Surprise from 1916
- Dan Barnfield
- 8 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Yesterday handed me one of those small, bright wins that make this project feel a bit like a treasure hunt. You stare at old records long enough, and when a real person suddenly steps out of the fog—well, that’s a good day.
This time, it was a photo. And not just any photo.
A Lead, and a 1981 Local History Book
It started with a few emails back and forth with Nathan Kramer and Gordon Goldsborough, who are doing excellent work over at the Manitoba Historical Society Archives (www.mhs.ca). I sent them a few questions and, as often happens, the answer turned into something better.
Nathan pointed me toward a book: Wilderness to Wildlife – Chatfield and District History, published in 1981 by the Chatfield Oldtimers Club. You can read it online through the University of Manitoba’s digital collections, which is a gift in itself. Community histories like this don’t pretend to be polished or complete; what they offer instead is voices. Real ones.
Thomas McMeekin and his family don’t get their own dedicated write-up, but their names show up in a few places.
$45 a Month, and a One-Room Schoolhouse
One detail jumped out right away: when the authors discuss Willowview School, Thomas’s sister Susette appears as the first teacher in 1914, earning the princely sum of $45 a month. Adjusted for inflation, that’s just over $1,200 today. My wife, an elementary school teacher, was not impressed.
It’s a tiny line, but it anchors a family in a real place, doing real work.
Thomas Steps Forward
Further in, there’s this passage:
“In 1916 school did not open until August with T. Douglas McMeekin (Susette’s brother) as teacher until the end of December. Mr. McMeekin went overseas in the first World War and on his return gave each of his pupils a souvenir. The girls received a souvenir spoon and the boys a souvenir pocket knife. Violet (Franklin) Olson still has her souvenir spoon which she treasures very much.”
I love this kind of detail—plain, human, and specific.
A man leaves to fight in the First World War, comes home, and hands a small gift to every student he taught. Not grand. Not heroic. Just thoughtful. And apparently at least one of those spoons survived a century because Violet Olson refused to let it go.
That alone would have been enough for the day.
And Then—The Photo
But sitting at the top of the page is a photograph of Thomas with his students in 1916.
There he is.
Not a name in a record. Not a footnote. An actual person surrounded by the kids he taught before heading overseas.
It’s a small piece of history, but it hits hard when you’ve been digging through scattered clues. Seeing his face puts weight behind the stories. It’s also a quiet reminder of how much these rural teachers carried: running a one-room school, teaching multiple grades, keeping order, and then stepping directly into a world war.
Why This Matters
Finds like this don’t solve everything, but they do something better—they make the past feel lived-in again. They give you a person instead of a case file.
So, thanks again to Nathan for pointing me in the right direction.
-Dan Barnfield
References
Wilderness to Wildlife: Chatfield and District History. Chatfield Oldtimers Club, 1981. University of Manitoba Digital Collections, https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3A3124918. Accessed 2 Dec. 2025.