By CHUCK OFFENBURGER
RIPPEY, Iowa, April 4, 2026 — This is the third time I’ve started to write this column in the last six months. Hopefully it happens this time.
The topic: What must have life been like around the pioneer town of Rippey back in 1860 and 1861, in that year before the Civil War erupted?
If you read me regularly, you know why I’m interested in this. I’m part of a committee that has worked for nearly a year now to bring public awareness and honor to the “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey,” as we call them.
The story of these 32 young men and their two teachers, who started military training together in one of the first schools in our Greene County, then volunteered for service in the Union Army, is one of the most inspiring yet nearly forgotten episodes in local history. Eleven of them died in combat or of war-related diseases.
The Old Rippey Cemetery in southeastern Greene County is located at the original site of the town of Rippey. The town moved 2.5 miles east in 1870 when the railroad came through that area. This cemetery will be the site of one of the two monuments to be erected later this year in honor of the “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey” for their service in the Civil War.
When Iowa history students at Greene County High School in Jefferson heard me talk about the “Schoolboy Soldiers” last year, they immediately said they wanted to erect a public monument to tell the story and asked if I would help.
The few people around here in 1861 were among the earliest white settlers in this area of west central Iowa. Greene County was legally established in 1854. The town of Rippey was platted in 1855, about the same time as the county seat, the town of Jefferson. What were those people like? Most of them came from earlier homes in Virginia, Ohio, Illinois. Some were first-generation immigrants, many were second-generation. Real pioneers.
“Life back then was filled with family, church and work,” said David Burkett, of Scranton, a retired military veteran, teacher and coach, and an enthusiastic Civil War re-enactor and student of that era, and a member of our committee. “Life was changing. People were coming from Europe and bringing their culture, folklore and people were excited with new ideas.”
David John, a retired educator now of Jefferson but originally from the Rippey area, said he thinks “they were hopeful people, interested in improving their community, close-knit with friends, adventurous people who wanted to improve their lives.
“My ancestors came to Greene County in 1856,” John continued. “My great-great-grandfather David B. John came to Greene County with his wife Naomi and 11 children. One of them was John B. John, my great-grandfather.”
Does he have any records or family stories about what life was like, let’s say 1856 to 1860, for the first David John, Naomi and the kids?
“I imagine that life was hard, with no electricity, no running water, they had to travel by horse & wagon to get supplies either from Jefferson or maybe Perry,” today’s David John answered. “I think they were more informed than we would think, although communication was slow and it probably took weeks to get news. There was a stage coach that brought news and mail.”
Mary Weaver, of rural Rippey, who writes columns about the community and is a member of our memorial committee, told me family life on the prairie “could only be described as bleak. The wood stove had to be fed constantly, and firewood was considered precious. Sometimes, cornstalks or twisted hay were used to keep the flames going. When snow covered the ground, it was often whipped into large drifts in the open prairie. Seeing their pioneer neighbors was rare.”
I first asked my friends Burkett, John and Weaver about this back before Thanksgiving, late last fall. I was going to write what the residents of the settlement Rippey would have been hearing about, thinking about, worrying about, as Thanksgiving of 1860 approached. But then I got distracted, and postponed my column until Christmas.
Then I started wondering what community spirit in Rippey must have been like as the Christmas season of 1860 approached. But my column got delayed again.
Now, here we are on Easter weekend of 2026. I’m finally sorting out interviews and story notes, ready to write. So, what must have the early settlers of Rippey — and actually all Iowans — what must they have been thinking at Easter time in 1861?
What they were hearing and reading certainly had to seem even more urgent, more worrisome, more dangerous than any national news they’d heard in decades.
Quick checks of historical references tell me that Easter Sunday in 1861 fell on the date of March 31.
Just 27 days earlier, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as President of the United States. Between his actual election the previous Nov. 6 and his inaugural, seven Southern states had seceded from the Union, mainly due to their objection to Lincoln’s anti-slavery views and leadership plans. Four more would secede later.
What was all that going to mean out here in the still-new state of Iowa? What was it going to mean in Greene County, in its infancy? How much did our settlers know about the arguments being made and the campaigns being launched in Washington, D.C., Richmond, Va., Montgomery, Ala., and other capitals in the East and South?
Can you imagine what sermons must have been like on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1861?
One of the earliest Methodist ministers in Greene County — likely the first — was Rev. Isaac D. Crumley, Sr. His wife had died in Virginia, where they were living, and in 1850 he moved to Rippey by oxen-powered prairie schooner with three sons and two married daughters. And get this: Rev. Isaac Crumley in 1854 was also appointed to be the first sheriff of Greene County!
