The first District 2 school in Ward Township was located on a section of Jasper A. Sipe’s land1 deeded to the township on September 1, 18562. The schoolhouse is visible at that site on maps published as late as 18823.
The District 2 schoolhouse was commonly known as the Narvoo or Nauvoo4, evidently a Hebrew word that apparently means “a place of rest or beauty5.” At some point, a new school was established about a third of a mile east of the original building. There, the school was in use until 1911, when its students were sent to Ward Township’s new Jefferson consolidated school just south of nearby Deerfield6.
Though the students of the Jefferson School used the building as a gymnasium for some time after its closure (Hinshaw), today the old schoolhouse is used as a barn.
Sources Cited
1 Griffing, B. N. (1874). Ward Township. An atlas of Randolph County, Indiana . map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.
2 Hinshaw, G. (2008). A History of Education in Randolph County, Indiana. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
3 Tucker, E. (1882). History of Randolph County, Indiana. book. Chicago, IL; A.L. Kingman.
4 (See footnote 2).
5 Leonard, G.M. (1992). Encylopedia of Mormonism. New York, NY. Macmillan Publishing Company.
6 Public Education in Randolph County, Indiana. 2018. Sharing history for 68 years in Randolph County, Indiana. Randolph County Historical Society and Museum. Web. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
7 (See footnote 2).
