Historic Sites of Manitoba: Springhill School No. 374 (RM of Rosedale)

A monument in the Rural Municipality of Rosedale commemorates Springhill School, which was formally organized in March 1885. A school was erected at this site in the southeast quarter of 2-16-16 west of the Principal Meridian, and it operated from 1907 to 1967. The district was dissolved in January 1968 and, as of the early 1990s, the original wood frame building was being used as a workshop at NW34-15-16W. The monument was placed in memory of Douglas Martin Ellis (1949-1996) and dedicated at a ceremony in June 1999.

Among the teachers of Springhill School through the years were Miss Collier (1885), Miss Matilda McLean (1886), Miss P. Coburn (1887-1888), Mr. Klyne (1889), Miss McFeetors (1890), Miss Galbraith, Alice Rear, Miss Paterson, Miss Goudy, C. W. Wickett, C. W. Merrill, Duncan Martin, Kathleen Colpitts, Alberta Scott (1906), Hazel Kitson (1906), Ruby M. Simpson (1907), A. C. Anderson (1908), L. B. Hicks (1909), C. H. McKay (1910), Mary Mackie (1912), Vera Peter (1913-1914), Jean McNab (1913-1914), Hazel Donaldson (1916-1917), Euphemia “Effie” McKinnon (1916-1918), Mary E. Henderson (1917-1919), Freda Lottin (1919-1920), S. V. Worthington (1920-1921), Elizabeth Boughton (1921-1923), Ruth Blackwell (1923-1924), Elva E. Moffat (1924-1927), Margaret Eames (1927-1928), Enid M. Wall (1928-1929), L. O. Long (1929-1930), Mabel Olafson (1929-1930), Eunice Harris (1929-1930), M. M. Mower (1930-1931), E. F. Lund (1930-1931), Alice M. Curdt (1931-1932), M. B. Duchlow (1932-1934), Donald Fraser (1934-1937), Mildred Scott (1937-1941), Gertrude Simpson (1941-1942), Gladys Hannah (1941-1942), Eva Crandell (1943-1944), M. Sclater (1944-1945), Grace Oliver (1944-1945), Ethel Madill (1945-1946), Odile Labossier (1946-1950), Wilma Tennant (1950-1951), Isabel Kolesar (1950-1951), George Ivan McBurney (1950-1953), Mamie Holmes (1953-1955), Dorothy Blackburn (1955-1956), Helen Kvoriak Fetterly (1956-1958), Eva Osvath (1958-1959), Denis Wagner (1959-1960), Ruth Anderson (1960-1966), and Ronald Bell (1966-1967).

The former Springhill School building (circa 1990) Source: Historic Resources Branch, Public School Buildings Inventory, slide 1158. Springhill School commemorative monument (August 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Springhill School monument (August 2011) Source: Allan Drysdale Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.33044, W99.57193 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.

Rosedale Remembers, 1884-1984 by Rosedale Centennial Book Committee, 1984, pages 131-136.

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

We thank Malcolm Bell and Kathy Kolesar for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Allan Drysdale and Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 12 October 2021

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