The History of Cosgrove, Iowa
St. Peter’s congregation was not always in Cosgrove. A church
was first built in 1861 two miles east of Windham on the Black
Diamond Road. In 1890 a decision was made to build a new wooden
church on a high, dry spot about 3 miles to the north where the
steeple of the church would reach far up into the sky and could
be seen for miles around. Ten acres on the top of the hill in
“Cosgrove” were given to the church by Al Rohret.
The piece of land reached from the north-south road (now called
the Cosgrove Road) eastward to the farm house built in 1880 by
Al Rohret (and owned today by Louis and Imelda Eckerman).
To the north and south of the property the hill-top quickly fell
off, but a rough roadway (now 400th Ave) ran East and West along
the ridge.
A spot for the church was chosen at the entrance of Al Rohret’s
lane and, in 1893, they began to build the church, under the direction
of a carpenter, using volunteer labor from the congregation. Some
offered a team and wagon and spent many hours going to Tiffin
or to Oxford to bring loads of lumber to Cosgrove that had come
by rail.
The new church in Cosgrove in the 1890s
In 1903 a church school was built on the north side of Main Street
where there is now a parking area, and a group of nuns (The Sisters
of Humility) moved from Ottumwa to Cosgrove to begin their teaching
duties.
A house (St Angela's Convent) was built for the nuns. The picture
shows Father -, the parish priest, nine nuns and the entire 1908
graduating class from the Cosgrove High School. This building
stood to the north of the 1954 gymnasium, and was used for hot
school lunches in the 60s and 70s. It was torn down in the 1980s.
In 1912 a new K-12 school building was planned. The classrooms
would be modern, spacious, safe and cheerful.
The new school was built in 1913 at a total cost of $22,000,
In the 1920s money was getting short and it was decided to strike
a deal with the state: provided the school met state requirements
for athletics and science instruction, the state would buy the
school building, appoint the principal and pay the sisters to
teach. In 1953 it was decided that the constitutional prohibition
of religious instruction in state schools really had to be enforced,
and after that the Sisters of Humility no longer taught in the
Cosgrove schools.
In 1954 a gymnasium suitable for public school athletics was
built, together with some additional classrooms connecting the
gym to the old school. The Cosgrove Consolidated School district
continued with K-12 classes until 1963 when the Cosgrove schools
merged with the Clear Creek Community School District and then
the Cosgrove buildings became the Middle School for the whole
district. Children were then brought by bus from Oxford and from
Tiffin.
In 1990, when the Clear Creek Schools merged with the Amana School
District, Middle School was moved elsewhere and the Cosgrove school
buildings were put up for sale. As soon as the neighborhood heard
that the heart of their community might be taken over by a manufacturing
plant of some kind, they realized that they and their neighbors
placed a high value on the now traditional use of Cosgrove as
a Community Center. A group of “Cosgrovians” got together,
scraped up the money and purchased the buildings from the state.
They called it 'The Cosgrove Institute'.
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