Read time: 5 min.

Delaware County’s Cammack schoolhouse carries a lingering mystery that traces back to an 1887 plat map. Regardless of who you ask, it seems, conventional wisdom insists that the schoolhouse originally stood at the end of Jackson Street, just west of Yorktown-Gaston Pike. I never bought it myself, but that interpretation hardened into “fact” simply because people kept repeating what they thought the map showed. Today, I’d like to yammer on with proof that the old schoolhouse never stood there. I apologize in advance for my stridency. 

The earliest plat map of Delaware County available online was published in 1874 and doesn’t feature a schoolhouse in Cammack. That’s partially because David Cammack didn’t show up in Mt. Pleasant Township until five years later¹, and partially because Sophia Dragoo deeded land to Mt. Pleasant Township to establish a schoolhouse the same year². I’ll come back to that in a minute. 

The next map, the oft-cited 1887 Griffing, Gordon, & Company atlas of Delaware County, is the first to show the schoolhouse. Unfortunately, it’s also the source of the confusion. Here’s the problem: two black boxes -both representing buildings- appear at the T. One sits beside the word “School.” The other, across the road at the southeast corner, is next to the label “No. 2.” That’s where the extant school stands. For years, nearly everyone I’ve talked to has assumed the westernmost building was the original schoolhouse simply because it sits closest to the word “School.” Over time, that reading became accepted wisdom. 

As I said, I never agreed. For one thing, it simply didn’t make sense for a schoolhouse to relocate across the road for no apparent reason. These weren’t buildings that officials casually plopped wherever they pleased. Schoolhouses occupied specific parcels deeded to the township trustee, and the 1887 atlas is remarkably consistent in demarcating those lots. For instance, here’s Mt. Pleasant Township’s District 4 school, Sycamore. The map clearly shows the boundary between the school grounds and the surrounding property of Benjamin Curtice. 

Back in Cammack, that exact mapping convention appears as well. The building beside the “No. 2” label is enclosed by the same kind of property boundary used elsewhere in the atlas. I noticed that detail pretty quickly: while everyone else seemed focused on the word “School” sitting near the building to the west, my eyes went straight to the boundary lines. The site of the school was never much of a mystery to me since I’ve been researching them for more than a decade.

Nonetheless, I still ran into skeptics whenever the topic resurfaced. I was told I had to be wrong because people remembered the foundation of a building standing on the west side of the T. Fair enough, but the plat map already showed there was a building there. It just wasn’t the schoolhouse. Aerial photography seems to show the building, probably a regular house, standing there as late as 1967. 

What I’ve never found, though, is any evidence whatsoever that the “old” and “new” Cammack schools stood at the intersection simultaneously. No newspaper account mentions it. No township history references it. No deed, map, or photo supports it. That’s because it never happened. The surviving schoolhouse wasn’t built alongside an earlier version across the road- it was erected to replace the original school after a devastating windstorm destroyed it in 1911³. 

If you couldn’t tell, I’m irrationally passionate about putting this confusion to bed! Here’s my ace in the hole: Sophia Dragoo’s deed to the Mt. Pleasant Township Trustee. Transcribed, it says “Part of the South west quarter of the South west quarter of section No (3) three Township No (20) twenty north of range nine (9) East⁴.” If the school sat west of Yorktown Gaston Pike, it would have been in section 4. There was no earlier schoolhouse deed because, as we established in looking at the 1874 map, there was no earlier schoolhouse because there was no Cammack. 

I think I’ve proven that the Cammack schoolhouse never stood west of Yorktown-Gaston Pike. Still, it’s important to note that this kind of confusion is a reminder of how local history actually works. Sometimes “facts” emerge not because they were thoroughly proven, but because an early interpretation gets repeated often enough that it hardens into accepted truth. Part of the fun of local history is untangling those little mysteries! The old Cammack schoolhouse never crossed the road as it turned out; we just spent years looking at the map the wrong way.

Sources Cited
1 Thanks to David Cammack, this little town got its name. (1993, August 6). The Muncie Star, pp. 5B
2 Delaware County, Indiana. (1879, April 5). Deed Book 44. p. 412.
3 Celebrate Completion of School Structure. (1912, April 13). The Muncie Morning Star, pp. 2.
4 Delaware County, Indiana. (1879, April 5). Deed Book 44. p. 412.