Country School Association of America

19th Iowa Country School Conference

Winterset and Perry, IA Welcome Iowa Country School Preservation Conferees

Winterset, Iowa in Madison County served up some fine country schools, a number of famous bridges, John Wayne history, and another successful country school conference this past fall. 55 participants at the 19^th Annual Iowa Country School Preservation Conference, entitled, "A Vanishing Heritage: Preserving Country Schools and Bridges,” enjoyed a full day of presentations at the New Bridge Church in Winterset, followed by a full day of activities. Participants visited four country schools: the Washington School, the North River School, the Tusha School and the 1850's log school. The Saturday group enjoyed a visit to the Madison County Historical Complex, and a car-avan to Hogback Covered Bridge. 

Presenters offered varied and informative presentations rounding out a full day program: Iowa Social Studies Guidelines and Country Schools, Country Schools Telling a Story fo Agriculture, Creating a Self-Guided Tour of the Alton School, Preservation of the Prairie Grove School, Writing and Country Schools, Country Schools and Heritage Tourism, What to do and See in Madison County, Iowa Country Schools in an Iowa History Timeline, Developing Historical Villages with Country Schools,  and Interpreting Your Country School. 

Tusha School

Hogback Bridge

The group met for lunch and a tour of historic Hotel Pattee in Perry where their “themed” rooms thrilled the visitors from across the country.

A cool drizzle couldn’t dampen the spirits of 22 country school preservationists who visited the hotel and were warmly welcomed by management and staff. No description of the beautifully designed rooms could do them justice so management opened a number of rooms on three floors for the conference attendees to explore. They were also treated to a tour of the Spring Valley Ballroom with a mural depicting the passage of time in Perry; farming, animals that roamed the territory, the coming of the railroad, Native Americans, public buildings, the circus coming to town…images capturing the flavor of a vibrant and historic city.

Hotel Pattee

The Willis Library beckoned guests to settle into the Stickley chairs for an afternoon of reading classics by the fireside. Time was against us for a sit down.

Of particular interest to the group was the Alton School Room, a tribute to Iowa’s proud heritage of the one-room schools that dotted the landscape, in particular, the schoolhouse that operated in Perry from 1867 until 1961. A scan of the room evoked memories of K-8 children and a single teacher, so characteristic of the nation’s country schools. Design elements include a folding desk chair, an antique slate and abacus, a schoolhouse pendant ceiling light, familiar cursive handwriting charts, photos of Washington and Lincoln, a pendulum wall clock, a vintage map of Iowa, and a 48-star American flag. Bed linens and pillows included an array of colorful quilts.

"Alton School Room"

King's Daughters Room

Open for our viewing pleasure were: the David Ahmanson Suite for Kids, the R.M. Harvey (Circus) Room, the 1913 Farmhouse Room, the American Indian Room, the V.T. “Snick” Hamlin (Alley Oop) Room, the African Room, and the King’s Daughters Room.

How gratifying it was for one conferee from New Hampshire to visit the King’s Daughters Room at the Hotel Pattee! She is a member of the last Kings Daughters circle to exist in New Hampshire and coincidentally, one of their charitable causes is to curate and maintain an 1841 one-room country school museum for the City of Nashua, New Hampshire. 1800 fourth graders visit the schoolhouse each year for a two-hour living history experience and the King’s Daughters fund their visit and transportation.  She shared her visit to the Kings Daughters theme room with her circle when she returned to NH.

The tour ended with rave reviews for the creative design elements throughout the Hotel Pattee. We offer our praise to the dedication of visionary Bill Clark, the designers, managers, researchers, and architects who brought this beautiful landmark back to its former glory and beyond. Sincere thanks for your hospitality, a hearty lunch, and a memorable visit all around.

Thanks to Ron Howell, Bill Sherman and the many volunteers, presenters, and attendees who stepped forward to create a wonderful 19th conference!

