By CHUCK OFFENBURGER

JEFFERSON, Iowa, Nov. 16, 2025 — The Greene County Historical Society will publicly introduce the new “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey” project with a free special program at its museum, 219 E. Lincoln Way in Jefferson, on Sunday, Nov. 23, at 2 p.m.

The project, initiated last spring by current students at Greene County High School, will tell the amazing story of the Civil War service of 32 “schoolboy soldiers” and two teachers. They came from what had been the first school to open in the county, after the earliest white pioneers settled in the southeast portion of it.

During their service with the Union Army between 1862 and 1865, nine of the students and one of the teachers died, either in combat or from war-related illnesses.

Their “Brand School” was named after a family that had apparently donated land for its construction in 1857 in the community known now as “Old Rippey.” It closed when teachers Azor Mills and Isaac Brown and their students left for Civil War service.

Today’s Old Rippey Cemetery, which was both the townsite and school location in the 1850s and ’60s.

It re-opened post-war, and is believed to have operated until about 1870, when the town re-located two miles east to be on the railroad route established through the area. A new school was built there, in the new Rippey, and the original Brand School was moved east to the edge of a neighboring town, Angus, where it served for years as a Methodist Church.

When I told the story last spring to teacher Dena Boyd’s Iowa history class at Greene County High School, a half-dozen of the students decided the “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey” should be honored with a public memorial telling their story. They asked me to help.

I organized a 10-member committee, including students and history buffs, that has worked through the summer and fall planning proper memorials and ceremonies.

Those will be fully explained in the Nov. 23 program at the museum. But we hope they include monuments at both the Greene County Courthouse and the Old Rippey Cemetery; formation of a 34-member uniformed unit of students & two teachers portraying the “Schoolboy Soldiers” in parades and ceremonies; possibly a public mural, and also the commissioning of a play by a professional playwright to be the high school drama department’s production in the fall of 2026.

Azor Mills, the teacher, in his Union Army uniform. Mills had a long life of public service post-war, including as a teacher, mayor of Jefferson and member of the Iowa Legislature.

Public donations are being sought to cover the estimated total costs of about $95,000. Here’s how we breakdown that total:

—We will spend up to $60,000 for the two large monuments that tell the Schoolboy Soldiers’ story. Per the request of today’s high school students, we’ve asked the Greene County Board of Supervisors if one of those can be permanently installed in the county seat of Jefferson, either on the courthouse grounds or inside the courthouse. The other we want to place in the Old Rippey Cemetery, which is the actual site of the schoolhouse that the Schoolboy Soldiers attended, and the trustees of that pioneer cemetery have already approved our idea.

—We will spend $20,000 or more for a set of 40 replica uniforms of what Union Army soldiers wore in the Civil War, and we will organize a 34-member military unit, made up of local high school students of today, who will portray the Schoolboy Soldiers in programs and parades in Greene County and beyond.

—We expect to spend $10,000 or more hiring professional playwright John Busbee, of Des Moines, who has experience in writing and staging historical programming. We will commission him to write a play, telling the story of the Schoolboy Soldiers. Greene County High School drama teacher Darren Jackson and his students plan to perform it for the first time in the late fall of 2026. Busbee has tentatively agreed to our offer.

—We expect to spend $5,000 or more to have a large outdoor mural done about this story.

Contributions are eligible for 501.c3 tax benefits. Checks can be made out to “Honoring Old Rippey’s Schoolboy Soldiers,” in care of the Greene County Historical Society, 219 E. Lincoln Way, Jefferson IA 50129. I’ve donated $1,000, and ask you to consider joining me.

The project is expected to be a big part of Greene County’s observation in 2026 of the 250th anniversary of the United States.

The grave of Van Beuren Brand, one of the “Schoolboy Soldiers,” marked by a veteran’s star give by the Grand Army of the Republic. A war casualty, either from combat or from war-related disease, he is buried in the Old Rippey Cemetery.

The program on Nov. 23 will include me interviewing current students, uniformed and portraying some of the “Schoolboy Soldiers,” historian Dianne Piepel discussing some of her research on the subject, Civil War-era songs played on fiddle by Jennifer Powers, original poems by local poets Tori Riley and Jed Magee, and a conversation with playwright Busbee.

Free refreshments will be available.

So come to Jefferson, all of you, and learn about what I’ve said is “the most under-told and under-appreciated story” in our local history.

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