The Willowview School District was established in April 1912 and, in 1914, a one-room schoolhouse was constructed by Otto Zellman at SW7-20-1W in the Rural Municipality of Armstrong. It opened for classes in August 1914 with 14 students. In 1936, the district was dissolved and its area became part of the Armstrong Municipal School District No. 1842. The school building was torn down in the 1960s and no vestige of the former school remains at the site, immediately north of the Willowview Cemetery. Attendance and other records for the school are held at the Chatfield Park of Souvenirs Museum.
Among the teachers of Willowview School were Susan Jane Howatson “Susette” McMeekin (Fall 1914, later married Hardie Dewar), Katherine E. Briggs (June-December 1915), Thomas Douglas Aiton McMeekin (Spring-Fall 1916), Ida L. [Ada?] Milne (Spring 1917), Elsie E. Cameron (Fall 1917 - Spring 1919), Lillian V. Nelson (Fall 1919 - Spring 1920), Rowena Havard (Fall 1920 - Spring 1921), Loretta Foster (Fall 1921), school closed (January-March 1922), Frederick Morgan (April-June & September 1922 - June 1923), Marguerite A. Holland (Fall 1923 - Spring 1924), Margaret Elizabeth Ross (Fall 1924 - Spring 1925), Florence Annie Guthrie (1929-1931), William George Cooper (1931-1934), Gertrude Schwartz (1935-1936), Steven Banera (1949-1950), and Helen Skrabek (late 1950s).
Willowview School (no date) by M. Hall-Jones
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 3.Site Coordinates (lat/long): N50.70590, W97.60130
denoted by symbol on the map above
Marriage registrations [Susan Jane Howatson McMeekin to Hardie Dewar], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Death registrations [Hardie Dewar, Susan Jane Howatson Dewar], British Columbia Vital Statistics.
Narcisse topographic map, 62I/12, Edition 1, Series A743 [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.
Wilderness to Wildlife: Chatfield and District History by Chatfield Oldtimers Club, c1981. [Manitoba Legislative Library, F5648.C45 Wil]
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
School division and school district formation files (E 0027), Armstrong Municipal School District No. 1842, GR1688, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Willow View School District #1616 Daily Registers, GR11220, Archives of Manitoba.
Attestation papers [Thomas Douglas Aiton McMeekin], Canadian Expeditionary Force, Library and Archives Canada.
We thank Cathie Morgan Matula and Dan Barnfield for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 3 December 2025
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