Historic Sites of Manitoba: McAlonen School / Reaper School No. 1089 (RM of Wallace-Woodworth)

The Reaper School District was organized formally in March 1900 and a one-room schoolhouse operated at NE19-11-27W in what is now the Rural Municipality of Wallace-Woodworth. The school closed in June 1926 and the district subsequently sent all its students to classes at Elkhorn School until the district was dissolved in 1964. Its catchment area became part of the Elkhorn Consolidated School District and later the Fort La Bosse School Division.

The teachers of Reaper School were Miss Malcolm (1901), Pearl Tinline (1901), Miss Burke (1901-1902), Miss Story (1903), R. G. McKay (1903-1904), Miss Fraser (1904), Miss Fenwick (1905), Miss Jefferson (1905), Miss Boyer (1906), Miss Donald (1907), Miss J. McKay (1907-1908), Miss Hume (1909-1911), Miss Kellet (1912), Miss Queenie May Smith (1913), Miss Olive E. Clifford (1914), Miss Pearl Graham (1914-1915), Jean McLaren (1915-1916), Miss Nettie J. Vick (1916-1917), Jean Turnbull (1918), Miss Ellen Gilles (1918-1919), Cora Mountain (1919-1920), Teresa Naylen (1920), Arthur Stevens (1921), Ellen M. Downey (1922-1923), Miss Patricia McNevin (1924), Miss Minnie Joseph Clarke (1924-1925), and Miss Charlotte E. “Lottie” Clarke (1926).

A commemorative sign for Reaper School was unveiled at a ceremony on 7 August 2016.

Reaper School (no date) by J. A. George Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-2, page 56. Reaper School commemorative monument (June 2020) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.94557, W101.14920 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

School District Formation Files [Reaper School District No. 1089], 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.

Manitoba School Records Collection, Reaper School District No. 1089 Daily Registers, GR0466, Archives of Manitoba.

Manitoba School Records Collection, Elkhorn School District No. 366 Daily Registers, GR0466, Archives of Manitoba.

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

“Reaper School #1089 cairn dedication,” Virden Empire-Advance, 19 August 2016, page A29.

We thank Mary Ellen Roach, Ed Arndt, and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 14 June 2020

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