In 1839, Thomas Jefferson Davis purchased 320 acres of land at the corner of County Road 100-South and County Road 500-West in Madison County to build a house. One of his sons, Doctor Ball Davis, built a larger home around the original cabin in 1877. At some point, a one-room, brick schoolhouse to serve District 6 was built on the southeastern corner of the intersection, just west of a tile factory that D.B. Davis erected and operated1.
In 1880, Franklin Blazer owned the land the schoolhouse sat on2. Eventually, the younger Davis built and maintained a Methodist church known as Epworth, and the schoolhouse and crossroads became known as Epworth Corner3.
The present structure -a large building that housed grades 1-4 and 5-8 in separate rooms3– was built in 19164. It closed prior to 1942, when Stony Creek Township was listed as operating a single consolidated schoolhouse at Lapel5. Today, the building is a home.
Sources Cited
1 Dr. B. Davis, Pioneer Settled Epworth Corner (1973, September 21). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 50.
2 Kingman Brothers. (1880). History of Madison County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. Chicago, IL.
3 (See footnote 1).
4 Career That Started Here Is Still Going Strong! (1969, March 21). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 4.
5 Rural Pupils Are Enrolled For New Term (1942, September 11). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 1.
