| LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA |  |
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| LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA | |
Page 99
Transcribed by Sharon Elijah, November 18, 2019
Map of Jefferson Township
| 1. Cornstock or Pleasant View |
| 2. Hook |
| 3. Oak Grove No. 2 |
| 4. Orchard Grove |
| 5. Toolesboro |
Jefferson Township is an irregular township. Bound by the Iowa River on the east, south and much of the west side. Wapello Township is west of it, Grandview and Port Louisa to the North. Eliot Township is across the river south of it.
It was one of the earliest settled portions of the county.; The first settler of the county, Christopher Shuck, was a citizen of this township. He was followed by Toole, Bird, Springer, Hale, Hook, Guest, Plamer, the Parsons and others. The village of Toolsboro is situated on the northwest quarter of section 11, township 73 north, range 2 west. It was laid out and platted by William L. Toole, May 2, 1840. Mr. Toole was a native of Virginia, who came to this county in 1836, and was for many years a prominent citizen. He was a member of the first constitutional convention, and was also the first merchant in the village. He died here about 1878. The town is beautifully located on the west bank of the Iowa River, about eight miles from Wapello. The post office was established shortly after the village was platted, and William L. Toole was the first postmaster. Rev. Fisk, a Presbyterian minister, was the first to break the bread of life to the people in this vicinity. In 1848 a house of worship was erected by the Missionary Society of this denomination. It is now used by the Methodist Episcopal denomination. The first Methodist Episcopal preacher was Rev. Nathaniel De Witt.
The first school in the township was taught by John B. Ferguson. The next teacher was William Flack. The first school-house in Toolsboro was erected in 1838, and was a log structure. It was used for several years, and later a brick school-house was erected. A handsome frame school-house now furnishes accommodation to the seventy-two pupils enrolled.
Page 100
Picture: OAK GROVE, C. 1910.
Left to right: Marie Kreiner Shafer, Thelma McLaughlin, Marie Courtney, Merle Bissinger, Kathryn Courtney, Mabel Courtney, Lola Kreiner Johnson, Anna Warren Rouch, Dean Parsons, Ruth Hook, Amy Kreiner Schneider, Kenneth Wiederrecht, Johnny Courtney, and Alma Hook.Hook was about a mile north from the Iowa River bridge, near Oakville. It was located on the north side of the road going west from Parson’s Cemetery. In the 1874 Atlas it is shown on the land of H. N. and J. J. Parsons. This land was later bought by the Hook family. Later the school was moved to the road north and south of its first location and made into a dwelling. The Tisors lived there. There was no water or well on the land, so all the school and home water was carried from some other place.
Sometimes this school was also nicknames “Cornstalk College.” We have only two names of students attending Hook: William Silleck and Howard Hayes.
Oak Grove, sometimes called the Kreiner school, was located about two miles west of Sand Run. At one time this was a four-corner, but the road south and all the buildings are gone.
The water was carried to the school from a nearby house. One former student remembers a timber fire near the school. The classes were held outside that day.
Some of the early teachers were Minnie Wiederrecht Mummie, Emma Wiederrecht Williamson, Mary Tuster Wiederrecht, Mable Wiederrecht Lischer, Esther Korn Fancolly (1918), Nellie Wykert Winder (1919-02), Lavern Hiller, Vernon Wiederrecht, and Ralph Kreiner.
These are the names of some of the families attending Oak Grove: Kreiner, Matthews, Crow, Chaplin, Courtney, Bissinger, and Wiederrecht.
Page 101
Picture: OAKGROVE SCHOOL
Orchard Grove, now a home, was located east of Wapello near the intersection of Highway 99 and Meyerholz Lake Road.
We have a record of Mary Foster teaching there from 1918-1920. Her salary was $60.00 per month the first year and $80 the second year.
The best record was this interview with Lillie Hiller.
On February 18, 1987, Lillie Hiller celebrated her 101st birthday. She was born just east of Wapello, the second of eight children of the Korn family. Her parents died at an early age, leaving her the task of keeping her younger brothers and sisters together.
Lillie attended the Orchard Grove school in Jefferson Township for eight years, walking three quarters of a mile to school. She related the fun the pupils had skating on Miller’s Slough and sledding on the hills. One of her goals was to never be late to school. She told of her before-school chores: one of them was to churn butter. She was never tardy, even though she pulled her younger, crippled brother to school in a little wagon. One morning she heard the five minute bell and knew she would not be able to arrive on time if she continued to pull the wagon. She left the wagon and little brother in the middle of the road and ran to the building. The teacher asked why she was out of breath and why her little brother didn’t come. When Lillie explained that she didn’t want to be tardy, the teacher sent her back to get her brother—and didn’t count her tardy. However, she did receive a good scolding from an aunt who lived in the house near where she had left her brother.
