~by Chuck Offenburger for the Greene County Historical Society
The Greene County Historical Society will publicly introduce the new “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey” project with a free special program Sunday, Nov. 23, at 2 pm at the museum, 219 E. Lincoln Way in Jefferson.
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 from what had been the first school to open after pioneer settlement of the county. 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,” named after a family that had apparently donated land for its construction in 1857 in the frontier settlement known now as “Old Rippey,” re-opened post-war. The school 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 journalist Chuck Offenburger, of Jefferson, 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 Offenburger to help.
He 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 they include monuments at both the Greene County courthouse and the Old Rippey Cemetery; formation of a 34-member uniformed unit of students and 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 for the fall of 2026.
Public donations are being sought to cover the estimated total costs of about $95,000.
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 program on Nov. 23 will include Offenburger 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 brief conversation with playwright John Busbee of Des Moines. Free refreshments will be available.
