Opening in that year as the German-English Academy, it was founded by Mennonite settlers in response to a need for trained teachers to work in the schools being established in homestead communities in Saskatchewan.
[citation needed] Particularly in the 1870s, Mennonites of Dutch-German origins residing in colonies in the Black Sea region of present-day Ukraine became alarmed at the rising nationalism in the Russian Empire.
Similarly, the promise made by Catherine the Great to exempt them from military service was quite clearly being challenged and rewritten by the then current Russian government.
Thriving Mennonite farming communities were quickly established in the Saskatchewan Valley area in the vicinities of Aberdeen, Laird, Waldheim, Langham, Dalmeny, and Rosthern particularly.
Enrollments continued to grow, but during the 1920s & 1930s David Toews found himself expending more and more time and energy appealing for the necessary finances to run the school.
The school now boasted large, bright classrooms, laboratories, a gymnasium, ample office space and a library adequate for the time.
As was the case in the building of the school plant, tremendous effort, primarily on the part of principal Ernest Epp and staff member James Andres, was required to raise funding for this latest construction project, and again the alumni of the school came through with gifts and pledges which, when accompanied by a manageable mortgage, enabled the completion of the current residence facility.
In the mid-1940s, an attempt was made to expand the curriculum to include courses recognized by the University of Saskatchewan so that students could begin their liberal arts education at RJC.