A schoolhouse sat on the land of Uriah Columbus Vermillion as early as 1880¹. Vermillion was a prominent farmer who lent his last name to a creek, two churches, and Monroe Township’s District 15 schoolhouse. All that made up a loose community located near his land along the Jackson Street Pike in eastern Madison County.

The present schoolhouse appears to have been built in 1899². A congregation calling itself the Vermillion Christian Church began holding services in the schoolhouse in 1913³ before erecting their own structure nearby at a cost of $1,500 the following year⁴. 

The schoolhouse, along with the loose community that came up around it, was named for Uriah Columbus Vermillion, the man who owned the land the area sits at today. In 2023, the area around the schoolhouse consists of thirteen homes and two churches.

In 1933, the Vermillion school took in eleven students from the District 3: Tennessee schoolhouse that burned down⁵. Five years later, the District 15 schoolhouse closed for good after the consolidated Cunningham school opened on the site of District 5. The Cunningham school absorbed the students of eleven districts on the unincorporated eastern side of Monroe Township⁶.

Today, the building is a home.

Sources Cited
1 Kingman Brothers. (1880). History of Madison County, 
2 Madison County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2021). Parcel ID: 48-07-04-100-002.000-029
3 Church Celebrates 75th Anniversary (1988, November 12). The Muncie Star Press. p. 5.
4 Meetings Close With Success (1913, July 19). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 1.
5 City Schools Donate Seats and Furniture (1933, February 13). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 1.
6 Holtsclaw, S. (2006, May 17). After 68 years, Cunningham Elementary School says goodbye to Alexandria. The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 1.