Historic Sites of Manitoba: Whitemouth School No. 139 (Whitemouth, RM of Whitemouth)

Link to:
Principals | Vice-Principals | Teachers | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

The Whitemouth School District was established in April 1884 and it operated a school in Whitemouth, in what would late become the Rural Municipality of Whitemouth. In 1912, it became Whitemouth Consolidated School and, the following year, a new wood frame building was constructed on a design by Winnipeg architect Eldred Dodsworth Tuttle. The building was destroyed by fire in 1947 and was replaced the following year. The two-storey building was demolished in the early 1960s. The district later became part of the Agassiz School Division.

Principals

Period	Principal
1921-1922	Charles Herbert Egan (1872-1922)
1922	William John Gordon Scott (1885-1953)
1922-1923	Charles Herbert Egan (1872-1922)
1923-1924	Alexander Harkins
1924-1925	James Randolph Hartley Simms (1869-1934)
1925-1928	Charles Foulsham Laine (1888-1945)
1928-1929	E. Myrtle Burt
1929-1930	Mary Ethel Simms (c1895-1947)
1930-1932	James Edwards (1892-1967)
1932-1935	Alfred James Struthers (c1890-?)
1935-1936	M. S. Blanchard
1936-1940	Benjamin Foreman (c1898-1981)
1940-1942	Peter Anthony “Tony” Stefaniec [Stephens] (1913-2011)
1942-1943	Clive H. Cardinal
1943-1945	George Boyer Poole (1880-1958)
1945-1947	John Elwin Laird (1876-1950)
1947-1948	W. W. Ferrier
1948-1949	Rudolph Verne Dankesreiter (1900-1952)
1949-1951	Morley Fraser Sparrow (1915-1979)
1951-1952	Harry Herbert Galan (?-2007)
1952-1953	Frank Unrau Dyck (?-1982)
1953-1954	A. J. Huebner
1954-1955	Gordon Alexander Henderson (1920-1993)
1955-1956	Dr. F. K. Schultze
1956-1959	Elta Horn Atkins Borrowman Larson (1901-1993)
1959-1961	Ernest Lorne Moffat (1899-1982)
1961-1963	D. S. Smith
1963-1973	Alexander John Shewchuk (1933-2015)

Teachers

Period	Teachers
1921-1922	Charles Herbert Egan (grades 5-8 & night school, August-April), Alma Erickson (grades 2-4), Ellen L. Fraser (grades 1-2), William John Gordon Scott (grades 4-8 & night school, May-June)
1922-1923	David William? Dean? (grades 7-10, 1923), Charles Herbert Egan (grade 9 & night school), Clifford James Garvie (grades 2-4), Gertrude Groening? Irving (grades 4-6), Henry George Mingay (grades 7-10, 1922), Isabel Smith (grades 1-2)
1923-1924	Clifford James Garvie (grades 3-4), Alexander Harkins? (grades 5-8), Gertrude Groening? Irving (grades 3-4), Isabel Smith (grades 1-2)
1924-1925	Mary E. Brennan (grades 1-2), Gertrude Georgina? Irving (grades 3-4), James Randolph Hartley Simms (grades 5-10)
1925-1926	Mary Ellen Bournais (grades 1-2), Mabel Wright Carson (grades 3-4), Charles Foulsham Laine (grades 5-9)
1926-1927	Edith Aglwen? (grades 3-4, September-December), Mary Ellen Brennan (grade 1), Mabel Wright Carson (grades 2-3), Aileen Margaret Donald (grades 4-6, January-June), Charles Foulsham Laine (grades 6-10), ? (grades 4-6, September-December and grades 3-4, January-June)
1927-1928	Mary Ellen Brennan (grade 1), Aileen Margaret Donald (grades 4-5), Elsie Helen Handel (grades 2-3), Charles Foulsham Laine (grades 6-8)
1928-1929	E. Myrtle Burt (grades 5-9), Julia I. Garry (grades 3-4), Stella Safaniuk (grades 1-2)
1929-1948	?
1948-1949	Rudolph Verne Dankesreiter (grades 9-11), Mrs. G. Godolphin (grades 1-2), Miss R. I. Heimann (grade 3-4), Jean Segall (grades 5-6), Oscar Andrew Karl Daniel Wurster (grades 7-8)

Among the other teachers who worked at Whitemouth School included: Edith A. Fingland (?), Anne Kachur (1945), O. A. Wurster (1945-1950), Theo B. Poole (1945), Abigail Godolphin (1950-1955), Olga Jorgenson (1950), Agathe Loepky (1950), Morley Sparrow (1950), Aileen Huss (1955), Judith Latta (1955), Keith J. Huss (1955), Gordon Henderson (1955), Ada Huett (1960), Karen Delbridge (1960), William Moffatt (1960), Orville Hood (1960), Stanley Petrowski (1960), M. Eileen Molloy (1960), George Papas (1960), William Schultz (1960), Eugene Laurent (1960), Ernest Moffatt (1960), Nicholas Andrusko (1961-1962), Garry Doyle, and Charles Henry Godfrey.

Photos & Coordinates

The Whitemouth School building, destroyed by fire in 1947 (1930s) by R. Goulet Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 47. Whitemouth School teacherage (1930s) by R. Goulet Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs, GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 47. Whitemouth Consolidated School at left (September 1952) Source: Archives of Manitoba, George Harris Fonds, Acc. 1979-141, P7452, Album 18, Page 52. Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.95457, W95.97678 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Whitemouth Lake School No. 1672 (RM of Piney)

Sources:

“Tenders for building,” Manitoba Free Press, 4 June 1913, page 2.

“Whitemouth,” Springfield Leader, 31 August 1948, page 4.

Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.

Obituary [Charles Henry Godfrey], Portage la Prairie Manitoba Leader, 29 April 1954. [Manitoba Legislative Library]

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.

School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.

Trails to Rails to Highways edited by Bob Porth and Craig MacKenzie, Whitemouth Municipal Museum Society, 1979.

We thank Bob Porth, Randy Rostecki, and Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 4 February 2023

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