It’s no secret that I love exploring the countryside. Back when I lived in Muncie and commuted to Fishers, one of my favorite routes home took me through rural Henry County. I must have passed the abandoned schoolhouse at the corner of Raider Road and County Road 700-North at least a hundred times before it hit me: I didn’t know much about it! I still have questions, but here’s what I’ve managed to uncover.
In 1857, the land the mysterious schoolhouse I passed was part of 160 acres owned by David C. Sherman1. It straddled Raider Road. An early school, most likely frame, existed as early as 18752. The schoolhouse served the students of Fall Creek Township’s District 53 and was replaced by a brick building erected by A.B. Hopper in 1885. In 1913, Henry County’s soil agent took over the schoolhouse to give a presentation about increasing the production of wheat to fifty interested farmers4.
I’m not entirely sure when the Sherman schoolhouse closed. My bet is that it was shuttered around 1914, when a new Middletown High School was completed two miles northwest5. The schoolhouse doesn’t appear on a county plat book published sometime between 1925 and 19406, and it was certainly shuttered by 1936 when it failed to appear in a cultural map of Henry County published by the Indiana Highway Survey Commission7.
Regardless of when the old Sherman schoolhouse closed, it’s been in rough shape for as long as I’ve ever driven past it. In 2025, the ramshackle building appears to have most recently been used for agricultural storage. I’d love to learn more about its history!
Sources Cited
1 Harwood & Watson (1857). Map of Henry County, Indiana. Harwood & Watson [New Castle]. Map.
2 An illustrated historical atlas of Henry Co., Indiana (1875). Higgins, Belden, & Company [Chicago]. Map.
3 Map of Henry County, Indiana showing rural delivery service (1911). The United States Post Office Department [Washington]. Map.
4 First Meeting A Big Success (1913, September 12). The Knightsown Banner. p. 1.
5 New Middletown High School in Course of Construction (1914, October 18). The Muncie Star. p. 21.
6 Plat book of Henry County, Indiana (1925-1940). W.W. Hixson & Co. [Rockford]. Map.
7 Map of Henry County. Cultural. (1936). Indiana Highway Survey Commission [Indianapolis]. Map.
