Historic Sites of Manitoba: Sheffield School No. 1976 (RM of St. Clements)

The Sheffield School District was formally established in April 1919 and a wood-frame school building was erected at this site, in the Rural Municipality of St. Clements, in the early 1920s. The school closed in April 1967 when jurisdiction for the area became the responsibility of the Lord Selkirk School Division. The building is now vacant. In 2018, a commemorative sign was installed at the former school site.

The teachers of Sheffield School were Rebecca Knelman (1919-1920), Thorun Sigurdson (1920-1921), Mrs. M. Brown (1921), Bentina Erlandson (1922-1923), Bessie Knelman (1923), Helga Sigurdson (1924), Eliza Lillian Scott (1924), Mabel I. Gillespie (1925), Kate Alice Surrey (1925-1926), Muriel Fleming (1926-1927), Florence Brown (1927), Ellen Lousie Leask (1928), Hannah Balfour (1928-1929, Lillian Susanna McConnell (1929-1930), Walter Ambrose Dales (1930-1934), Stephen Edward Radomsky (1934), Ellen May Fuller (1935-1937), Francis Margaret Bell (1937-1938), Jessie Ostaff (1938-1939), Mrs. Jessie Helen Quesnel (1939-1940), Rosie Alexandra Rozecki (1941-1942), Clement Nester Sochasky (1942-1943), Anthony Malliniuk (1943-1944), Catherine F. Anderson (1944), Helen Elaine Koltalo (1945), Mary Mosquin (1945-1946), Emil Joseph Borsa (1946-1947), Mrs. Beatrice Sood (1947-1948), Henry Moroz (1948-1949), John Morris Stokotelny (1949), Peter James Perehinczuk (1950-1951), Alvina Bartley Campbell (1951), Artha Marjorie Goulet Anderson (1951-1954), Donald Nicholas Lefteruk (1954-1955), Meroslava Horbas (1955-1957), Susan Letandre (1957-1958), Miss Florence Morris (1958-1960), Miss Verna Ungrin (1960-1962), Joan Shelfontuk (1962-1963), Myrtle Anne Feniuk (1963-1965), Metro Lysiachuk (1965-1966), and Russell Prociuk (1966).

Some recollections of Sheffield School are contained in audio recordings by Asdis Sigrun Anderson held at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

Sheffield School (no date) by J. E. S. Dunlop Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 70. Sheffield School (1946) Source: Dennis Anderson Students by the west side of Sheffield School (1948) Source: Dennis Anderson The former Sheffield School building (December 2011) Source: Gordon Goldsborough The former Sheffield School building (November 2016) Source: Desirée Rolfe The former Sheffield School building (November 2019) Source: Rose Kuzina Sheffield School commemorative sign (August 2018) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.32868, W96.69537 denoted by symbol on the map above

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.

East Side of the Red, 1884-1984 by St. Clements Historical Committee, 1984.

A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.

Blessed: Portrait of Asdis Sigrun Anderson, compiled and crafted by Katrina Anderson; edited by Marjorie Anderson; foreword by David Arnason, Winnipeg: Anderson House Publishers, 2007, University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

School Districts of the Libau Area of Manitoba, 1887-1967 by Charlene Dusyk and Sylvia Sweetland, Winnipeg, 2017.

We thank Gary Anderson, Nathan Kramer, Dennis Anderson, Desirée Rolfe, and Rose Kuzina for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 24 January 2020

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