SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION

When all those little country schools began to close and the first steps were made to consolidate into one town school there came the problem of how to get the kids to and from school. When there was a school every 2 miles, everybody walked. But when it became 5,10, or more miles from school that was something else. The buses, like everything else, at first anyway ran on horsepower. These first buses were specially built rigs pulled by a pair horses. 

In 1927, Henry Eilers, submitted the lowest bid for providing school bus service for a route that included half the west side of the Iowa River. The job of driving the bus went to his oldest daughter, Marie Eilers. 

The bus itself was nothing but a wagon-box type of affair, mounted on a high-wheel running gear. It was windowless except at front and rear and the front with a slot through which the driver passed the lines. Benches ran the length of the bus so that the kids sat facing each other. 

Marie set out each morning after hitching the horses to the bus, which was a special wagon designed for carrying a number of children. By 5:30 a.m. she was holding the reins of a pair of blind black horses pulling the gray wooden bus. Marie’s family lived where Jim Rose now lives, and her route began there with her three younger sisters as her first passengers. she proceeded northwest, and then made a circle back to town picking up the children. 

In the winter much of the time it was dark both mornings and evenings on the bus route. There was a coal burning stove in the front of the bus close to the driver’s seat. The stove kept the bus warm, but what a sight for those seeing the bus go by with smoke rolling out of the chimney. 

There was a lot of singing on the bus, to pass the time. Marie once recalled, “those were the good old days when you didn’t know about conveniences like riding in a car, and the hurry hurry to get somewhere.” 

Although it took a great deal of time they always made it. If there was no school due to a blizzard, the telephone operator would give a general ring on the telephone to alert the parents. 

Solid black side curtains were of course kept rolled down during the winter. In the spring, it was possible to roll up the side curtains on the bus. Only then could you forget about how cold the bus was in the winter and how long it took to get to school. 

Each day, Marie had to reach the school by 8:30. The school day began at 9: 00. She then took the horses to a barn located where the baseball diamond is now. There she had to feed and water the horses. When she had completed this she headed to the post office where she worked for Mrs. Mary Morse, who was postmaster at the time. 

Marie worked in the post office while the children were in school, and in the afternoon went back to the barn and hitched the horses and ran the route in reverse, returning the children to their homes. 

Marie drove the old wooden school bus until 1935 when she became postmaster, and had to give up the job.