I know that history after exchanging emails with Rev. Crumley’s great-great-grandson, Dr. Roger Crumley, now a retired physician and university professor in Rancho Mirage, Cal. Roger is a loyal son of Rippey.
Of his ancestor being both a pastor and sheriff, Dr. Crumley wrote, “I’ve often wondered how my great-great-grandfather Isaac was able to perform the tasks of being a Methodist minister, while being the Greene County Sheriff as well. Did he ever get called out on Sunday morning for some law-breaking offense to deal with?”
If Rev. & Sheriff Crumley was preaching on Easter Sunday in 1861, the service might well have been held in one of the few schoolhouses that had already been built in Greene County — in Rippey, in Jefferson, or around the countryside. In the early years, those schools also served as community halls and churches.
We can only imagine whether his sermon might have included information, consolation, confidence or doubt about the likelihood of war happening soon. Dr. Crumley thinks his great-great-grandfather would have been aware of the possibilities.
“Those members of his family who moved to Iowa with him, moved from Virginia, so they would have been well aware of the troubling dynamics,” Dr. Crumley wrote me. “In those days in Iowa, news traveled much more slowly, but the stagecoach line had stations in the area, so I’d bet that people were aware of at least the Southern states’ secessions, if not the earliest rumbling of the Civil War about ready to start.”
Barely two weeks later, on April 12, 1861, Confederate soldiers attacked the Union Army’s Fort Sumter located on an island in the harbor of Charleston, S.C. The next day, the Union surrendered that post to the Confederates — and the war was fully underway. It raged for four years.
If Rev. Crumley preached on Easter, 1861, whatever he said was probably heard by two of his sons, in their 30s, who barely a year later would be dead from their service in the war — one from combat, one from war-related disease. One of those was William P. Crumley, great-grandfather of today’s Dr. Crumley.
Many others in his “congregation” that Easter would soon be serving in the war, too, and all would be impacted by it.
The U.S. Census of 1860 reported that the population of Greene County then was only 1,400, including women and children. The county sent 150 men to serve in the Civil War.
Iowa’s population in 1860 was 675,000. More than 76,000 served in the war.
And among them were our 32 “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey” and their two teachers. Many of them may also have heard Rev. Crumley’s sermon on Easter, 1861, especially if he gave one in Rippey. They sacrificed so much, so early in their adulthood.
Many people still in the area today have family ties to Civil War soldiers. A few have ties to our “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey.”
In the family of my friend David John, whom I quoted earlier here, three of his great uncles served with the Schoolboy Soldiers, and one of them, Dailey B. John, was a casualty.
Mary Weaver, also quoted earlier, tells of her great uncle Thomas Turpin mustering into service with them in August, 1861, and leaving soon for St. Louis. “His regiment suffered greatly from sickness and hardships from exposure in camp and marching during the winter campaign,” she wrote. “This left the young men with little resistance to communicable diseases. Thomas died on Christmas Day, 1861, and was buried in Mound City, Illinois. His parents never saw him again, as his body was never returned home.”
In Greene County, we’re finally going to honor them appropriately.
Our memorial committee has now ordered two 9-foot-tall monuments telling the “Schoolboys” story, one to be erected on the courthouse lawn in Jefferson and the other in the Old Rippey Cemetery, near where their schoolhouse was located.
A “military unit” that will include 32 current students and two adults, as their teachers, is being formed and trained now at Greene County High School. Dressed in replica uniforms, they will portray the stories of the Schoolboy Soldiers, in local programs as well as marching in memorial services and parades.
We have commissioned professional playwright John Busbee, of Des Moines, to write a play telling the story that will be staged by the drama department at Greene County High School in November.
There will be a new permanent exhibit at the Greeene County Historical Museum, and there may be a public mural telling the story, too.
We are also now officially registered as one of Iowa’s “America 250” events, celebrating the nation’s anniversary in this year of 2026.
The budget for all of this is about $95,000. Individuals from coast to coast have donated $20,000. The Greene County Board of Supervisors have provided $5,000. Humanities Iowa awarded us a $3,000, and we have had larger grant applications under consideration from two other foundations and a state government agency.
You all can help us, too, by writing checks to the Greene County Historical Society, which is a 501.c3 tax-exempt non-profit corporation that is serving as our fiscal agent. Designate that your donations are for the “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey” memorials. Mail them to the historical society at its museum, 219 E. Lincoln Way, Box 435, Jefferson IA 50129.
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You can comment on this column below or write the columnist directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com.
