Fall Creek Township’s old Burdett schoolhouse in Madison County evaded my obsessive research when I first set out to take pictures of them all in August 2021. I didn’t stumble across it until late December! Shows what I know. Here’s what I found out about it:
An early District 12 school, probably frame, sat on land owned by the heirs of Christopher Burdett just west of the house at 5806 West County Road 800-South. By 1880, a different District 12 schoolhouse was located across the road on the land of Sarah Shaul at the corner of County Road 800-South and part of South County Road 575-West that no longer exists1.
The Shauls and Burdetts were related by marriage2, and the District 12 school took its common name from the Burdetts. The previous schoolhouse was used as a home for some time, though it no longer exists today.Â
The extant District 12 structure was built in 18983, and by 1901 the schoolhouse sat on land owned by John B. Hays4.
Along with Districts 10 and 11, the District 12 schoolhouse closed in 1907 once Fall Creek Township contracted with the town of Pendleton to allow its students to attend the consolidated school there5.
Today, the District 12 schoolhouse is a home.
Sources Cited
1 Kingman Brothers. (1880). History of Madison County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. Chicago, IL.
2 Broyles, C., & Vielhaber, D. (2015, October 11). Christopher Burdett. Find a Grave. Web. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
3 Madison County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2021). Parcel ID: 48-14-30-200-004.000-012.
4 (1901). Fall Creek Township. An atlas of Madison County, Indiana. map, Cleveland, OH; American Atlas Company.
5 School Controversy Is In Court After Peaceful Methods Failed (1927, August 18). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 1.
