This article comprises research conducted by Sue Leslie, Myrna Griffith and Deanette Snyder.
In 1850, when the state used precincts rather than townships, the boundary lines for Sugar Grove Township were unsettled. It was divided into Buena Vista and Des Moines Precincts.
The first time the township with the name Sugar Grove Township was organized was in September 1851, when it was included in Beaver Township. The boundary lines changed many times until 1870, when it was settled in its present form.
The township’s first school was a subscription school, with families paying for their children to attend. By 1879 the township was an independent school district with nine schools. Minburn had an additional school that accommodated its students, bringing the number of schools in the township to 10.
Minburn was the only town in Sugar Grove Township at that time. It had the only post office in the township, but many residents made use of the Dallas Center office as well.
In “The History of the Minburn Area,” written for the town’s centennial in 1969, the following information about the first school in Sugar Grove Township was shared by Mrs. Pearl Birdsall:
“The first school house was built during 1854 and was known as the Fremont School House. The land was donated by Mark Newby, and the crude structure was about 16 feet long, built of logs with a sod and stick chimney that stood outside the building. There was a fireplace that occupied nearly one end of the entire building and windows or light holes were made by cutting an opening on each side of the room about two or three feet in size. A rustic latch string door hung on wooden hinges fronting the south. There was a row of wooden pins placed in the logs near each chimney corner on which to hang the scholars’ sunbonnets and shawls.”
Harriet Sutton was employed as a teacher and was paid $20 by subscription for a term of three months. She is said to have been a very strict teacher and employed a peculiar method to discipline those who would not obey: She would tie a rope about the waist and suspend the student (usually a boy) from the rafters, where he was left to be ridiculed by his classmates.
This school came to an end when some boys in the district decided it was time to get rid of the old building and one night carried coals of fire to the building. Soon the flames leaped and spread, and the old schoolhouse was history.
For two years after, this school was held in a vacant house located southwest of the log school.
Around 1870 a frame schoolhouse was erected on land owned and donated by Thomas Bell. This school was sold to A. V. Miller in 1929, and another Sugar Grove #4 was erected two miles south of Minburn.
Gloria and Marilyn Shirley attended this “family school,” as Gloria calls it. She recalls that in 1941, the students heard on the radio that the world was going to end that day. Curious, they sat on the steps and waited for it to happen.
Wilma McManus was Gloria’s teacher, and she remembers how pleased her classmates were that they were able to attend Mrs. McManus’ 100th birthday in 2014.
By 1879 the town of Minburn had “two framed buildings devoted to school purposes,” each with only one room. During that year, there were 83 students with two employees, Principal S. H. Lauder and Assistant Sophie Burnett. The principal received $42.50 per month, and the assistant received $30 per month.
In an ongoing effort to preserve the history of our township schools, we are seeking details on the names and locations of the other schools in Sugar Grove Township. If you have any information about these schools, such as their location or stories of students who attended them, our group would like to hear from you. Please contact Myrna Griffith at wpldirector@minburncomm.net, Deanette Snyder at deanettesnyder@gmail.com or Sue Leslie at densueles@aol.com.
A conversation about rural one-room schoolhouses will be held Sunday, June 2 at 1 p.m. at Forest Park Museum in Perry. Bill Sherman, a noted expert on rural schools in Iowa and the author of “Iowa’s Country Schools: Landmarks of Learning,” will be joined by local historians Sue Leslie, Myrna Griffith and Deanette Snyder, who have been researching the township schools in Dallas County. The public is invited to join the conversation with memories and pictures. A tour of Alton Schoolhouse on the museum grounds will also be available.
