Grand River SchoolRichland Twp., Decatur County, Iowa |
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Yearbooks |
Alumni Booklets
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 Photograph courtesy of Grand River Schoolhouse Museum and Donna Vann |
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| After the pioneers settled on their homesteads, the first schools in
the vicinity of what would become Grand River were held in homes or in
the churches. In 1876 there was a rural school located near where the
town of Grand River would be established. With the upcoming arrival of the Humeston & Shenandoah Railroad, the town of Grand River was founded approximately a mile from the west bank of the Grand River and was laid out in 1881 by E. C. PERKINS. The Town Lot Corporation was organized with the purpose of laying out towns along the route of the railroad. |
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 Grand River's first high school, was known as Union Church. Building was erected in 1879. |
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 Grand
River's first school was built in 1876 and was made of brick. It was
located where the present-day (2014) Grand River Community Center now
sits, a little bit to the south and faced the west. It was approximately
where the flag pole for the 1916 schoolhouse was located. The brick
school house and the house (pictured at left) were lost to a fire. The
fire probably occurred in either 1894 or 1895 since the subsequent
schoolhouse that was built had "1895" on its portal.A photograph, shown at right, from 1892 shows Grand River's students, standing in front of a white framed building, was noted on the back as the first schoolhouse. Written on the back of the photograph: Taken by Joe LAREESE Teacher Elby (Elly?) NOBLE |
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Mary Lareese |
Fate Hedric |
Libby Lareese |
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 Photograph courtesy of Mike Avitt |
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| The school building and Victorian house were lost to a
fire in either 1894 or 1895. While a new school building was being
constructed, classes were held in the Catholic Church. A two-story brick school building, embellished with a bell tower, was built. The schoolhouse was featured on a 1910 calendar. The date on the portal is 1895. |
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| F. X. White, General Contractor of Eldora, IA, built a new high school and grade school school building at a cost of $25,000. George Lloyd was president of the school board and T. T. Beck, secretary. 39 school bond coupons were issued at $12.50 each. $487.50 was paid to Geo. M. Bechtell & Co. of Davenport, IA. The new school house was dedicated on December 7, 1916. | |||
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| A gymnasium was constructed on the east side of the
schoolhouse and completed during the Summer of 1953. It was put into use
during the 1953-54 school year. The gymnasium floor, made of asphalt
tile, measured 74' by 32'. It featured both boys and girls locker rooms.
A hallway with stairs at the west end connected the gymnasium to the
lunchroom (previous gymnasium and stage), located in the basement floor
of the schoolhouse. The gymnasium also featured a stage which replaced
the old stage that was on the north end of the lunchroom. During the 1920's, the issue of consolidation of Ringgold County schools was first addressed. The proposal failed and the town schools of Ringgold County continued with a majority of the rural children attending country schools. Later, when Ellston Community School closed, the students attended classes at either the Grand River Community School or the Kellerton Community School. |
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| Mount Ayr Record-News Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa Thursday, May 16, 1957 School Consolidation Petition A petition is on file in the office of county superintendent Vera F. DICKENS for the establishment of a proposed Grand Valley Community school district in Ringgold and Decatur counties. Mount Ayr Record-News Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa Thursday, June 04, 1959 The Grand Valley Community school district of Ringgold and Decatur counties will be served by one high school to be located at Kellerton when school opens this fall. The decision to close the high school at Grand River and to maintain the one high school at Kellerton was made at a recent meeting of the board of education of the district with three directors, Dean JACKSON, John GROSE and Norman ELSWICK, voting in favor of the proposal, and the other two directors, Roy JONES and John Van LAAR, opposing the plan. Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker |
