Historic Sites of Manitoba: Newcombe School No. 1716 (RM of Lac du Bonnet)

The Newcombe School District was established formally in January 1914, probably named for provincial Superintendent of Education Charles Kenning Newcombe, and a one-room, wood frame schoolhouse operated at NW12-16-11E in the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet. In 1954, the site was flooded due to construction of the McArthur Falls Generating Station on the Winnipeg River nearby, so the building was moved to a site on Wendigo Road. It closed on 1 June 1968. The district was dissolved that year and its catchment area became part of the Agassiz School Division.

Among the teachers of Newcombe School were Mrs. Naima Erickson (1916), Jaroslaw Weywera (1917-1921), Harry Blair (1921), Sydney Stewart (1921-1922), J. Bunzeluk (1922-1937), N. Yurchison (1937-1939), K. Sosney (1939-1942), Mabel McMahon (1942-1945), Jacob Warkentin (1945-1947), Stella Bilinsky (1947-1948), Josephine Richtik (1948-1949), John Oberton (1949-1951), Verne Parks (1952), Nellie Campbell (1952-1953), Joseph Barney Dram (1954), Therese Marchand (1954), Elma Patterson (1955), Hertha Mattern (1955-1958), Phyllis Solindky (1959), Joanne Hirst (1960-1961), Elizabeth Etsell (1961-1962), Mrs. O’Toole (1962-1963), Richard Ferniuk (1963-1964), and Helen Lagsdin (1964-1965).

In 2017, the Lac du Bonnet Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee erected a monument on the concrete steps of the building.

Newcombe School (1926) by J. E. S. Dunlop Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 22. Newcombe School commemorative monument (August 2019) Source: Rose Kuzina Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.32373, W95.95193 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Memorable Manitobans: Charles Kenning Newcombe (1877-1944)

Sources:

School District Formation Files [Newcombe School District No. 1716], GR1688, E0027, Archives of Manitoba.

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.

Caviar and Venison [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.L33 Cav 1991]

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Rose Kuzina.

Page revised: 28 November 2019

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