Book highlights the one-room school houses within Henry County

When we think of one-room school houses, we tend to think of days gone by and of walking miles and miles to school to attend classes. These are all true of school houses all across Iowa and the Midwest, and even in Henry County. The Henry County Historic Preservation Commission has published a book titled “Rural Schools of Henry County” that gives a look into the structure of rural schools located in Henry County.

The book covers 12 townships and their one room schools. The people of Henry County have always been known for their importance placed on education, and the Mt. Pleasant area was known as the “Athens of Iowa” in its day.

The Henry County Historic Preservation Commission is a group that is dedicated to preserving the history of Henry County. They come from different parts of the county, and are representative of the various museums and areas of the county.

“Historically, the commission has published books about various things about Henry County,” said Pat Ryan White, Commission member and Editor of the book. “We have done a books about abandoned towns of Henry County, and with this book we were looking for our next project that would incorporate the entire area of the county as a whole.”

The book contains almost 300 pages of information about the rural schools of the county. It not only covers the location of the schools within the county, the book also contains many photographs from each of the schools.

“We had an awful lot of information to go through to create the book,” said White. “We had almost too much information for just one book. There was a lot of decisions to be made as to what we used.”

The majority of the book was divided into the 12 townships, and each township generally had nine schools within its area. The commission took on the task of dividing the school information according to the areas that they represented.

“It was interesting the information that we found out while creating the book,” said White. “Many of the townships had their schools set up in such a way that the students would walk an average of two miles to get to school.”

“We tried to get as many photos as possible into the book,” said White. “And the photos that we used were of identifiable students and teachers. We tried to get photos that gave a good description of what it was like to attend a rural school.”

During the consolidation of the schools that took place in 1959 to 1961, all of the rural schools within Henry County were shut down. This meant that children were bussed to larger local schools and the one room school houses were no longer needed. Many of the buildings were re-purposed into homes, or other such uses.

“There is a wonderful example of a school house located on the Midwest Old Threshers Grounds,” said White. “It is one of the rural schools that was moved to that location and turned into a great display.”

The book is available at the Henry County museums and at the Henry County Auditor’s office located in the Henry County Courthouse, the cost of the book is $35.

Contact Michelle Hillestad at michelle.hillestad@southeastiowaunion.com