The Randolph County town of New Lisbon was laid out in 1848. Eventually, it became home to two smithies, a pair of stores, a cabinet shop, a hotel, a sawmill, and as many as twelve houses! Unfortunately, the Pennsylvania Railroad favored the nearby town of Union City and destroyed any possibility of New Lisbon’s continued growth1.
People still lived in New Lisbon after it was bypassed, of course, and their kids needed educated! To accommodate them, a schoolhouse was built on East County Road 500-North across the Little Mississinewa River in 18652. John Gettinger and Aaron Summer erected a replacement building the following year3, even though a new District 7 schoolhouse had been built just south of New Lisbon proper4.
New Lisbon’s surviving brick schoolhouse was built in 1890. Along with the District 10 school at New Pittsburg, it closed in 1917. In 1950, the old building was renovated for use as a parsonage of the New Lisbon Christian Church5.
Today, the building is a home.
Sources Cited
1 Tucker, E. (1882). History of Randolph County, Indiana. book. Chicago, IL; A.L. Kingman.|
2 Warner, C.S (1865). 1865 Wall-Map of Randolph County. C.A.O. McClellan & C.S. Warner. Waterloo, Indiana. map.
3 Hinshaw, G. (2008). A History of Education in Randolph County, Indiana. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
4 Griffing, B. N. (1874). Stony Creek Township. An atlas of Randolph County, Indiana . map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.
5 (See footnote 3).
