The first school established on what later became the site of Salem Township’s District 7 was built on Henry Miller’s land during the winter of 1833-34. It was a log building with a puncheon floor, stick-and-mud-chimney, and wide fireplace. The school burned soon after it was built but was replaced by a nearly-identical structure1.
Henry Miller deeded the acre the new schoolhouse sat on to the county during the summer of 18392 but the second schoolhouse caught fire and burned down as well. In 1846, the community filed a remonstrance with the intent of erecting a more permanent brick building, but it failed. Private donations funded the third schoolhouse on Miller’s land3, which was the first building to hold common classes under the 1852 constitutional change that authorized a free schooling system4.
The school was known as “Center” due to its location in Salem Township, which underwent a redistricting around 1880. At that time, the Shepp schoolhouse -later known as Walnut Grove- was listed as District 7 instead of the Center building5. The extant schoolhouse was built in 1882 to replace its thirty-six year old brick predecessor6.
Jenny Richman Oliver sent me this old photo of the Center schoolhouse that she found in a her trunk of her great-great-grandmother’s things.
In 1897, Delaware County Superintendent of Schools Charles Van Matre began to explore the idea of consolidating one-room schools into larger structures, and Salem Township began combining schools four years later. In 1901, students at the District 2: Pike’s Peak school consolidated into Daleville as well as either District 6 or District 7. The Center school was abandoned after after Pike’s Peak reopened in 19037.
Fortunately for area residents, Center was reestablished in 1905 and lasted until 1915, when its students were sent to Daleville. Elizabeth Schaeffer served as the final teacher8.
Today, Salem Township’s 1882 Center schoolhouse stands at a quiet intersection just north of IN-67 at the southeast corner of W. County Road 500-S and S. County Road 600-W. It has long since been repurposed into a home, though some of the original brickwork is visible around its windows and front door.
Sources Cited
1 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.
2 Delaware County, Indiana. (1839, June 7). Deed Book 4. p. 226.
3 (See footnote 1).
4 Natali, B. L. (2007). The Impact of Caleb Mills on the Hoosier Education Debate: An Edition of Two Unpublished Addresses (thesis). University Graduate School, Indianapolis.
5 Salem Township Shows. (1880, March 24). The Muncie Daily Times, p. 2.
6 Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2021). Parcel ID: 1410100001000. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.
7 Kemper, G. W. H. (1908). Education in Delaware County. In A Twentieth Century History of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume 1 (Vol. 1, p. 253). book, Lewis Publishing Company.
8 Delaware County Public Schools. (1914). School directory, Delaware County public schools, Delaware County, Indiana 1914-1915. Muncie, IN.