         North River School                                                                         Willis Library

Memories from Oak Grove Ridge School

Lunchtime in a One-Room School

By Larry Scheckel

Tomah

Monroe County

The 28 children in the one-room Oak Grove Ridge school outside of Seneca in the middle of Crawford County always looked forward to noon lunch. It was the 1940s and 1950s and Mom would make the school lunches for me and my brothers Phillip and Bob, and later my younger sisters Catharine, Rita and Diane.

In a typical lunch she packed thick slices of homemade bread around layers of jelly and peanut butter, wrapped in wax paper. Sometimes those two slices of bread held a slab of Spam. I loved that stuff! The sandwich might be augmented with an orange and a brownie.

Dad and Mother had nine children, so she made six loaves of bread at a time. Yes, she had the old-fashioned bread box filled with flour, purchased in 50-pound or 100-pound cloth bags. In that flour bin sat a hand-operated sifter.

I have vivid memories of Mother kneading the dough, rolling it over and over in flour, placing the dough in bread pans, opening the big door of the wood-burning oven, and placing six bread pans inside, then closing the door with a hot pad.

Some kids brought their lunch in syrup cans or cleaned-out paint cans. They had a nice handle and could be used in the summertime to pick wild raspberries or blackberries. Other kids used a paper sack saved when groceries were purchased at Johnson’s One-Stop Shopping Center or Kane’s IGA, both stores in Seneca. Virgil Fradette owned a bright red rectangular lunch box with a Hopalong Cassidy motif on one side. I later learned those type of lunch boxes were made by Aladdin Industries out of Nashville.

We took soup in a glass jelly jar with a screw-on lid. A half-hour before lunch, some of the older and taller boys or girls would set several pans atop the potbelly wood-burning stove. They would pour 2 to 3 inches of water in the pans. Close to lunch time, each kid would get out their jar of soup and heat it up by putting it in the pan of water.

There would be great excitement when a jar was set into the water without the lid being loosened. The air inside the jar heated up, expanded, and the jar would explode.

That was our hot lunch program in the winter time when the wood-burning stove was needed and we ate inside. Spring and fall, we’d take our lunch boxes outside and sit on the concrete steps, or cistern skirting, or along the sunny south side of the school. Sometimes we traded lunch items. My favorite lunch container was a metal box about 6 inches by 9 inches and 4 inches deep with a little handle on top for carrying.

The entire lunch box had that cowboy Roy Rogers motif, with Roy and his horse, Trigger, Dale Evans and her horse Buttermilk, Bullet the German Shepherd dog, Roy’s sidekick Pat Brady and his Jeep, Nellybelle. The lunch box sported a half-dozen or so colored pictures showing Roy riding his horse, rounding up cattle, Dale Evans and the logo of the Double R Bar Ranch. My favorite picture was Bullet licking Pat Brady’s face. Our black and white dog Shep would do the same thing until he got run over by a passing car on Oak Grove Ridge Road.

Of that whole Roy Rogers bunch, I admired Pat Brady the most. I got a Pat Brady coloring book for Christmas when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I later learned that Pat Brady served with Gen. George Patton’s Third Army in Europe in World War II. He was in the Battle of the Bulge. He was decorated for bravery and earned the bronze star and two Purple Hearts. He rescued some of his Army buddies when the top of their Army tank was blown off near Metz, France, in November 1944.

I used that lunch pail for third and fourth grade until the two hinges tore loose. I could get by with one bad hinge, but not with two bad hinges. Later I got a lunch box that was black with a dome top and a thermos bottle fit into the dome top, held by a wire latch. The inside of the lunch box was painted white. They were durable, sturdy and the vacuum bottle held about 2 cups, and the lid, usually red, acted as a drinking cup.

Whenever I see a potbelly stove, I have fond memories of us school kids on Oak Grove Ridge placing our wide-mouth glass jars of soup in a big pan of hot water at 11:30 in the morning and savoring the contents at noon.