I’m normally pretty good at researching old common schoolhouses, but those operated by religious organizations often stymie me. Their histories rarely show up in the records I rely on, and the paper trail often fades fast. That was the case with the old New Garden Academy a mile south of today’s Fountain City: I spun my wheels for a while before an unexpected breakthrough! An obscure book tucked away in my mom’s office finally opened the door to the building’s story.

As an unincorporated village in rural Tipton County away from nearly every highway, Curtisville is the kind of place you don’t venture to unless you’re really looking for stuff. As it happened, I was! A stray social media post mentioned an old gym in town, which was enough to send me digging. It took some effort to track down, but once I did, parts of a story started to come into focus.