STONY PLAIN School District # 4044 NE quarter of section 32, township 4- range 16-W of the 3rd Meridian. near Bracken

HARRISLAND School District # 3659 NW quarter section 3, township 4- range 16-West of the 3rd meridian near Bracken

The story begins...
Florence Jean Tallman Ryder was born in Bracken, Saskatchewan in 1929. Her birth name was Tallman, but she grew up using the name of her foster parents, Charles and Susanna Rodman. Since almost no one who went to school with her would know her as Tallman, but was known to one and all as Florence Rodman.

Stony Plains school was on the northern edge of Township 4, Range 16 - north of Bracken.

Florence started school at Stony Plains when she was about seven - probably around April 1937. Her first teacher was Miss Greenlee; she was followed by Mr. Rogers. Her fellow students were brothers Jack, Albert and Bill Lester, brothers Jack, Bill and Gordon Shanks, and Lorne Peel. Mom was the youngest.

Marj Shanks and two of Lorne's older sisters attended Stony Plains before Florence's time there.

Stony Plains school closed a couple of years after Florence started school there - maybe around June 1940. Lorne Peel finished his correspondence courses, and the Shanks family moved to Rolling Hills, Alberta, leaving too few students to keep the school in operation. (Apparently they needed a minimum of six.) Mr. Rogers and the four remaining students were reassigned to Harrisland School, on the southern edge of township 4. The government paid Jack Lester to drive them to their new school in a wagon or covered sleigh.

After about a year, the Lester family also moved to Rolling Hills, and Florence started riding to school.

These photos of Harrisland School are from Florence Tallman Ryder, known as Florence Rodman, who attended Harrisland from around 1940 to June 1945.

Submitted by
Faye Ryder and her mother Florence Tallman Ryder - known as Florence Rodman.

I've gathered information that may help you locate one room schools in an area of SW Saskatchewan that includes the former village of Canuck (RM Lone Tree), the villages of Bracken (RM Lone Tree) and Orkney (RM Val Marie), and various townships to the north and south. Source information: "Homesteaders South of the Whitemud" was published circa 1975 by The Harrisland Sewing Club History Committee. Library no. 0 -919212-68-9; printed by D.W. Friesen & Sons Ltd., Altona, Manitoba, R0G 0G0. It includes homesteader stories, photos and plat maps of a number of townships. In some cases, school and post offices are identified on the maps; many more are referred to (in stories) but not mapped. I'm working on ways to locate the latter - not a simple task! For the time being, I'll stick to the ones on the maps.Hope this helps! Some schools south of the Whitemud (Frenchman) River Thorne School 4019 SW sec 18,1-14-W 3rd. White Water School 3467 NE sec 34, 1-15-W 3rd. Zephyr School 1293 SE sec 26, 1-16-W 3rd. Black Horse School 3487 NW sec 11, 3-15-W 3rd. Beechmore School 3762 NW sec 18, 3-15-W 3rd. Harrisland School 3659 NW sec 3, 4-16-W 3rd Stony Plains School 2987 NE sec 32, 4-16-W 3rd. Some post offices south of the Whitemud Roche Plain post office NW sec 30 3-15-W 3rd. Bracken post office SE sec 4, 3-16-W 3rd. Harrisland post office NE sec 33, 3-16-W 3rd. Submitted by Faye Ryder .

Cypress Sheet right Section of the One Room Schoolhouse Maps
STONY PLAIN School District # 4044 not shown was located north of the HARRISLAND School District # 3659 which is shown on this map.

Bracken Tsp 3 Range 16 W3 From Waghorn's railway guide 1941

• Allenby
  
  
• Bracken post office was located at SE Sec.4, Twp.3, R.16 and also at Sec.21, Twp.2, R.16, W3.
  Between 1917-1924 the post office name was Edmund.⁷⁷
  
  
• Canuck which is mentioned on both the school district map as well as the Railway guide map was first located at Sec.35, Twp.2, R.17, W3 in 1911-09-01 and later re-located to Sec.33, Twp.2, R.17, W3 and finally NW Sec.10, Twp.3, R.17, W3
  
  
• Climax locates at SE Sec. 17, Tsp. 3 R. 18, W3
  
  
• Divide locates at S Sec. 27, Twp. 2 R.24, W3
  
  
• Frontier locates at SE Sec. 13, Twp. 3, R. 20, W3
  
  
• Loomis locates at SW Sec. 14, Twp. 3, R. 21, W 3
  
  
• Masefield locates at NE Sec. 27, Twp. 2, R. 14, W3
  
  
• Monchy locates at SW Sec. 4, Twp. 1, R. 15, W3
  
  
• Orkney locates at NW Sec. 23, Twp. 2, R. 15, W3
  
  
• Val Marie locates at Nw Sec. 29, Twp. 3, R. 13, W3
  
  
• Waldville shown on the 1941 Waghorn's guide railway map was located at Sec.31, Twp.3, R.17, W3 as of 1911-08-01 and later was re-located nearby at Sec.1, Twp.4, R.18, W3.