The first schoolhouse in Madison County’s Van Buren Township stood a mile and a half north of Summitville1. There, George Doyle served as its pioneering teacher2. Other schoolhouses sprung up across the township until 1894, when Summitville’s Oak Grove school was erected. Today, only a lintel remains to commemorate the original building and the history it once held.
The community of Summitville was laid out in 1867. A frame schoolhouse was built on the north side of town and was later used by the local Christian Church3. By 1874, Van Buren Township was home to six schoolhouses- Creamer, White Hall, Summitville, Zedekar, Dagen, and Allen4.
Summitville’s first brick schoolhouse was built on Church Street in 18805. In 1894, the fourteen-year-old building was replaced by a substantial structure with a belfry. The building was christened Oak Grove.
Township officials planned to consolidate all of Van Buren Township’s schools into Summitville as early as 1909, but things stalled. By 1912, the township was home to twelve schoolhouses6! Consolidation wasn’t far off, though, since only four township schools remained in operation by 19217. The Oak Grove school soon underwent a four-room expansion and swallowed up the remaining rural schools once it had the capacity to do so.
Oak Grove received a massive expansion in 1938, when a gymnasium/auditorium, vocational classrooms, and locker rooms were built at the rear of the building8. In 1960, a two-story high school wing was added to the west9. Unfortunately, the original portion of the Oak Grove school was razed three years later. A single-story elementary school wing took its place shortly afterwards.
Fortunately, Oak Grove’s 1894 lintel was saved. Today, the construct stands near its former site in front of what’s now known as Summitville Elementary School. It’s all that’s left of nearly sixty years of Summitville’s history.
Sources Cited
1 Kingman Brothers. (1880). History of Madison County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. Chicago, IL.
2 Forkner, J. (1914). History of Madison County Indiana. A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People and Its Principal Interests, Volume 1. book, The Lewis Publishing Company. Chicago, IL.
3 Denney, S. (1974, August 8). Summitville’s a down-home town. The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 30.
4 Dead Dog, Frog Pond? They’re School Names (1967, September 9). The Anderson Daily Bulletin, p. 4.
5 Sanborn Map Company. (1892). Summitville. Insurance Maps of Muncie Indiana. map, New York, NY; Sanborn Map Company.
6 (See footnote 2).
7 (Summitville News (1921, April 8). The Alexandria Times Tribune. p. 4.
8 Build Addition Present School. (1938, August 16). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 1.
9 Summitville Plans Open House. (1961, January 26). The Alexandria Times Tribune. p. 11.
