Madison County’s Boone and Duck Creek Townships operated independent systems of rural schoolhouses until 1949, when officials joined forces to build a $150,000 grade school with six classrooms, a gymnasium/auditorium, and a cafeteria1. The building opened two years later, bringing an end to a hundred-year tradition of one-room schools.
By 1880, Boone and Duck Creek Township were home to fifteen schoolhouses. Boone’s were commonly known as Portable, Vincent, Townsend, Red Oak, Center, Brunt, Enterprise or Dead Dog, College Corner, and Mount Valley. The schools in Duck Creek Township were called Waymire, another College Corner, Minnick, Dickey, Leisure, Reeder, and Fleming2.
Schoolhouses in both consolidated over time. Only three of Duck Creek’s remained in use by 1949, but most of Boone Township’s stayed open until the new school was built. The Duck Creek-Boone Township Grade School later received an addition consisting of a stage, cafeteria, offices, and two more classrooms3.
In 1959, Indiana’s State Commission for the Reorganization of School Corporations passed new guidelines specifying minimum attendance figures and adjusted assessed valuations per pupil4. In response, the Duck Creek-Boone district merged with Van Buren Township along with Fairmount, Liberty, and Green Townships in Grant County to form the Metropolitan School District of Madison-Grant Counties, today known as Madison-Grant United School Corporation.
By 1991, only seventy-six students in grades 1-6 attended classes at the old Duck Creek-Boone Grade School5. The school closed at the end of the year and its students were sent to Summitville Elementary. After it was shuttered, new owners donated the old school to an organization called the Duck Creek Center for the Arts. As recently as 2020, the non-profit announced plans to reopen the structure for live performances6.
Progress has been slow.
Sources Cited
1 New School For Duck Creek And Boone Townships. (1949, September 7). The Elwood Call-Leader. p. 1.
2 Harden, S. (1874). History of Madison County, Indiana, from 1820 to 1874. book. Markleville, IN.
3 Collier, W. (1960, May 24). Boone Township TaxPayers Protest Proposed Plan of Enlarging Present School. The Elwood Call-Leader. p. 1.
4 Delaware County Committee for the Reorganization of School Corporations. (1959). A Comprehensive plan for the reorganization of school corporations of Delaware County Indiana. Muncie, IN; Delaware County Committee for the Reorganization of School Corporations.
5 Hoffman, F. (1991, May 1) Little school on the prairie closes doors for last time. The Elwood Call-Leader. p. 1.
6 “Only in Elwood” – Duck Creek Center forr the Arts (2020, March 14). The Elwood Call-Leader. p. 1.
