One-room rural schools have curious afterlives

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This article comprises research conducted by Sue Leslie, Myrna Griffith and Deanette Snyder. 

In 1894 more than 150 one-room schoolhouses dotted Dallas County. Now they are nearly extinct.

As far as we know, the only school still intact in the county as a school is Alton School, which was moved to Forest Park Museum in 1964. The fate of other rural schools varied.

The demise of the rural school system can be blamed on several things, but legislation in the 1950s that stated that all public school districts in Iowa had to provide education from kindergarten through 12th grade was the most influential. This was known as consolidation, and it meant that each school would have to have a high school.

Iowa law required all public rural schools to close by June 1966.

Some of the rural schools were moved to the consolidated school location in order to be used as classrooms, garages or maintenance sheds. In Van Meter Township, for instance, four country school buildings were moved to town at a cost of $1,275. Three were used for classrooms and one for manual training.

Union Township moved two old schools to Dexter, where one was used as a music classroom.

In Washington Township, one became the superintendent’s house.

Many of the buildings went back to the farmer on whose land they were located, and they were torn down or moved to become garages or tool sheds. Dave Berkmann remembers watching a farmer move a school in Dallas Township down a long country lane using a team of horses. The ruins of some of those buildings can still be seen in fields or on abandoned farmsteads.

Many of the one-room schoolhouses were offered for sale by the county and became homes. In Washington Township, School #2, originally called the Murphy School and later the Ellis School, was located on a high piece of ground in section 14. When it closed, it was purchased by Harry Elder, who moved it down the hill and across the river on the ice since it was too big to go across the bridge. It was placed at the bottom of the hill east of the North Raccoon River, where it still stands.

In Union Township, H. J. Straight purchased seven of the schools in 1949. In 1950 they were moved to Redfield and converted into homes in an area of town known as Straightsville. They still stand along Jefferson Street on the east side of Redfield.

Michelle Heater and her family live in a home in rural Adel Township that was once a one-room school. A 1947 article from the Des Moines Register relates the building’s journey from schoolhouse to family home.

The 1875 building was purchased in 1932 for $125 by Conway Morris, whose wife taught there as a young woman. Morris moved the building a half-mile east to its present location and originally used it as a grain storage facility. Later, he decided to convert it into a home for his family, completing the remodel in 1946.

Recent renovations revealed thick cedar outer walls and diagonal boards framing the inner walls. Today it would be hard to tell what its origin was.

It would be almost impossible to determine just where all those schools originally were located, but a group of Dallas County historians are attempting to do just that. Using research, interviews and a series of articles about the schools in each township published in local newspapers and requesting reader input, many schools are being located. This information will be used in a book detailing the history of the rural schools in Dallas County.

It has been suggested that signs be erected to show just where those schools were located. The cost of such a project is being researched, but if you would be interested in sponsoring a sign, please let the authors know.

We hope you have enjoyed this journey into the past of rural schools and still would love to hear your stories as we compile the history of Dallas County rural schools.

If you have any information about the schools in Dallas County, 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.