Lillie started high school in Wapello, but missed three weeks to stay home and help harvest crops and make molasses. She never went back because she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to catch up. Later a local doctor encouraged her to go to Burlington to enroll in nurses’ training. Her parents thought it was too far for her to travel alone so she was denied this opportunity.
Lille was very quick to recall the eight teachers she had at Orchard Grove: Addie Potter, Olive Foster, Elizabeth Meyerholz, Vinnie Winter, Minnie Myerholz, Leota Wright, Charles Meyerholz, and Zora Potter.
Among her fond memories of country school days are the spelling contest. She was almost always the head speller. The box social was another highlight of the year. Each girl and the teacher would prepare a lunch and put it in a very prettily decorated box. At the close of the evening, the auctioneer would go to work. Usually the boys recognized the teacher’s box and bid on it so her boyfriend would have to pay more to have the privilege of eating with his date. One evening a young man asked to take Lillie to the box social, and of course wanted to be sure to get her lunch. Lillie told him she would sit with the auctioneer’s wife (the auctioneer was Will Smith) and when her box was being sold she would pretend to be fixing her hair. The young man was the successful bidder in more ways than one. Lillie married Verne Hiller when she was twenty-five and raised four children.
Page 102
I remember the old school bell,
That called us back to school,
With books and lunch in hand
We strolled along our way
Not daring to stop at the wading pool.
In that dear and tiny school house
Was a teacher O! so proud
Who taught us to perfection,
Tho’ we were only a small crowd.
There were hardwood desks in our one-room schoolhouse
On which some carved initials,
And coasting down hill on home made sleds,
Then hurrying back for class recitals.
We studied diligently from our books
And learned history from every page,
These are some of the memories,
I ponder over in my golden age.
Those dear and happy school days
Where we learned the golden rule
Will never be forgotten
By a youngster who loved to go to school.
Pleasant View, more often known as Cornstalk College, was on the east-west road one mile south of Mallory Cemetery. It is about three-fourths of a mile west of Paul Gustafson’s farmhouse. This school is shown in the 1874 Atlas on the south side of the road on land belonging to R. S. Strong. The last record we have of it being open is about 1920. The building was used as a home before it was torn down.
The names of teachers were: Helen Smith (1907), Myrtle Erwin, Anna Warren, Emma Waterhouse, and Nellie Smith (1918-20). Some of the families attending were: Taylor, Smith, Spitznogle, Erwin, Parsons, and Kemper.
Toolesboro, or Tollesborough as it was first known, has only a small remainder of the 1874 town of 64 blocks and 848 people. Located at the top of the Iowa River Bluff, it was a river port and on the early mail route. The first school in the county was in a log cabin near the Hook property at the top of the bluff in 1839, taught by John F. Ferguson. The second teacher was William Flack. The first women teachers in the county were Eliza J. Ronolds and Miss McConnell.
Mr. Toole gave the land at the south edge of the town for a two-story brick school building, the lower rooms to be primary grades and the upper floor for advanced grades. One of the former pupils said, “and some of those fellows who went upstairs were big and rough.” He remembered Harry Parsons as an upper grade teacher and Villas McKay Hayes as a downstairs teacher.
In 1901-02 the board voted penmanship was to be taught each day for fifteen minutes and money was given toward a traveling library. According to school board minutes about that same time, the No. 5 school was sold and part of the money went to Toolesboro. No other records on No. 5 school are available.
Page 103
Picture: TOOLESBORO SCHOOL DECEMBER 17, 1936.
Front row, left to right: Leroy Hake, Harry Venard, Bill Hank, Donald Milligan. Second row: Wanda Singleton, Georgia Hank, Barbara James, Lawrence Stigge, Pat Venard, Ronald James, Joe Foster, William Hook, James Foster. Third row: Sid Hank, Mary Lee Robertson, Darrel Robertson, Kenneth Stigge, Jewel Buchanan, Bud Robertson, Buddy James, Harold Robertson, John Henry Richardson, Charles Venard, Baily Milligan. Back row: Bulah Buchanan, William Stigge, Peggy Buchanan, Vivian Robertson, Ruby Kelly – teacher, Helen Marie Milligan, Cora Brown, Perry Venard.
In 1903 one teacher of the upper grades was sued for a part of her contract since she left before the year was out. After that the contract read “any day missed shall be deducted from the salary.”