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| Articles About Grand River School: | |||
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| Teachers Around Grand River
Area & Grand River Decatur County, Iowa |
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| Helen Mary Bradshaw was a 1910 Graduate of Grand River
High School. This information was in her Graduate Book which was given to her by Charlotte Ackerley on May 27th 1910. |
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High School. 1899-1910 |
High School |
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| Grand River Elementary, 4th
& 5th Grades, 1920-21 Submitted by Momdit@aol.com |
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| I have a card that belonged to my grandfather, Lester McDowell, that lists all of the names of kids in his class, Grades 4-5 in the school year 1920-1921. Edna Clyman was the teacher. | |||
| Wade Ackerley | Floyd McDowell | Bernadine Morrell |
| Harold Burchett | Mabel McDowell | Mendle Brammer |
| Sherman Allen | Doyle Hukill | Cleo Brown |
| Clarence Bohall | Raymond Hukill | Clarence Burchett |
| Burl Briner | Maxine Snyder | John Gale |
| Katy Briner | Calvin Spray | Edgar Harger |
| Woodrow Crees | Naomi Spray | Lester McDowell |
| Lawrence Crees | Harriette Switzer | Howard Shay |
| Frances Day | Wellington Taylor | Cloyd Street |
| Raymond Gilreath | Marjorie Vanderpool | Elmer Shields |
| Nellie Harger | Addie Young | Hazel Morrell |
| Emma Hileman | Agnes Liles | Bernice Foland |
| The Leon Reporter Leon, Decatur County, Iowa Thursday, January 27, 1917, Page 1 Study Center at Grand River Saturday, Jan. 27th.The regular study center work in the manual training for teachers in the northwest part of the county will be held in the shop at Grand River on Saturday, January 27. Regular work with tools on the bench will be given. This is work closely related to the boys' club work of the state, and will be continued at the special study center to be held in Grand River two weeks later, Feb. 10. For this and other reasons a full attendance of rural teachers is urged. Unless more teachers attend at Grand River this manual training center will be taken to another point in the county. CHAS. B. WOODSTOCK, Manual Training Instructor. Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2015 |
| The Leon Journal-Reporter Leon, Decatur County, Iowa Thursday, May 14, 1936 The senior class of the Grand River High School presented the play "Cat of Nine Tails." The high school entertained the 8th graders of Richland Township with a picnic and an afternoon ball game. Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, June 2011 |
| Hot Lunch Project Under Way In G. R. School [Page 3, November 13, 1941] The hot lunches for the Grand River school children are being served and a exceptional large number of children are receiving the lunches. The number will greatly increase as the weather becomes more unfavorable. This has been a very worth while project and has met with real favor from the students and parents. Mrs. Margaret Bright and Mrs. Della Woodard will again be in charge of the project with Mrs. Viola Nuzum, Home Ec. teacher as overseer. This summer a garden project was sponsored and was tended by Alva Hileman and Elmer Munyon. This was not only an exceptionally fine looking garden, but a large quantity of vegetables were realized. Mrs. Bright and Mrs. Woodard spent most of the summer canning them. Space was secured under the Green Corner Store and used in storing the canned goods and vegetables. It would be well worth anyone's time to see this exceptional fine display of goods. The N. Y. A. girls are helping with the lunches and are doing various work around the school building. Mr. Barnhouse is their supervisor. Transcription by Sharon R, Becker, November 2015 |
 Class of 1930-31 50th Anniversary Dan Day, 1st from right, back row Margaret Pennock Schoonover, 1st from right, front row Courtesy of Ken Day |
 Grand River Class of 1959 50th Class Reunion, May of 2009 |
| Back Row, L-R: Melvin MULLEN, Bill BONE, Harry TINNELL, Bernard
STOGDILL Front Row, L-R: Karon (ANDREWS) GILES, Glenda (WILLIAMS) McNEAL, Sharilyn (STARK) GARCIA, Marilyn (MOOBERRY) SEARS, Carolyn (STARK) SPICER Submission by Sharon R. Becker, June 2011 |
| Original page created by Sharon Becker 2013, updated 2015; updated and reformatted by Conni McDaniel Hall Oct 2019; updated Aug 2020. |
| Schools Directory *** Decatur County IAGenWeb |