A single high school serves Jay County today, but things weren’t always that simple. Not so long ago, eight separate high schools dotted the county, each one anchoring its own community. Time and consolidation have erased them all, but one exception stands in New Mount Pleasant: there, a modest marker commemorates the site of I. P. Gray High School.
New Mount Pleasant sits near the center of Jay County’s Jefferson Township. You wouldn’t know it today, but the crossroads community between Como and Ridgeville was once home to a general store, meat market, blacksmith, doctors, drug store, barber shop, post office, hotel, and a shoe shop1. A schoolhouse that served the township’s District 6 was built in 1880 and even offered three-years of high school courses2.
Its successor, I.P. Gray, was built in 1912. The fourteen-room, two-and-a-half-story structure was named after Isaac Pusey Gray, who served as Indiana’s nineteenth governor. Among his more lasting achievements was securing the first appropriation for what would eventually become the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis3.
Because of its rural setting, Gray was never a large school. Even though it served all twelve grades, graduating classes were often tiny- just seven students earned diplomas in 1916, for example4, and only ten followed two years later5. Over the course of the school’s fifty-three-year history, a total of 692 students graduated6, an average of just thirteen per year.
In 1963, state officials recommended that Gray’s top six grades be “transferred to schools in which they will get greater opportunities7.” Instead, I.P. Gray shut its doors completely in 1965 when it sent all of its students to nearby Redkey and Portland8. The building itself was advertised for sale and demolition later that year9.
Although nothing but a marker remains of I. P. Gray today, the memorial represents more than a vanished building. For more than fifty years, the school served as an anchor for New Mount Pleasant and the surrounding countryside.Hundreds of students were educated there in an era when small, local schools were the norm rather than the exception. Fortunately, Gray’s influence lingers long after its classrooms went dark.
Sources Cited
1 McBride, M. (1997, April 7). Boom died, but the memories live. The Muncie Star Press. p. 7.
2 (See footnote 1).
3 Jay County school stood from 1912 to 1965. 692 graduates in total. (Thomas, 1976).
4 Redkey, Ind., (1916, May 25). The Muncie Star. p. 8.
5 Gov. I.P. Gray School To Graduate Ten Pupils (1918, May 6). The Muncie Star. p. 3.
6 Thomas, L. (1976, July 3). I.P. Gray Served State in War, Peace. The Muncie Star. p. 1976.
7 Recommendation Affects Only Top Six Grades (1963, November 16). The Muncie Star. p. 2.
8 Shreve, M. (2015, June 270. Once there were eight. The Portland Commercial Review. Web. Retrieved January 2, 2026.
9 For Sale By Sealed Bids (1965, September 19). The Muncie Star. p. 36.
I love the clear vintage photo. That was near the school’s end, judging by the 1959 and 1962 Fords in the shot.
My inner middle schooler cannot get past the name. I think of those pretend book title jokes. My nomination: “Living With Kidney Disorders” by I. P. Gray. I know, I should grow up. 🥴
Hahaha, yes, that name did the school no favors.
And good to know on the photo date. That was great to stumble across.
My grandpa and his 7 siblings went to school there.
Very cool!
Ted,
Class of 65’. 15 of us.. Interesting to learn the average was 13 over the years.
The building must have felt stuffed with a class of fifteen!