Killarney Guide

Saturday, July 2, was cause for celebration – and a plaque reveal – at the old country school 

 BY KIM LANGEN

On a quiet country road running north of town sits the remains of an old brick schoolhouse, in weedy disrepair, and gutted out to the basement level. 

Long grass surrounds the places where kids played, and the nearby fields turn golden in summer. 

But now a shining black monument on a beautiful white plinth marks the story of the old Northcote School – which regularly rang the big school bell from 1886 to 1967 – thanks to a remarkable past student who wanted to celebrate his early days at the historical school.

David Taylor, who lives in San Diego, California, put out a call this summer, inviting old students of the school to meet up on the grounds, share their stories, and unveil the monument at noon, on Saturday, July 2.

“I see a lot of familiar faces here,” said Taylor during his opening speech. “We would love to hear your stories after the conclusion of this dedication. I attended Northcote School from 1959 to the middle of 1964, before moving from Canada to the U.S. My dad attended this school from 1934 to 1942. Our farm was over a mile away, and I would walk to and from school during good weather. My memories of the first five years of my education here are memorable. I had Miss Way for first grade, and Mrs. Agar for grades 2-5. Each row was a grade, and I always looked forward to moving over to get to the next row.”

Taylor himself helped pay for the monument, along with his sister Cindy and his cousin Marlene Hartle.  It includes a beautiful poem, The Prairie School, by Isabel MacKay, a list of the teachers who taught there, and their years in the classroom.

“There are plenty of fond memories,” he said. “Christmas plays, in which all the kids, all grades, would conduct the memorized performances for our parents at the school. I loved doing those plays, from my first performance of just sitting on the stage, to speaking roles as I advanced grades. And we would practice drills on the road for our march down the main street in Killarney, and have a graduation picnic at the end of the year on the playground behind the school. So, we unveil here today this monument. It has the coordinates of the school, and a picture from a time when it was in much better condition. And we’ve included a prairie poem that I think captures the essence of this place.”

The original Northcote School, located at the corner of Rd. 98w and Northcote Road, was built back in 1886, and substantially rebuilt in 1906, he said. The last year of its operation was in 1967. It operated as a school for an impressive 81 years, and Taylor said he still holds deep and emotional ties to his early years there. So he decided to do something about it.

“We thought, wouldn’t it be nice to put some kind of monument to the school in the place it was built, before it all deteriorates and vanishes?” said Taylor. “We love the way it turned out, and where it is placed. It is one of the last, still-standing prairie schools.”

His parents owned a farm down the road (Gord Randall’s old farm), and ran a market garden there, producing potatoes, corn, cantaloupe, strawberries, raspberries, honey, and sunflower seeds, said Taylor. His grandparents, Emanuel and Emily Taylor, are buried in the Killarney cemetery. But milder weather drew them south the U.S., he said.

“My parents were tired of the severe winters, and wanted someplace warmer,” said Taylor. “That was the big motivator for moving from Killarney, Manitoba, to Yuma, Arizona, and then onto San Diego. They sold the market garden to Keith Tripp for $3,700 in March, 1964.”

During the speech, Taylor also thanked a number of people who supported the creation of the monument.

“On the backside of the monument, we have to thank the people who made this possible,” he said. “Marlene and Jim Hartle, Ross Doherty, my dad and mom, who have passed, and my sister Cindy Trebowitz and her husband. A thank you also to Mark Witherspoon and staff for getting the monument, pouring the cement, and setting it up. And to Marlon Tripp, who mowed the grass so all could get to the monument, and see Northcote School up close! And a special thanks to Milton Randall, who has so graciously allowed us to put this monument on his land, and to his brother Don Randall, who is helping to keep this here into perpetuity.”

Taylor later went on to achieve his Master’s degree in science from San Diego State University. He majored in Information Systems, and during his subsequent impressive career he worked for the County of San Diego; on a special law enforcement grant in the City of San Diego; and later for Pacific Southwest Airlines, migrating their NCR computers to IBM. His little sister Cindy also achieved her BSc from San Diego University, he added.  

“All my work has been with computers, in some fashion or other,” said Taylor. “For several years I had my own computer consulting business, specializing in systems and program design/development. Before my retirement in 2013, I had been promoted to Director of Operation and Infrastructure Services for the San Diego Data Processing Corporation.”

Quite a remarkable story of a boy, and a girl, who started out their education in a small country school, with just a wood/coal stove in the basement for heat, and went on to achieve so much in the world. Even his kids were a little sceptical about his outrageous old tales of prairie school life, said Taylor.

“My son, Eric, flew up special for the monument dedication,” said Taylor. “I guess he wanted to see whether all those stories I told about walking up two hills in the snow were true!”

A GATHERING OF CLASSMATES – It was a beautiful sunny day when this historical plaque was revealed at the old Northcote School, a few miles north of Killarney. Previous students and their families gathered for the fun event on July 2, on the grounds of what was once an early country school, first erected over a century ago.

NORTHCOTE SCHOOL – The Northcote School District was established formally in April 1885. The present school was substantially rebuilt in 1906, when a one-room structure was built of concrete blocks, a building material unique to the early twentieth century. It was situated on the northeast corner of 22-3-17 west of the Principal Meridian, in what is now the Municipality of Killarney-Turtle Mountain. The district was dissolved in January 1967, and the remaining students went to Killarney School. The building remains on its original site and, at some time in its past, it was converted into a granary.

MANITOBA HISTORICAL SOCIETY ARCHIVES

THE NORTHCOTE SCHOOL PLAQUE – David Taylor, of San Diego (7th from left in the group photo above), spearheaded the project to create this historical plaque on the grounds of the old Northcote School. Taylor attended the country school from grades two to five, and wanted to leave a memorable marker to happy days gone by.

JOLENE DODDS/KILLARNEY GUIDE PHOTOS