This study examined how U.S. entry into World War I and related pedagogical reforms of the early twentieth century impacted elementary social education at a local level. Analysis of state curriculum guides, records from the collection of a rural school educator, report cards, and daily attendance registers for four counties indicated that elementary citizenship education emerged as a stand-alone subject area in Iowa's rural schools following World War I. While the "Civics of Iowa" was taught as part of the history curriculum prior to World War I, after the war civics became part of a larger framework for citizenship education. However, at a time of increasing nationalism, Iowa's rural schools taught citizenship in a way that privileged a local, relational approach centered on the home, school, and community. Findings from the study illustrate how rural schools kept pace with national trends in social education despite not yet embracing the integrated field of "social studies."