Exhibits and Period Rooms

The museum has established four period rooms where you can enjoy a moment in the daily life of a Monroe County pioneer family. In the following scenes you will find furniture, tools, and clothing styles that were popular during the early 1900's:

kitchen - featuring a coal range

living room - featuring a mechanical record player and 78's

dining room - featuring a table and full set of china

bedroom - featuring a child's bed, a straw tick adult bed, and a thunder mug


The Monroe County Historical Society Museum has such an amazing variety of memorabilia on display. In addition to the items and displays already mentioned, there is a player piano and a pedal organ, laundry equipment, hand tools, milk-room equipment, a log cabin, a horse-drawn hearse and a beautifully restored cutter one-horse sleigh.

The main exhibit hall has cases showing Monroe County memorabilia from throughout the 20th century. The glass in the cases were originally the windows in the Monroe County courthouse. Two of the cases are made of doors from the Albia Public Library. The displays allow you to view political, medical, and biographical items as well as news clippings that highlight important events.

At one time, there were two bottling works located in Albia. The one best known is Diamond Bottling Works. The museum is currently working on a room which displays bottles, bottletops, advertising, and bottling equipment from Diamond Bottling Works. Anyone interested in donating Diamond or other bottling memorabilia to this exciting room should contact the museum or a board member. It will be an important display in the museum as it represents a thriving business from our county history.

Monroe County was an active coal-mining center in the late 1800's and early 1900's. At one point there were 21 mines within an 11-mile radius of Albia; Albia Coal Company, Buxton, Central Coal Company, Coalfield Mine, Foster, Fraker, Hiteman, Hocking, Iowa Central Ryzerville, Lockman, National Union, Smoky Hollow Coal Company, Star, and White Ash to name a few. These mines employed a total of appro-ximately 4,000 men loading 2.5 million tons of coal annually with a payroll expense of $300,000 monthly.

The miner would leave his home before daylight and arrive home after dark. There was always the worry that a slate-fall or blasting disaster would occur and they would go home during the day for a burial. It was hard work for low pay; about $1.75 a day. The museum pays tribute to the "coal-digger" with a replica of a coal mining room, actual mine cars, bituminous coal, drills, and other mining tools.

At one time there were over 100 one-room country schools in Monroe County and now there is only one, at the Monroe County Historical Museum. Museum board members kept searching for a school they could move to the museum property and when one at last was found, the cost and risk of moving it to town were just too great so museum volunteers decided to build a school house on the museum property.

During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s local farmers got together and drew up plans for their neighborhood school based on what they had seen in neighboring counties and photos. Today’s volunteers followed suit and drew their blueprints based on old photos, local interviews, and museum members’ memories. After much work and community involvement, the school-house replication is now complete. The old country school is located on the northeast corner of the museum property and is beautifully furnished with authentic school books, desks, ink-wells, quills, pens, slate black-boards, and a pot-bellied stove.

Prior to country schools, the rural children’s education came from their parents, the Bible, local newspapers, and from listening to their neighbors’ discussions. As formal education became more common in America, and as the number of rural children increased, it became crucial that country schools were built to make literacy a priority for all rural children. Local farmers organized a meeting where taxable land owners elected school-board members and a decision was made on the school-house location. Sometimes they would buy a parcel of land, but more commonly, a farmer donated a small section of his land for the school. This was in exchange for the taxes the other farmers would pay for building supplies, labor, firewood, school supplies and the teacher’s annual salary. The school-board members maintained the building and grounds, hired the teacher, and answered only to the county school superintendent.

The farmers, who were builders themselves, usually worked without blueprints when building the school. While their plans were scribbled on a piece of paper, they still gave a great deal of thought to the appearance and layout of the school. They looked at other schools for ideas and tried to keep the building small enough in size so their children wouldn’t be intimidated by it and familiar enough in appearance so their children would be comfortable in their school "house".

