Institute Hall was built. The school closed in April 1967 and the building was moved to Woodlands where it was used as a classroom. It was later incorporated into the Woodlands Museum. A plaque at its former site was erected in 2005.

Among the teachers of Graysfield School were Miss Rose Connelly (1914-1916), Miss Clara Rice (1916-1917), Miss Eva Sweet (1917-1918), Miss Evelyn Rowley (1919), Miss Mary Campbell (1920), Miss Thora Sigurdson (1920), Miss Helga Sigurdson (1921), Miss Evelyn Dow (1921), Miss Elsie Fetterley (1922), Miss Helen Dawson (1923), Miss Elsie Turner (1924-1925), Miss Nellie Robertson (1925-1926), Miss Julia Baldwin (1927), Miss E. Morgan (1927-1929), Miss Thelma Wallman (1929-1931), Miss Freda Miller (1931-1932), Miss Beatrice Frith (1932-1938), Miss Lillian Howe (1938-1940), Miss Gudberg Eggertson (1940), Louise Amelia Neilson (1941), Miss Elizabeth Lavender (1941-1942), Mrs. Esther Arbor (1942-1944), Mrs. Esther Arbor (1943-1947), Leila Roby (1943-1944), Miss Lillian Mazurkiewiez (1947-1948), Miss Evelyn Devlin (1948-1949), Miss Margaret Jean McIvor (1949-1950), Miss Mayme Cosens (1950-1951), Ivan T. Rainy (1951), Mrs. Mary Dufault (1952), Mrs. Louise Roberta Collier (1952-1955), Wilfred C. Hodkinson (1955-1956), David W. Bahrey (1956-1957), Miss Rosa Johnson (1957-1958), Mrs. Frank Golez (1958-1959), Mrs. Veronica Gaudry (1959-1964), Mrs. D. Fleury (1959-1964), Mrs. Olga Slotiuk (1964-1965), Miss Michalchuk (1965-1966), George Braun (1965-1966), Michael Aldcroft (1966), and Mrs. Jeanette Erickson (1966-1967).

Graysfield School (no date) by M. Hall-Jones Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 20. Graysfield School (June 1957) Source: Judy Gleich Graysfield School commemorative plaque (2011) Source: Peter McLure Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.30458, W97.80600 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Woodlands Pioneer Museum (RM of Woodlands)

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.

MHM - Graysfield School No. 1708 - Lake Francis MB, Waymarking.

Manitoba School Records Collection, Graysfield School No. 1708 Daily Registers, GR2088, Archives of Manitoba.

Along the Mission Trail - Lake Francis, Bonnie Doon, Graysfield, Glennie by Lake Francis History Book Committee, 1988, pages 62-#.

We thank Judy Gleich for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Peter McLure, Nathan Kramer, and Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 30 July 2021

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