In 1910 a contract for a well was signed. Prior to this people had been contracted to furnish the water. Later the need arose for a substantial fence to surround the school yard, perhaps to keep the livestock out. 1913 saw the need for a good sidewalk and new outbuildings.
There was support for a new building, but also strong opposition. It took three elections to finally pass the motion to build (46 ayes, 31 nays, 2 votes thrown out). The one-story, two-room building cost $4000 to construct; it is now a private home.
Page 104
| Year | Teacher | Grade | Months | Salary Per Month |
| 1900 | Miss McClanahan | |||
| 1901-02 | Erma Lacy | Prim. | $30 | |
| Lizzie James | Adv. | $35 | ||
| Summer | George McFadden Moore | 3 months | $45 | |
| Summer | Mary Parsons | hired to assist | $10 | |
| 1902-03 | ||||
| 1903-04 | Mary Parsons | Prim. | $25 | |
| Margaret Huffman | Adv. | $35 | ||
| 1904-05 | Talma Parsons | |||
| 1905-06 | ||||
| 1906-07 | Harry Parsons | 8 months | $50 | |
| 1907-08 | Harry Parsons | 1 year | $50 | |
| 1908-09 | Harry Parsons | $60 | ||
| 1909-10 | Lena Matthews | 8 month year | $50 | |
| 1910-11 | Zola Venard | |||
| 1911-12 | Zola Venard | |||
| 1912-13 | May Matthews | (2 week holiday) | $60 | |
| 1913-14 | May Matthews | $60 | ||
| 1914-15 | Emma Harrison | 9 months | $60 | |
| 1915-16 | Emma Harrison | 9 months | $60 | |
| 1916-17 | Lela Bates | Primary | ||
| Emma Harrison | Adv. | |||
| 1917-18 | Maud Warren | |||
| Mildred Menefee | ||||
| 1918-19 | Mrs. Burdine | |||
| Beatrice Davison | $65 | |||
| 1919-20 | Florence Charles | Adv. | $65 | |
| Erma Erwin Sheridan | Prim. | $80 | ||
| 1920-21 | Florence Charles | Adv. | $80 | |
| Nellie Smith | Lower | $80 | ||
| 1921-22 | Nellie Smith | All | $75 | |
| 1922-23 | Ava Erwin Parsons | Upper | $75 | |
| Nellie Oliphant | Lower | $65 |
Page 105
| Year | Teacher | Grade | Months | Salary Per Month |
| 1923-24 | Capitola Erwin Brown | Upper | $75 | |
| Odessa Myers | Lower | $65 | ||
| 1924-25 | Mrs. Helen Smith | All | $95 | |
| 1925-26 | Mrs. Helen Smith | Adv. | $80 | |
| Marjorie Menefee | Prim. | $70 | ||
| 1926-27 | Lucille Curran Butler | All | $95 | |
| 1927-28 | Lucille Curran Butler | All | $95 | |
| 1928-29 | Lucille Curran Butler | All | $95 | |
| 1929-30 | Ruth Richardson | All | $95 | |
| 1930-31 | Nettie Matthews Hayes | 1 thru 8 | $85 | |
| 1931-32 | Nettie Matthews Hayes | All | $95 | |
| 1932-33 | Bessie Dresser | All | $80 | |
| 1933-34 | Bessie Dresser | All | $50 | |
| 1935-36 | Ruby Kelley | All | $55 | |
| 1936-37 | Ruby Kelley | All | $60 | |
| 1937-38 | Ruby Kelley | All | $65 | |
| 1938-39 | Ruby Kelley | All | $65 | |
| 1939-40 | Zola Vernard | All | $65 | |
| 1940-41 | Zola Vernard | All | $75 | |
| 1941-42 | Zola Vernard | All | $85 | |
| 1942-43 | Zola Vernard | All | $85 | |
| 1943-44 | Zola Vernard | All | $100 | |
| 1944-45 | Zola Vernard | All | $115 | |
| 1945-46 | Zola Vernard | All | $150 | |
| 1946-47 | Zola Vernard | All | $150 | |
| 1947-48 | Mae Peck Bailey | |||
| 1948-49 | Mae Peck Bailey | $165 | ||
| 1949-50 | Mae Peck Bailey | $235 | ||
| 1950-51 | Mae Peck Bailey | $235 | ||
| 1951-52 | Nellie Werner | $300 | ||
| 1952-53 | Nellie Werner | |||
| 1953-54 | Nellie Werner | $300 | ||
| 1954-55 | Dorothy Grim | $300 | ||
| 1955-56 | Dorothy Grim | |||
| 1956-57 | No school | |||
| 1960-61 | Last record of school |