Former country school teachers attending the "Country School Reunion" held Saturday, Sept. 22, at the Plymouth County Historical Museum were, front row (from left) -- Margaret Pierce Spies, Wilma Raetz Treinen, Luella Peters Crocker, Marian Marienau Baker, Bonnie Peters Zoch, Lorraine Nugent McDermott, Helen Maass Bottjen and Blanche Singer Wiederholt. Back row - Dorothea DeBoer, Gladys Molzen Thoma, Lauretta Kruse Van Buskirk, Edna Lubben Johnson, Lois Peters Lancaster, Shirley Mandelkow Jelken, Wilma Marienau Jessen, Margaret Kock Pecks, Martha Janssen Vander Tuig, Esther Plueger Von Hagel, Delaine Buss Plueger and Vivianne Gehrnes Erichsen. The 2007 reunion is the third such reunion held, with the other two held in 2001 and 2004. [Click to enlarge]

A Country School Teachers Reunion at the Plymouth County Historical Museum brought retired teachers and former students together to reminisce about the country schools of Plymouth County which operated from the 1860s to the 1960s.

Twenty country school teachers gathered for the event as well as former students, bringing memorabilia from their days of teaching in the one-room schoolhouses which dotted the countryside.

Organizing this year's event were Linda (Bottjen) Mohning, lifelong Remsen Township resident, and Linda (Ewin) Ziemann, a native of Seney now living in Texas, both who attended country schools in Plymouth County.

Their interest in genealogy and history have sparked an effort to compile as much information as possible about each of the country schools in the county.

"It's fun to put faces with the names," Mohning told those gathered, "and thanks for all the information you have shared with us."

According to Mohning, there were 203 country schools in Plymouth County.

"Where did the school buildings go? We want to know where they are now," Mohning said. "Did they become a garage, a grain storage building, or a house?"

Documenting the schoolhouses with information and pictures, as they were and as they are now in their current location, is only one part of their project.

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The other is to collect pictures, lists of classmates and teachers, teachers' biographies, newspaper articles, graduation programs, grade books, report cards, textbooks, and any other items related to the country schoolhouses.

Several teachers came forth with memories of their teaching days.

Lorraine Nugent McDermott still does tutoring in the Kingsley area. She recalls the scratching noise in the ceiling, and had a student look through the attic hole to find racoons in residence there.

Dorothea DeBoer taught at Seney school for three years and then a township school before the reorganization into the Le Mars Community School District. "Artha Bomgaars taught the lower grades and I taught 4th through 7th grade," she said. One of her favorite memories was the Christmas programs. "The parents always enjoyed them," she said.

A number of the teachers present got their teaching training in the normal training classes in high school. It was two year process that ended with the student training under a country school teacher.

It is believed the normal training ended in 1947.

Margaret Kock Pecks, who taught in 10 different country schools in Plymouth County and then moved to Brunsville and Craig before completing her teaching career at Kluckhohn Elementary in Le Mars, told about the training.

"It was a two year program and our instructor was Miss Kuebler. The classes taught us what to do in teaching in a country school," she said. "Miss Kuebler had a small 'school' in the classroom and they would bring students in for us to teach."

After completing the course work, the future teachers had to take a state exam.

"We had to get at least an 85 percent in each subject," Pecks recalled. "Then we received our teaching certificate."

"Right out of high school I had an eighth grader who knew more than I did," Pecks said. "I went home every night after school to study to keep ahead of him. He got first in Plymouth County in the eighth grade exam."

At age 18, Delaine Buss Plueger was told by the Plymouth County school superintendent that she was too young to teach. She got a teaching job in the Rock Rapids area, but was soon called back to Plymouth County to teach in Grant Township. "I guess I was good enough then," she said. One of her former students, Arlan Heeren, was at the Saturday reunion. "Your dad (Norman Heeren) was my school director," she said.

Dennis Wolf of Le Mars attended Stanton No. 1, and told of the older boys in the school getting water from the neighbor to fill the ceramic water jug each day. "There was no hot lunch," he said. "I'd bring a potato wrapped in aluminum foil and put it in the cookstove that heated the school. By noon I had a baked potato for lunch."

He can still remember when he was a kindergarten student how the county superintendent would come to check on how the teacher was doing.

"I remember the anxiety that unannounced visit caused the teacher," he said.

Several teachers nodded their heads in agreement.

Vernon Harrington attended Washington No. 3 before it closed and he then attended school in Brunsville.

"I had graduated into a bigger school," he said. He shared his mother's 1925 8th grade graduation exam for the display.

He said he had given the exam to several teachers at the schools where he now delivers hot lunches each day.

"They said they wouldn't know the answers to some of those questions," he said, noting some referred to grain wagons and bushels and farm prices.

Another student, Bob Lancaster, told the audience that once his mother was married, she could no longer teach. That was around 1912.

Mohning and Ziemann gave the audience a "homework assignment" before the program ended. They are asking for any information about the teachers and students in the country schools, albums and scrapbooks of school days, documents such as teacher contracts, eighth-grade graduation programs, report cards, teaching certificates, sale bills for the schoolhouse auctions, newspaper articles about the teachers (including obituaries and wedding writeups) and activities at the schools and other memorabilia.

They also suggest interviews with those who were teachers, students and directors, "An excellent project for 4-H members, Scouts, or as a school project," said Ziemann.

Two Plymouth County organizations are making an effort to capture that history. The Northwest Iowa Genealogical Society and Plymouth County's GenWeb web site are collaborating in this endeavor.

The NWIGS has a research room at the Plymouth County Historical Museum and it is here that the society stores school information in 24 three-ring binders (one per township). There is also a large binder all about teachers, a binder on overall county educational history and a book containing an alphabetical listing of all teachers from about 1915 to the present.

The other organization is the Plymouth County's GenWeb web site located at http://www.rootsweb.com/~iaplymou/. Although this web site contains all kinds of Plymouth County history, including biographies, obituaries, cemetery data, marriage records, military records and more, the country-school web pages have been a big hit. Other museums and historical societies in the county may share and share alike with these two organizations. The A-Z listing of rural school teachers is also available on http://www.computergeniesofnwiowa.com.

Anyone willing to donate to share items are asked to bring items to the drop box in the genealogy room of the museum, or send to Linda Mohning, 45525 C-38, Remsen, Iowa 51050 or e-mail Mohning at dkmohn@midlands.net.

Information may also be e-mailed to Ziemann, the GenWeb host, at lin.ziemann@verizon.net. Her e-mail address is also accessible from the GenWeb web site.