Land for a District 4 school was originally deeded to the Washington Township Trustee in 18771. The present structure, built twenty-two years later, was first called Independence.
Later, the school was commonly referred to as Frog Alley2 or Swamp College3 due to the lowlands surrounding it and the area’s generally marshy nature. I’ve been to nearly 200 schoolhouses over the past several years, and both colloquial names -Frog Alley and Swamp College- are weird enough to make my top ten list. And I’ve been to old schools named Possum’s Glory, Dead Dog, and Tick Ridge!
Kudos to the residents of rural Blackford County. The District 4 school closed in 1923, when all of Washington Township’s schools aside from District 4 and District 9 consolidated into a six-room structure at District 8 known as the Washington School.
Two years after its closure, the school was sold to the adjacent Independence Church of Christ for $1004. Today, the building is still owned by the church.
Sources Cited
1 A History of Blackford County, Indiana : with historical accounts of the county, 1838-1986 [and] histories of families who have lived in the county (1986). book. The Blackford County Historical Society. Hartford City, IN.
2 Greene, D. (1960, October 25). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 6.
3 Greene, D. (1957, October 24). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 6.
4 Schools Are Sold (1925, June 15). The Muncie Star Press. p. 2.
Ted Shideler 