The Matheson School District was organized in April 1900, named for the Matheson family who homesteaded in the area. A school building operated, as of 1905, on the northeast corner of 35-11-17 west of the Principal Meridian in the Rural Municipality of Elton. It closed in 1920 due to low student enrollment but reopened again in 1938 and operated until June 1945 when it closed permanently, after which students in this area went to Derry School No. 1052, Norman School No. 484, Douglas School No. 591, or Justice School No. 696. The district was dissolved in 1953. The building was used as a granary for a time but was standing vacant at the site as of the 1980s. It was not there at the time of a site visit in September 2011.
The teachers of Matheson School between 1903 and 1920 were Mary Noble, Annie Dickie, Nellie Chesler, Lena Dorsez, Vina Crawford, Aleda B. Gilroy, Myrtle Dunsmore, Alice Finley, Fred Hall, Mr. Sheared, Alison Usher, Eva Mitchell, Myrtle Byram, Jessie Smith, and Bernice Hay. The teachers from 1938 to 1945 were Anne Willman, Mrs. Lillian Mitchell, Stanley Fee, Clara Beswitherick, Margaret Olmstead, Meryl Gillespie, and Olive Walton.
Matheson School (no date) by J. B. Morrison
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 49.
The vacant Matheson School building (1980s)
Source: A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba, 1994Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.97446, W99.68380
denoted by symbol on the map above
Homesteaders and Homemakers: A History of Elton Municipality in its First Century by Elton Historical Committee, 1973. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.E48 Hom]
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.
Quest in Roots by Brookdale Historical Society, 1987. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.B81Que]
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: 8 March 2021
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