By Chuck Offenburger | Special to the Times Vedette
The story of the “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey” comes to new life this week in Jefferson as the students of the Greene County Community Schools present a 90-minute stage play about the Civil War service of 32 students and two teachers of the first school in the county. Eleven of them died in combat or from diseases that swept the camps and battlegrounds across the South.
It’s a story that was largely forgotten until the Iowa history students of teacher Dena Boyd at Greene County High School learned about it in the spring of 2025 and began researching it. That led to two huge public monuments being erected to tell the Schoolboy Soldiers’ story, as well as a troop of students portraying the individual soldiers, wearing Civil War-replica uniforms and marching in area parades and during the state’s “America 250” celebration in October.
It’s rare that a long-ago episode of local history gets that kind of attention — especially from high school students of today.
And now they take it to a whole new level, with 20 students in the cast for the “world premiere” performances of the play “Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey.” The script is the work of professional playwright John Busbee, of Des Moines, and is being co-directed by Greene County High drama coach Darren Jackson and Boyd, the Iowa history teacher.
Another highlight is bound to be the original music the audience will be hearing in the soundtrack. It’s been composed and recorded by the “Weary Ramblers,” the blues-folk-rock duo based in Jefferson. They accepted a commission for the new music just as they were becoming a winning sensation at professional music competitions across the nation. The “Ramblers” are Chad Elliott, of Jefferson, and Kathryn Severing Fox, of West Des Moines.
Elliott’s daughter Eliza, a GCHS sophomore, portrays a pioneer young wife and mother Nancy Toliver in the play. When he accepted the music commission, Chad Elliott said, “I’m hoping this might get me some major ‘cool Dad’ points.” Now that Eliza Elliott has heard and rehearsed with the “Weary Ramblers” music, is Chad going to get those “cool Dad” points? “Yeah,” she said. “I think he does.”
The lead role in the play — the character of the teacher Azor Mills — is being handled by GCHS senior Mason Lehman, who is about as much of a theater veteran as a high school student can be. “I’ve been in and around 10 to 15 plays, starting as a fifth grader when we presented ‘Annie’ at the Middle School,” said Lehman, who plans to student music education at Wartburg College and become a band instructor.
“Because it’s the main character I’m playing in the ‘Schoolboy Soldiers,’ I have a pretty big speaking part — a whole lot of lines to deliver,” Lehman said. “But the more I learned about Azor Mills, I feel like he’s a lot like I would have been if I’d lived back then during the Civil War. That’s made it easier for me to do the role.”
Dena Boyd, the history teacher, said she’s very pleased at how the students — those in the play and others who’ve marched as Schoolboy Soldiers or have been involved otherwise in the memorial project — have embraced the story.
“What’s really been fun is when the kids have had an eye-opening moment about the soldiers and pioneers they are portraying,” Boyd said. “They realize, “Hey, wait a minute — this is a real person I’m playing, and this person walked on the same roads and places I’m walking on today, and now some of their family members might be coming and watching us in the play, and I’m playing their relative!’ Then they really go to work on their roles.”
Performances in the 700-seat Greene County High School auditorium are Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. They can be purchased at the door. Tickets for adults can also be purchased online, using these links:
You will be able to have your photo taken with Schoolboy Soldiers after the performances. Free. And, for $20 each, cash or Venmo, you can buy Schoolboy Soldiers of Rippey T-shirts at all three performances.