Historic Washington Township School in Dallas County, Iowa, as been sold and is now called The Schoolhouse Estate. It also has a Facebook page where they announce other events.
During the 1950s, a trip to Perry from rural Dexter, Iowa, where I grew up, usually took us to the corner of Panther Store, then north past Washington Township School. Mom would always reminisce that her two younger brothers had graduated from there.
Clabe and Leora Wilson, along with four sons, moved to a farm southwest of Minburn, to be tenant farmers, the spring of 1939.
Danny and Junior finished their freshman and sophomore years at Washington Township School. When they learned that football wasn’t offered, the Dexter coach asked Wilsons if they knew what a good football player Danny was. And offered to have him live with them through the rest of his schooling so he could play football.
Danny Wilson said he wanted to stay with the family–with brothers Delbert, Dale (who graduated from Dexter High School just that spring), and Junior.
Dan attended Washington Township two years, played basketball, helped on the farm, and went hunting in the timber regularly with his dad and brothers.
Danny Wilson was valedictorian of the Class of 1941.
That December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. The Wilsons knew this would change their lives. One brother Donald was still in the Navy, aboard the USS Yorktown. Oldest son Delbert would probably be recalled to the Navy. And Dale had had to register for the draft.
My mother Doris, a sister of the Wilson brothers, was working as a waitress at Perry’s McDonald Drug Store. Junior’s classmate, Jack Jackman, didn’t have money or decent clothes and wasn’t going to the banquet, so Junior said he didn’t want to go either. Instead, they showed up at the soda fountain counter at McDonald’s, where Doris was working. She made them the best malts that she could, and she paid for them, too.
Ed Kautzky, a grade behind Junior, said that Junior could find humor in about anything, but that he did things well. They were all a little envious of his hunting and fishing stories.
Another neighbor, Marjorie (Hill) Joslin remembered the Wilson boys driving by on the tractor without shirts, and how brown they became.
Junior was a good student, too, but when he learned that Dan had to give a speech at commencement, he made sure he wasn’t at the top of his class. The Class of 1942 graduated in gowns for the first time. Leland Lapp said that their class motto was “Tonight we launch. Where shall we land,” which made him uncomfortable, since the war was on.
About the time Junior was graduating, his brother Donald was in desperate combat in the Battle of the Coral Sea (one carrier was lost, Don’s carrier damaged) and the Battle of Midway (his Yorktown was sunk).
Soon Delbert rejoined the Navy. And Dale enlisted in the Army Air Force to become a pilot. The next year, both Danny and Junior joined the Air Corps, as they usually called it. While Clabe and Leora were still at the farm, the first telegram arrived with the news that Dale was Missing in Action off New Guinea.
All five sons were in the service, so Clabe Wilson couldn’t keep up with all the farming by himself. He and Leora found an acreage to buy just south of Perry.
All five sons served. Only two came home. The family story is told in Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for an Iowa Family During World War II.
The brothers are remembered on the Dallas County Freedom Rock®, which is only a couple of miles from where they were tenant farmers.
I wish the young couple who own The Schoolhouse Estate success as they work to restore the old Washington Township School and share it as a wedding venue and community gathering place!
It looks a though The Schoolhouse Estate will be keeping the memory of the students alive as well as providing a venue for gatherings! I love it when an historic building is repurposed instead of being torn down!
Especially when this building is out in the open, not near anything else, but along a secondary paved road!
Even better!
Oh, I also wish them luck… In Monroe, Michigan, where I lived for 9 years, they took the old voc ed building and turned it into an office building, but it also housed an apartment for the owner and his wife AND they allowed me to rent space there to build a community television studio. It has been 30 + years since all that took place, and I love to hear of the repurposing of such places.
How amazing, Annette! Yes, hurrah!
I’m happy to see old, sturdy buildings being repurposed. In my PA hometown, a former shoe factory became an apartment building, I believe.
In my city now, a former church building has become a huge grocery story with apartments above. (No worries: the congregation of 3000+ moved into more suitable quarters.)
Thanks for your note, Marian! A grocery store with apartments above. How interesting!
There’s an old two story department store building in my city that was transformed into the health department. The Health Department moved to a newer building. Now plans have been approved to have it transformed into a science fiction museum. 🙂
That sounds fascinating, doesn’t it!
My goodness! What a fabulous place for a wedding. I love it! ❤️❤️❤️
Isn’t it though? Thank you, Vicki!
Xo! ❤️😉❤️
Reading about your family’s past is wonderful, Joy. I think it’s good that your family members had graduated before the Washington Township School was sold and changed to the Schoolhouse Estate.
Local folks tried to keep it going as a community building, but this young couple agreed to raise funds for upkeep and make the whole thing more lively. Thank you, Tim.
Huh. My pleasure, Joy. 😍
I’m so glad the building is being saved. An old school here in Durango has been repurposed and does well for the owners, I think.
Hurrah for repurposers!
It’s good to see the building being restored and finding a new purpose. It’s also good to remember the stories of how it was before.
Not quite as exciting as your delightful old museum, but yes, I’m thankful it’s being saved. Even the one I grew up going to is gone. It “anchored” the whole town. The new one does not.
A similar old schoolhouse near us has been turned into a venue. The problem is that it has no bathroom facilities, only port-a-potties out back! 🙂
I wonder whether Washington Township had indoor bathrooms. Dennis, the kids were all used to houses anyway, but we sure aren’t anymore!