Read time: 8 min.

I’ve been to two-hundred and thirty-three one-room schools across eleven counties since I started documenting and researching East Central Indiana’s one-room schoolhouses during the pandemic. Even if that isn’t enough to make me an expert, it is enough to list weirdest schoolhouse names I’ve come across! Today, I’m happy to present my scientific findings.

Rural schoolhouses were generally established by township trustees and officially known by district numbers based on their locations. Broadly speaking, locals gave them common names that referenced a location, a geographical feature, the name of the farmer who deeded its plot, or something else entirely. Here are some real life examples, without spoilers for the big countdown:

Location	Geographical Feature	Family name	Wildcard
Yorktown	College Hill	Eggman	Compromise
Center	Shady Grove	Hart’s Glory	Tennessee
Toll Gate	Jake’s Creek	Boots	White Hall
Gravel Lawn	Valley College	Waugh	Blue

As you might imagine, wildcards make up the bulk of my top ten list. Feel free to click through the table to read more about the schools I’ve written about so far here! I’ll eventually cover them all.

Here, now, are the ten schoolhouses with the weirdest names.

10: Poly Walk (Madison County)

Adams Township’s District 10 schoolhouse stood in the middle of a bog, so Madison County settlers laid horizontal poles across the swamp to provide a primitive corduroy road so students could access the building¹. The schoolhouse was also known as Buttonwood, thanks to the prominent stand of American sycamore trees nearby. You can read more about the schoolhouse here, if you’d like.

9: Corn Cob (Blackford County)

The name of Licking Township’s District 3 school appears to have been a common nickname for an extremely rural or backwards area, similar to cornpone locations like “Possom Trot” or the “Polecat Church².” Read more about the schoolhouse here.

8: Buncum (Delaware County)

It seems as though Harrison Township’s District 8 schoolhouse got its name as a reference to Bumcombe County, North Carolina, but it’s been referred to by nearly every spelling variation over the years: Buncum, Bunkum³, Bunkurn, Buncom, and Buncomb⁴. I’m listing it here because, today, we all know that “bunkum,” or bunk, is euphemistic for “bullshit.”

I haven’t written about this schoolhouse yet, but I’ll update this post once I do.

7: Shakerag (Randolph County)

Ward Township’s District 11 schoolhouse got it’s bizarre name from a local farmer’s wife who commonly shook a white rag to signal the men to come home for dinner while they worked⁵. It’s a strange name, but we’re only just now touching the surface.

I haven’t written about this schoolhouse yet either, but I’ll update this post once I do.

6: Hard-Scrabble (Delaware County)

The area surrounding Washington Township’s District 9 schoolhouse was a swamp for much of its early days. An early highway that went past the school was said to be little more than “a guide to the proper course than a road” during the wet season⁶. That’s probably how the schoolhouse, also known as Hinton, got its name, since the phrase “hardscrabble” refers to something that involves a lot of work but doesn’t pay off. The schoolhouse closed in 1906, and you can read more about it here.

5: Frog Alley (Blackford County)

Frog Alley is where I concede that the following colloquial schoolhouse names are equally ridiculous and that it’s impossible to rank them. Washington Township’s District 4 schoolhouse stood in the marshy lowlands of northwestern Blackford County, which led locals to call it Frog Alley⁷ or Swamp College⁸. Read more about it here.

4: Tick Ridge (Hamilton County)

Wayne Township’s District 2 schoolhouse was named after pioneers who were attacked by a swarm of wood ticks as they were bringing their cows home, or attacked while they were out hunting raccoons⁹. At any rate, the schoolhouse was built on a ridge where ticks were prevalent. Although the schoolhouse no longer exists, its bricks and date block were incorporated into the ranch home that now sits on the site. Read more about the schoolhouse here.

3: Cup and Saucer (Madison County)

Union Township’s. District 1 school was commonly known as Betterton or Pleasant Corner¹⁰. It was also called Cup and Saucer because of some unique brickwork on its northern wall that was said to resemble those items¹¹. I’ve never noticed anything unique or interesting characteristics as I’ve driven past it, but I’ll write about the schoolhouse here soon.

2: Dead Dog (Madison County)

Adams Township’s old District 3 schoolhouse sits near the community of Alliance, which was established around a station on the Big Four Railroad. Legend says that a pregnant dog was hit by a train nearby, so locals called the school Dead Dog in the aftermath¹². Another Madison County schoolhouse -in Boone Township- shared the grisly name. You can read more about the old Dead Dog schoolhouse here.

1: Possum’s Glory (Madison County)

The schoolhouse with the weirdest name I’ve found served Adams Township’s District 1 in Madison County. It was called Possum’s Glory! Alternatively known as Lost Woods, the school was built in a heavily-timbered site remote from other settlements. That’s how it got the lost woods moniker¹³, and it acquired its Possum Glory name based on the wildlife in the area¹⁴. I’m a sucker for old-fashioned naming conventions like adding the word “glory” on the end of things, especially when it involves marsupials. For more information about the schoolhouse, click here.

Honorable Mention

A few weird schoolhouse names didn’t make the cut but would have easily made my top fifteen. In no particular order, they are:

• Harrison Township’s District 11 schoolhouse in Delaware County, known as Africa
• Anderson Township’s District 8 schoolhouse in Madison County, called Smoky Row
• Harrison Township’s District 4 schoolhouse in Blackford County, named Goodboo
• Wayne Township’s District 7 schoolhouse in Randolph County, known as Compromise
• Monroe Township’s District 1 schoolhouse in Randolph County, known as Sixty

That’s just schoolhouses that are still standing! Demolished schoolhouses with unique names that quickly come to mind are Mud Valley in Delaware County, Lick Skillet in Hamilton, Bell Rattle in Madison, and Pin Hook in Randolph. Maybe you disagree with my rankings, but it’s been fun traveling to each of the schoolhouses I’ve been to. Diving into their history has proven even more intriguing, and I’ll continue to re-assess my rankings as I continue to find and research these old buildings.

Sources Cited
1 Phillips, V.B. (1975, July 27). ‘Brush, Swamp’ Days Recalled. The Anderson Herald. p. 11.
2 News From a New Locality (1916, March 17). The Monroe Journal. Page 2.
3 (1976, February 7). The Muncie Evening Press. p. T-4.
4 Greene, D. (1977, January 31). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star Press. p. 4.
5 Cupp, D. (1986, June 15). Father Sits With Son on Saratoga Town Board. The Muncie Star. p. 10.
6 Helm, T. B. (1881). Harrison Township. In History of Delaware County, Indiana: With Illustrations and Biographical 
7 Greene, D. (1957, October 24). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 6.
8 Schools Are Sold (1925, June 15). The Muncie Star Press. p. 2.
9 Guthrie, W. (1952, May 19). Hamilton Ridge Is Monument to a Pest. The Indianapolis news. p. 11.
10 Jackson, S. T. (2021, August 13). Madison County schoolhouses. email.
11 Bremer, H. (2019, March 25). Historic Hidden Treasures 2.pdf. The Herald Bulletin. Web. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
12 Bock, G. (1970, October 29). Adams Township Had Ten School Districts. Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 4.
13 Phillips, V.B. (1975, July 27). ‘Brush, Swamp’ Days Recalled. The Anderson Herald. p. 11.
14 Jackson, S. T. (2018, June 10). Of Lost Woods, Poley Walk and other odd place names . The Herald Bulletin. Web. Retrieved September 28, 2021.