The remains of Perry Township schoolhouse in southeastern Delaware County are a mystery to me. I know that William Felton deeded the land the building sat on to the trustees of Perry Township in 18391, two years after the town of Mt. Pleasant was platted to include land set aside for a schoolhouse2.
Continue reading “Perry Township’s Mount Pleasant schoolhouse in Delaware County”
In 1863, John T. Ray granted a portion of his land on County Road 900-North to the Trustee of Niles Township to build a schoolhouse1. By 1881, the District 9 school was commonly known as the Smith school. It was taught by Eva Thomas2. The land the schoolhouse sat on was just south of 380 acres owned by Benjamin F. Smith, which is probably how it got its name3
Continue reading “Niles Township’s Lowe schoolhouse in Delaware County”
Madison County was home to three schoolhouses commonly known as “College Corner” in Duck Creek, Richfield, and Boone Townships. Their shared names make it difficult to find a lot of information that pertains to the Boone Township’s, which was the District 8 schoolhouse there.
Continue reading “Boone Township’s College Corner schoolhouse in Madison County”
Harrison Township’s old District 3 schoolhouse, known as Blackford, sits three miles east of Montpelier on Highway 18. It likely took its name from the county whose students it served which was named for John Blackford, a state speaker of the house and Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. The extant brick structure was built around 1900. In 1905, it sat on the land of S.S. Norton1.
Continue reading “Harrison Township’s Blackford schoolhouse in Blackford County”
What’s left of the Washington Township Public School sits just east of Raleigh, an unincorporated community in the northeastern corner of Rush County. Local legend -and even a boulder that sits out front- proclaims the building to have been the first consolidated school in the nation1. Fact or fiction, the building’s remains are among the most compelling schoolhouse ruins I’ve ever come across.
Continue reading “The ruins of America’s first consolidated schoolhouse, in Raleigh, Indiana”
John Bergdoll was an early settler in Jay County, one of three people to arrive in Knox Township in 18411. At some point, probably in the 1850s or 1860s, he deeded the trustee of Knox Township about an acre of land on which to establish a schoolhouse. Eventually, the institution evolved into Knox Township’s District 7 schoolhouse, known commonly as Beaver Hill2.
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The old Oak Grove school is one of Jay County’s most prominent ruins. In 1881, a predecessor sat just east of where the Redkey and Camden Pike intersected with the Portland and Blaine Pike on the land of William Shields1. Six years later, an atlas labeled the school as District 62.
Continue reading “Knox Township’s Oak Grove schoolhouse in Jay County”
Not much is left of Licking Township’s District 3 schoolhouse, commonly known as Corn Cob. The school was one of Blackford County’s earliest to be discontinued. It closed in 1907 under a law that compelled township trustees to shut down schools whose attendance had fallen below twelve pupils, as well as to provide transportation for all students who lived two miles from the school they were compelled to attend1. After Corn Cob closed, its students were sent to the District 5 school, known as Pleasant Grove2.
Continue reading “What’s left of Licking Township’s Corn Cob schoolhouse in Blackford County”
A schoolhouse has stood at the southwestern corner of what’s now Cyntheanne Road and East 156th Street since at least 1866, when a District 12 building -known as Fairview- was located on land owned by the Stanford family1. The structure was of frame construction at least as of the 1892-93 school term2, a year before one of the most dramatic and tragic accidents to occur in Hamilton County happened on its site.
Continue reading “Wayne Township’s Fairview schoolhouse in Hamilton County”
It’s said that the Harrison Township’s District 4: Goodboo schoolhouse took its unusual name from a Native American word meaning “good morning1.” More likely, it took its name from a small community that sprung up in the Godfroy Reserve, an Indian reservation named after Miami chief Francis Godfroy, who was granted land here in 1818. The settlement included homes, a church, a schoolhouse, and a trading post; it was named after an Indian who married one of Godfroy’s daughters2.
Continue reading “What’s left of Harrison Township’s Goodboo schoolhouse in Blackford County”