Jefferson County Online One-Room Schools, 1939

This page is a listing of the One-Room Schools in the county as of 1939, courtesy of our retired Correspondence Secretary Verda Baird, followed by a letter she wrote to the editor of "The Fairfield Ledger" to advise the materials collected regarding one-room schools. There is a book at the Fairfield Library with photos of these schools (noted by a 'yes' in the Photo column) but at this time we are not able to present those photos online due to copyright concerns. However, we have two private contributions for Upper Richwoods School, a photo of Peach Blossom School from the local paper, and three private contributions for Buzzard Glory School which are linked here. Copies of one or two school photos from the library book for your personal use may be obtained by contacting our Research Assistant. If you have a photo you'd like to contribute to the site, or you have fond memories of attending one of the schools, contact the Webmaster and we'll be glad to link it to the appropriate school. One-room schoolhouses in Jefferson County were regularly used until 1958 when they were closed in favor of larger multiple-room schools.

Verda's letter to the "Ledger" editor

"The Fairfield Ledger"
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Page 4

One-room school records gathered

As a follow up to my request in April for old one-room school attendance and grades, this is to report I received 19 books. My destination was the new statewide archives at the Univ. of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls at their big library on campus. It makes a total of 293 for Jefferson County.

They have received records now from 88 of the 99 Iowa counties and are alphabetical by county in long, long aisles. Some of the fragile ones are in acid-free boxes.

Among the donations were from Walnut, Penn and Round Prairie townships. The earliest was 1891, and most recent 1936. In 1901, Vega school in the far southeast corner of Round Prairie the teacher had 50 pupils and was paid $20.00 a month. She did NOT return the next year.

In the front of some of these bound books was the plan for 15 minutes each day on how to keep each age group busy as the teacher was involved with another age class.

I also took a map I had received from a Billings, Mont., genealogist raised here in Jefferson County. It showed all the zigzag outlines of each of our 105 rural school districts. I also shared the number of the township district and school nicknames.

Did you attend one of them? Egypt, Slabtown, Hardscrabble, Buzzard Glory, Rabbit Delight, Cracker Neck, Hickory Ridge Oakleaf, Prairie Star, Devils Lake, Dog Neck, Sloughville, Clay Hill or Peachblossom. There are 19 schools for which no picture has ever been located having been torn down, or burned prior to 1975.

At year's end there was a long detailed questionnaire for the teacher to fill in. Among the questions with answers as early as 1891: Is the law requiring effects of stimulants and narcotics to be taught fully complied with? (yes); Average cost of tuition per month per pupil? (79 cents); Do you display the flag each day weather permitting? (no flag or flag pole); Size of my school? (28x24x11-high) Chairs for visitors (1) Dictionaries; (0) Encyclopedia (0); Globe (0); Thermometer (0); Clock (0); Framed pictures (0); Directors visiting school (0); Special programs (Halloween and Christmas); Newspaper (0); Farm paper (Wallaces Farmer); Do you supervise the playground? (yes); Do you have playground equipment? (none); Have a good well? (no); Linear Feet of Blackboard (none); Interior walls in good condition (0); Oiled floor (yes).

Before my daughter and I left, I inquired if there were records for rural Burlington, where my mother attended 1910-1918. She quickly referred to her computer and found I was "out of luck."

In stopping at the college museum, we learned funds have been cut and everything in it has to be disposed of as it closes to the public July 1st. Their large and small stuffed animal display is really eye catching and the archivist doubted if they could survive moving. You can read all about it at: https://museum.library.uni.edu/.

Fairfield can be so thankful for what we have at the Carnegie Museum.

--Verda Baird, Fairfield