Franklin Township’s District 5 schoolhouse was first known to locals known as the Bear Creek School. Later, it was called Huffman Corner1. Alex Huffman owned the land. In 1886, he converted the structure into a barn. A new building superseded it2.
In 1915, the 1886 schoolhouse was either replaced or altered substantially3. It was closed in 1923. Afterwards, the building was used by the Franklin Township Farm Bureau and the Bear Creek Friends Church as an events center for several years4.
The schoolhouse was torn down, moved, and rebuilt as a barn two-and-a-half-miles west of its original site around 1936. Twenty-three years later, a new home was built over the basement of the old school5.
Today, the block basement below the modern house -painted but visible due to the area’s uneven terrain- is all that remains of Franklin Township’s last remaining schoolhouse.
Sources Cited
1 Griffing, B. N. (1874). Stony Creek Township. An atlas of Randolph County, Indiana. map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.
2 New Dayton (1886, June 23). The Winchester Herald. August 25, 1886.
3 Hinshaw, G. (2008). A History of Education in Randolph County, Indiana. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
4 Hinshaw, G. (2022, March 2). Randolph County schoolhouses. email.
5 Randolph County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2022). Parcel ID: 68-05-35-100-016.000-001. Randolph County, Indiana Assessor. map, Winchester, IN.