The building itself usually ran 24’ x 32’ in size and was 1 1/2 stories in height. The southern side had a long row of windows to let in maximum sunlight, even on short winter days. The northern wall was normally windowless to insulate against the cold winter winds and was perfectly suited for the long slate blackboards that the teachers required for teaching. For ventilation, there were windows on the opposite west and east walls. A black stove was located in the northwest corner or in the middle of the room to warm the students on the coldest days. It was also used to thaw out frozen lunches and to heat water to wash the students hands. The closets had hooks or pegs just like the children were used to at home. There was usually wainscoting up to the windows and plastered walls above the wainscoting. Typically there were two doors; a main entrance at the front corner which was located beneath the belfry tower and a smaller door at the opposite back corner which exited to a path that led to the school’s outhouse.

Once the school house was built and supplies were bought, firewood or coal for the winter was set aside, and then a teacher was hired. The teacher was usually a young unmarried woman from a nearby town. The school board, if they budgeted right, paid room and board to a local family and gave her a small annual salary. During the Civil War the monthly pay was $6-$7 and was raised to around $15 by 1900. By the 1930’s, the pay was approximately $50-$100 a month.


The school year, like farm life itself, was determined by the changing seasons. The fall term began in late September or early October when the harvest was in and the farmers began turning to their winter tasks. The spring term began in March or April when the farmers began to plow their fields and plant their crops. By age 11, farm boys were in the fields full-time doing a man’s work so most of the older boys did not attend the beginning of the fall term until the corn was harvested and left the spring term when plowing of the fields began.

Each school was approximately three miles apart. That way students didn’t have to walk more than 1 1/2 miles each way. They carried lunch to school in whatever they had; a lunch pail, a paper bag, or a syrup bucket. There may have been a well at the school but usually the students carried water from a nearby farm in a three-gallon bucket.

A typical school day began with the teacher starting a fire in the stove with corn cobs. Once it was going well, she would stoke it with coal. Around 8:30 A.M. she would ring the school bell, alerting the nearby students to hurry along. She greeted her arriving students, helped them remove their boots, hang up their coats, and store their lunch. The students were seated at their desks by 9:00 A.M. with the youngest children in the front and the oldest in the back.

The standard courses studied were reading, arithmetic, writing and spelling. Secondary courses included grammar, history, geography, literature, and hygiene. The methods of learning were through memorization, repetition, and drills. Because all of the students (K-8) were in one room together, the younger students learned from the older students simply by listening. After a morning of studies, the students received a 15 minute recess period at 10:30 A.M. They could stretch, walk around, or make their way to the outdoor privy. A one-hour lunch period was from Noon to 1:00 P.M. It was rare for them to have playground equipment so they would have to make do. Games played were Dare-Base, Andy-Over, Hide-and-Seek, Crack-the-Whip, Drop the Handkerchief, and Fox and Geese. In the spring, an occasional ball and bat would show up and the school playground might extend into an adjoining field for a game of baseball. A second recess was taken at 2:30 P.M. and school was adjourned for the day at 4:00 P.M.

The school occasionally had special math and spelling competitions at night and all of the parents attended. Frequently in the fall, the teacher would begin preparing a program to be staged as a fund-raiser in November. Students would recite poems, sing songs, and put on a play. The older girls would make a box dinner and decorate it elaborately. The only identification was a number and the box was auctioned off. The winning bachelor bidder was allowed the privilege of eating the dinner with the young lady.

By 1902, the Iowa general assembly required that students attend school between the ages of seven and sixteen. At the end of the 8th grade, if they desired, students were given a comprehensive examination to check competency. If the student passed, they could attend high school in town. Their tuition was paid by the local school district and books were provided at no charge for the student to use during the school year.

In Monroe County, the last rural school was the Lemon School located just west of Lovilia and it closed in the late 1960’s. At one time there were nine Monroe County High Schools; Albia, Avery, Bucknell, Buxton, Georgetown, Hiteman, Hocking, Lovilia, and Melrose. Now there are only 13 elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school in the whole county.
The One-Room Schoolhouse located at the Monroe County Historical Museum is an excellent opportunity to take a step back in time to a day where life was a little slower, a little simpler, and education was considered a privilege, not a right. Maybe there’s a lesson for us there as well . . .