Although Lafayette Township’s extant District 4 schoolhouse was built in 18841, an earlier frame building was situated at the same spot when the Kimerling family owned its land2. Locals called both schools Beech Grove.
Information about the Beech Grove schoolhouse is limited, but it operated until 1932. That’s the year officials in Lafayette Township opened the Leach school, a six-room, consolidated building located near the center of the township3. Along with Beech Grove, the new school took students from the one-room Prairie, Keller, Elm Grove, Closser, Salem, and Florida schoolhouses.
In 1947, eight students formed a local 4-H club that was named “Beech Grove” thanks to its members’ proximity to the old building. By 1975, the club had grown to twenty-eight participants4!
Leach Elementary School was closed after the 1999-2000 school year. Today, Beech Grove is one of eight old schoolhouses in Lafayette Township to have outlasted its successor. These days, the old schoolhouse is used as a home.
Sources Cited
1 Jackson, S.T. (2009, November 14). In History: Township schools set by districts. The Anderson Herald Bulletin. Web. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
2 Kingman Brothers. (1880). History of Madison County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. Chicago, IL.
3 Leach School to be Dedicated Next Tuesday (1932, August 19). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 1.
4 Brown, J. (1975, June 28). Beech Grove 4-H club is family affair. The Elwood Call-Leader. p. 3.
