Historic Sites of Manitoba: Wapaha School No. 634 (Municipality of Boissevain-Morton)

The Wapaha School District, named for the Indigenous word meaning “white water,” was established formally in February 1891. As of 1894, a one-room schoolhouse operated on the northwest corner of 16-21-4W in what is now the Municipality of Boissevain-Morton. Destroyed by arson fire in 1908, classes were held in a leased one-room house until a replacement school was built in 1909. It closed in 1966 and the district was dissolved the following year. The former school building is no longer present at the site but a metal sign erected in 1995 commemorates it.

Among the teachers of Wapaha School were Mr. Jackson (1892), Mr. Dunlop (c1908), Ella M. Scott (1915-1916), Lila McEwan (1917), Ethel Dickson (1918), V. W. Sexton (1919), Alice Parsons (1920), Margaret Potter (1921-1923), Mary Jane Sexton (1924), Jessie Skelton (1925), Mary Jane Sexton (1926), Beatrice Herron (1927), Verna Hughes (1928-1930), Doris R. Anderson (1931), Katherine Melissa Code (1932-1935), Vida May Meyer (1936), Dorothy Marguerite McKenzie (1937-1938), Helen Forrest (1939), Jessie Jean Roberta Edwards (1940), Christine S. MacKay (1941), Margaret (Jean) Witt (1942-1943), Madeline E. A. Demasson (1944), Ruth Gorrell (1945), Muriel Edith Wright (1946), Lois (Elizabeth) Henderson (1947), Laverna Jan Milliken (1948), Vera (Pearl) Kempthorne (1949-1951), Glen Thompson Monk (1952), Helen E. Janzen (1953), (Helen) Bernice McRae (1954), Florence (Fay) Armstrong (1955), Phyllis (Audrey) Clark (1956-1957), Eugene Yarmey (1958), Jean Howell (1959), Shirley Buan (1960), Myrna J. Black (1961-1962), Violet Savich (1963), Gladys Teney (1964-1965), and Maria M. Roeges (1966).

A group of students in front of Wapaha School (c1908) Source: Lory Saban A group of students in front of Wapaha School (no date) by George Hunter Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 100. Wapaha School (no date) Source: Lottie McGee Wapaha School commemorative sign (September 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.31094, W100.26235 denoted by symbol on the map above

Sources:

Our Heritage by Regent Women’s Institute, c1967, pages 20-21. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5649.R44 Reg]

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.

Beckoning Hills Revisited: Ours is a Goodly Heritage, Morton-Boissevain, 1881-1981 by Boissevain History Committee, c1981, page 184.

We thank Lory Saban and Lottie McGee for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Barry More.

Page revised: 11 March 2022

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