In 1874, Washington Township’s District 9 schoolhouse was listed at the southeast corner of Wheeling Pike and the Shideler Free Pike¹ in Delaware County, just west of what was later the community of Stockport². As late as 1973, an old frame store later converted into a dwelling³ stood on the same site.

In 1881, local historian Thomas B. Helm identified that building as the Hard-Scrabble schoolhouse, with Ira Compton as its teacher⁴. The phrase “hardscrabble” refers to something that involves a lot of work but doesn’t pay off enough to have made the work worth it.

Washington Township was a swamp for much of its early existence. The whole place was hard-scrabble! An early name of the town of Gaston just two miles west was “Snagtown,” after a man was said to have caught his pants on a tree cut knee-high to build a road across the muck⁵. Helm’s history indicates that an early version of today’s US-35 -originally a crude government highway- was little more than “a guide to the proper course than a road” during the wet season⁶. Perhaps these conditions led to the naming of the school.

In 1885, Calvin Moomaw granted a portion of his land adjacent to Joseph Hinton’s farm to the Washington school Township for use as a schoolhouse⁷. Its proximity to a family cemetery probably provided the school’s newer common name⁸. The extant schoolhouse was built in 1887, and many of the trees that surround it still today were planted that year during an Arbor Day celebration⁹.

Along with the District 8: Thompson/Shady Grove and District 11: Maynard schoolhouses, the District 9 Hard-Scrabble/Hinton schoolhouse closed after the 1905-06 school year to consolidate into a larger structure built in Gaston¹⁰. Carl Hedgeland was the final teacher¹¹. Today, it appears that the schoolhouse is abandoned.

Sources Cited
1 Kingman Brothers. (1874). Map of Delaware County, Indiana. Chicago, IL.
2 Stodghill, D. (1990, May 23). In the Press of things. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 2.
3 Greene, D. (1973, May 23). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 4.
4 Helm, T. B. (1881). Mount Pleasant Township. In History of Delaware County, Indiana: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers (pp. 268–269). book, Kingman Brothers.
5 Slabaugh, S. (1997, November 17)> Trail might help struggling Delaware County town. The Muncie Star Press. p. 7.
6 (See footnote 4).
7 Delaware County, Indiana. (1885 July 22). Deed Book 55. p. 381.
8 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2021). Parcel ID: 0236301001000. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.
9 Greene, D. (1947, June 17). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 4.
10 Kemper, G. W. H. (1908). Education in Delaware County. In A Twentieth Century History of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume 1 (Vol. 1, p. 252). book, Lewis Publishing Company.
11 Delaware County Public Schools. (1905). School directory, Delaware County public schools, Delaware County, Indiana 1905-1906. Muncie, IN.