A committee of Greene Countians who are working toward an appropriate and permanent memorial for the Civil War “schoolboy soldiers” from the area now called “Old Rippey,” is seeking the public’s help.
The idea for some kind of memorial came from Greene County High School students in last spring’s Iowa History class taught by Dena Boyd. They were responding to longtime Iowa journalist Chuck Offenburger’s talk to the class about local history, particularly his comment that the story of the “schoolboy soldiers” is “the most under-told and under-appreciated story in Greene County history.”
Six students took special interest. In a month of research, they learned and wrote about how in 1862, there were 32 young students, most of them teenagers, plus teacher Azor Mills and his “sub-director” Isaac Brown who marched off to war together from the tiny prairie community of Rippey. They had been part of the first school built in the newly formed Greene County, which was not yet a decade old.
Of the 34 from the school who served, 10 died during the war, with two dying in one of the worst prisoner camps during that time, the notorious Andersonville Prison the Confederates operated in Georgia.
The memorial committee, as part of its planning, is now trying to document the life stories of all 34 of those “schoolboy soldiers.”
The committee asks that anyone who is related to any of those soldiers, or has information, memorabilia, photographs about the individual soldiers, to please let committee members know via notes or emails to committee member Dianne Piepel, Greene County Historical Society, P.O. Box 435, 219 E. Lincoln Way, Jefferson 50129, or mdppl@netins.net.
Here is the roster of the schoolboy soldiers and their leaders, with notations on which died in combat or from war-related injuries or illnesses:
John W. Adkins (casualty), William L. Adkins, John Athey, Van Beuren Brand (casualty), G.B. (Banger) Burk, Archibald Burk, Philip Cline, Levi P. Davis, William M. Davis, John H. Davis, Milton Evans (casualty), James M. Evans, Hardin Hall (casualty), Daily B. John (casualty), John B. John, Dave John, Lewis John, Thomas Martin Lee, Joseph Lock, Joseph Myers, Henry R. Myers, John Myers, John Rhoads (casualty), James W. Smith, Robert T. Smith (casualty), Abraham Scott, Thomas Turpin (casualty), Marion Toliver, John H. Toliver (casualty), Gillum S. Toliver, Jacob M. Toliver, James C. Toliver, assistant teacher Isaac H. Brown (casualty), senior teacher Azor R. Mills.
The memorial committee members are discussing having suitable monuments telling in both Jefferson and at the Old Rippey Cemetery. They also are considering student re-enactments of the story, entries in parades and other historical programming, particularly in the summer of 2026 when the nation is celebrating its 250th anniversary.
The committee members include GCHS sophomore Yaakov Gehling; recent graduate Oliver Harris; teacher Dena Boyd; recently retired Greene County Veterans Affairs director Mike Bierl, and Greene County Historical Society members Mary Weaver, Jed Magee, Margaret Hamilton, Dianne Piepel and Chuck Offenburger.
