I was flipping through some new-to-me files the other day when I stumbled across History of the Mt. Pleasant Township School System by Anna Williams. I figured I had a pretty solid grasp on that subject, especially after untangling the whole Cammack brouhaha. Still, one detail jumped off the page as I read: had I somehow overlooked a schoolhouse all this time? I couldn’t have!
Mt. Pleasant Township sits just west of Muncie in Delaware County, Indiana. During the nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries, the township was home to nine distinct district schools before they consolidated into Yorktown. Remarkably, four of those old buildings still stand, along with the crumbling foundation of a fifth. The history I’d crossed paths with offered brief summaries of each school, which I was familiar with. Then I reached the entry for District 5, commonly known as the Walker schoolhouse. When I read it, my eyes popped out of my head.
I’ll confess right up front that I have no idea who Anna Williams was, but here’s what she wrote about the old Walker schoolhouse: “The first school here was a log cabin, but the date of its construction is not known. It was probably in the 1840’s. There were two replacements of the building, the last of which was used until 1913. It is now standing on the Mort Hancock farm1.”
What caught my attention was the specific language Williams used. When she wrote about the old Nebo school, she said it was “still standing along Nebo Road.” Describing the Lincoln school, she noted it was “still standing as is on the Jim Jester place.” When she reached the Center schoolhouse, she explained that it was “still standing and is a dwelling…” When it came time to describe Walker, her wording changed. It wasn’t “still standing.” It wast “now standing on the Mort Hancock farm.” Still standing, still standing, still standing, now standing. That discrepancy led me to a spit take.
I had an inkling, but wasn’t sure, that Anna Williams’ account dated to the fifties. Although it was seventy years old, I immediately set out to track down the Mort Hancock farm, where I presumed the Walker schoolhouse may have been moved to for agricultural use. A plat map published two decades after her history showed a J. M. Hancock property at the corner of Burkmill Road and County Road 900-West. Then I uncovered an obituary for John “Mort” Hancock, who lived about a mile and a half north of Daleville and died at the age of eighty-eight in 19572. The data matched, so I pulled the property up on Google Maps and started combing through Street View. I was convinced I was about to uncover a long-lost schoolhouse that had beguiled me!
Unfortunately, the farm appeared to contain a brick ranch house, a frame barn, a metal barn, and a couple of small outbuildings. None of them looked like a schoolhouse. Fortunately, I happened across the area after a doctor’s appointment in Anderson and decided to investigate the property in person. At least from what I could see, none of the buildings matched the size, shape, or construction of an old one-room school that might have been hauled there decades ago. By that point, I’d pretty well convinced myself that whatever school building Williams referenced had long since disappeared. I decided that a blog post would be forthcoming.
I wanted my post to include the school’s original site, but not every long-demolished rural schoolhouse stays lodged in my noggin. I couldn’t remember where Walker first stood, so I pulled into Mt. Pleasant Cemetery to check one of my maps. After fumbling around with a lousy cell connection, I finally got it to load and immediately realized how dumb I’d been: if I’d checked my map before setting out on my wild goose chase, I’d have seen that the Walker schoolhouse had never been moved at all. Instead, it once stood right in the front yard of the modern ranch house I’d just taken photos of! The house was built in 1975 behind the old school site3. Presumably, the schoolhouse was demolished to make way. Historic aerials are unclear, but there’s no more Walker schoolhouse in 2026.
Perhaps Anna Williams used the word “now” simply because Mort Hancock had recently acquired the property where the Walker school once stood. I don’t think that was the case, but oh well. At the very least, my fruitless pursuit served as a reminder to trust your own research with confidence, and commit it to memory, when you’ve done the homework. I neglected to do that and wound up chasing a phantom schoolhouse across Mt. Pleasant Township. Still, the trip wasn’t entirely pointless, I guess. I can now confirm that the old Walker schoolhouse is gone for good.
Sources Cited
1 Williams, A. (n.d.) History of the Mt. Pleasant Township. School System. [Yorktown]. Printed document.
2 Funerals (1957, February 5). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 9. \
3 Parcel 1019300005000 (2026). Office of the Assessor. Delaware County [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved May 22, 2026.
Your sleuthing always inspires me to look, but I can’t find this one on Vintage Aerials. I think it’s just a bit too old, and in an area with few other landmarks that would have been surveyed.
You have discovered the lawyer’s dilemma when it comes to parsing the meaning of old statutes, contracts, or judicial opinions – do minor differences in language actually mean something? Or was it sloppy drafting?