Although a one-room, frame building preceded it, Blackford County’s first substantial District 11 school in Jackson Township at Millgrove was built in 1886. It was likely lost in a fire in 1902¹, at which point a replacement was constructed. Both the 1886 building and its successor -red brick, one-and-a-half stories, and featuring a bell tower- operated two-year high schools until 1908. Extra classes like that weren’t accredited by the state of Indiana, but that was typical of many rural schools that offered advanced coursework².