08/24/2026
This Month in Roland History – One Room Schoolhouse Era Teachers
The attached photo has hung on our schoolhouse museum wall for as long as we can remember. The description says, “Amanda Thompson Severson – Taught school in this building”. Some research found a story of a young woman and the era of one-room schoolhouses.
Amanda (Mandy) Thompson was born near Roland in October 1881 to Henry and Caroline (Erickson) Thompson. Her paternal grandparents, Paul and Enger Thompson, were early Howard Township settlers, arriving in 1857. They established a farm south of Roland that grew to more than 500 acres, making it one of the area’s largest operations. Caroline Thompson died in March 1894, leaving 12-year-old Amanda and her younger sister, Emma, without their mother. In 1896, their father, Henry, married Sarah Watney. Together they had five sons (Paul, Elliott, Cyrus, Milton, and Irven) who became Amanda and Emma’s half-siblings..
Amanda Thompson attended Roland area schools and graduated from high school in 1899 among a class of nine students. During her school years, she spoke at community events, including Roland’s Memorial Day program and graduation ceremonies held at the Roland Opera House. After graduating, Thompson went to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to begin “normal” school, or teacher training, at the institution that later became the University of Northern Iowa. The program typically lasted about 12 weeks after which students were considered prepared to teach. Teaching had once been dominated by men, but the shortage of available male workers during the American Civil War opened the profession to women, who became critical to children’s education.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rural townships oversaw public education, with several one-room schoolhouses in each township. Howard Township operated nine. In April 1901, Thompson began her first teaching term at the Jondall School and went on to teach in area one-room schools for six years. Each school typically enrolled 15 to 25 students in grades 1 through 8, all taught together in one room. In Iowa, school attendance did not become mandatory until 1902, and then only through age 14. Students who continued beyond eighth grade could attend high school in Roland or nearby communities.
Teachers were expected to model good character by attending church regularly and living virtuously. Beyond teaching, they were also responsible for tasks such as chopping wood, carrying coal, and arriving early on winter mornings to start the stove and warm the room.
In 1906, Amanda Thompson married Albert Severson, a college-trained pharmacist from Jewell. Because married women were generally not permitted to keep teaching, the marriage brought Amanda’s education career to an end. The couple lived in Jewell and Story City, where Albert managed local drug stores, and raised three children. In 1920, the Seversons moved to California, where they operated pharmacies in Huntington Beach and Long Beach. Amanda died in 1976 at age 95, remembered among the women who helped educate Howard Township’s early children.
