As the pioneers came to Iowa and settled throughout the territory, one of their main concerns was how to educate their children. Many, establishing homesteads, resided far from the settlements and, in many cases with nothing more than a trail through the countryside, it was physically impossible for the children to attend classes at the towns' schools. This problem was resolved with the establishment of country [rural] schools located strategically within four square miles throughout each township so that the children could obtain an education.

The country school provided more than an education for Iowa's children. Often, the country school was a place for neighbors to gather and socialize. At times, the school served as a place of worship for congregations who could not afford to build a church building.

The Iowa Legislature passed an education bill in 1858, making the civil township as the official school district. Towns with a population of more than 1,000 residents - later lowered to 100 residents - could become independent from the township district. County school superintendents were elected and supervised both the township and independent town schools.

Refinements to the 1858 education bill, made in 1872, allowed sub-districts to become an independent school district. This changed control of country schools from the township to local neighborhoods. A requirement of becoming an independent school district was that the school has a minimum of 10 students. Once the country school became its own independent sub-district, it was governed by its own board of trustees.

100 rural schools were reported to be in session in 1884 within Ringgold County's 33 independent districts. Of these school, only nine were graded schools. It had been said that graduation from grammar school occured when a pupil began to wear long pants.

Grading was a problem that hounded the county school superintendent throughout the 1890's and early 1900's. In 1884, 1,616 out of the county's 4,917 children of school age attended classes taught by 219 men and women. A teacher's salary averaged $34.45 for men and $26.35 for women.

In 1901 there were 12,623 country schools in Iowa.

Prior to 1890, country schoolteachers normally had very little formal education. In 1876, the Iowa Normal School was founded in Cedar Falls as a facility geared primarily towards preparing teachers for positions in graded town schools. Beginning in the 1880's, Normal Schools provided two-week courses which prepared teachers for positions in country schools. With the Iowa Legislature pushing for teacher certification standards, more and more teachers received advanced preparatory education.

Most of the early schoolteachers were men. By 1905, approximately 85% of the schoolteachers in Iowa were women.

By 1900, the legislature of Iowa mandated curriculums and textbooks be utilized in country schools.

In 1901, the Biennial Report from Superintendent of Schools, Richard C. BARRETT, advocated the consolidation of schools. Rural residents strongly objected to such a proposal, citing the loss of local control over the school, the possibility of an increased property tax burden upon residents, and the lack of good roads to enable the transportation of students to a consolidated school.

Although Iowa passed a transportation bill in 1897 for the purpose of allowing public expenditure for the transportation of children to a consolidated school, very few country schools were consolidated and closed down.

Around the year 1893, the Kellerton School District bonded $1,700 for the construction of a new school. In 1885, the Tingley School District erected such a fine school building that is was used as a model for other school buildings which were raised later on. The Redding School was built in 1887 and then in 1889 built a new two-story, three-room schoolhouse which was utilized until 1915. Knowlton was one of the first schools in Ringgold County which established a substantial library.

Another bill passed in 1913 encouraged consolidation, providing financial aid to schools that met grounds and building requirements, had acceptable public transportation for students, employed certified teachers, maintained an experimental agricultural plot, and possessed the proper equipment in which to provide instruction in agriculture, home economics, and manual traning. Funding was allotted according to the number of rooms in the school building. Two-roomed schools received $250 for equiment expenses and $200 for instruction. Three-roomed schools received $350 for equipment and $500 for instruction. Four-roomed schools received $500 for equipment and $750 for instruction.

In 1919, Iowa passed a minimum attendance low, forcing the closure of schools with fewer than 5 students attending daily and lacking the attendance of 10 pupils in the following year. By 1925, the minimum attendance was lowered from 10 pupils to 7.

During the second decade of the 1900's, several school districts in Ringgold County considered consolidation. Although the citizens of Redding School District voted in favor of consolidation in 1913, the vote was cast out on a technicality. The following year, a new school was erected in Redding. In 1915, another election was held in Redding and the citizens again voted to consolidate. In 1917, a large addition was constructed to accomondate an increase in pupils attending the Redding School. In 1915, the residents of Delphos voted to consolidate; Maloy residents voted for consolidation in 1917; and the Beconsfield residents cast their vote for consolidation in 1920. Although the residents of Ellston voted to consolidate, it was annulled on a technicality when the bonding company realized that the election notice had been advertised solely by public notices and not published in the newspaper. A second vote was called which resulted in a vote against consolidation.

By 1938, one-fifth of the school population of Ringgold County attended the Mount Ayr schools.

In 1945, the State of Iowa passed a bill that was the beginning of the end for country schools. If the operating cost per pupil was greater than the cost of tuitioin at another school, then the school would be closed.

In 1853, new legislation required the formation of community school districts to receive public funding with each district to absorb all elementary schools within the region. This bill essentially closed any country school that had survived previous legislation.

By 1972, Iowa had 472 school districts. Education from a public one-room country schoolhouse had become a thing of the past.

It has been estimated that 75% of Iowa's population in the late 1800's and early 1900's were educated in a country school.

A survey conducted by the Iowa State Education Association in 1996 revealed that 2,911 of Iowa's country schools were still standing.

SOURCES:
www.culturalaffairs.org/shsi/historic-preservation/assets/Country%20Schools.pdf
Ringgold County History Compiled and written by the Iowa Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Iowa, Sponsored by Ringgold County Superintendent of Schools, Mount Ayr, Iowa. 1942.

Compilation by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2009