Random drives through far-flung counties are only worth it if there’s something to hunt down along the way. Landmarks, ruins, and glimpses of history are my favorite topics to look for, and that’s exactly how I stumbled across Washington Township’s old District 7 schoolhouse in rural Whitley County
Whitley County’s District 7 schoolhouse traces its roots to at least 1860, when a nearby Catholic Church burned down and its residents worshipped at the school1. Even after a new sanctuary was erected, the schoolhouse retained its common name of “Catholic” due to that association and the fact that most of its students were members of that faith2.
The extant school appears to have been built in 18873. Twenty years later, Maggie Ness served as its teacher4. The building was shuttered around 1928, when Washington Township’s remaining schoolhouses consolidated into the Washington Center School two miles north and two miles west5.
Despite its closure, the building still stands across State Road 9 from the landmark 1899 St. Catherine of Alexandria Church. These days, the old schoolhouse is a home.
Sources Cited
1 Bartdorff, R. (2016, November 21). St. Catherine of Alexandria traces founding to pioneer days. Today’s Catholic [Fort Wayne]. Web. Retrieved August 17, 2025.
2 Kaler, S.P. & Maring, R.H. (1907). History of Whitley County Indiana. B.F. Bowen & Co. [Indianapolis].Book.
3 Whitley County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Columbia City. Parcel ID: 92-09-35-000-105.000-013. Map.
4 (See footnote 2).
5 Washington Center School Will Be Abandoned, New Building Open Soon (1962, December 8). The Columbia City Commercial-Mail. Pp. 1-3.
I thought for a moment that this schoolhouse might have been a small part of the building of the Catholic educational system in the 19th century, which grew up in parallel with the public school system, which acted as a defacto protestant religious system in that era. I was not aware of that pocket of Catholics in Whitley County.
So many of those grand old rural Catholic Churches up north have parochial schools associated with them. Not this one!
Hi Ted, thanks for highlighting the rich history of the rural Midwest. Some additional information for you. My great-great-grandparents (along with their siblings) lived on the adjacent farms surrounding the church and school house in question. They originally built a log cabin on their property in the mid-1850s after immigrating from Oberkirchen, Hesse, while it was still a province in Prussia. The original log cabin (which was approximately 200 yds. north near the farmstead) burnt down roughly 20 years after construction. My family (and the now growing community of German farmers) then tasked themselves with learning masonry construction to build a more permanent church and school. What is extant today was the final result of roughly 10 years of construction (and an additional church fire during construction), being completed in 1899. It is still an active Parish for the Diocese of Fort Wayne South-Bend, with Mass being celebrated by visiting priests every Sunday. My grandfather went through elementary school in the highlighted schoolhouse for about 3 years until it was consolidated. He would tout the his status as salutatorian without mentioning his graduating class consisted only of about 20 fluently English-speaking students… Thanks for sharing this tidbit of history!
Wow, thanks for all the information! It really helps bring the area together, for me, as a sometimes visitor.