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”
Indiana University says that nearly two-thirds of the 23 million acres that make up Indiana is farmland1. As much as we’re known for corn and soybeans, that wasn’t always the case: pioneers clear cut enormous swaths of forest down in the years after they arrived here, which means tree lines that seem random to us in 2023 are usually anything but! One stretch, visible from Old US-35 in northern Delaware County, hides an old alignment of the Chicago, Indiana & Eastern Railway. New rail during the gas boom meant big money for any town on its path, and the line’s completion convinced an entire community to try and reorganize itself nearly a mile west of where it stood.
Continue reading “Wheeling, New Wheeling, and the CI&E Railroad”
I’ll never forget the first time I came across a flowing well and I’ve been fascinated by them ever since. After finding eleven in Delaware County, I started branching out to other nearby places. I stumbled across one in Hancock County a couple years ago and visited another nearby just the other day.
Continue reading “Two flowing wells in Hancock County’s Brown Township”
Delaware County’s original Hamilton Township District 4 schoolhouse was built sometime between 1874 and 1881 on a triangular plot of land owned by Adam Williamson. The plot is now bounded by East County Road 400-N, North County Road 200-E, and Indiana State Road 67. Locals soon referred to the building by Williamson’s name1, and the old Pleasant Grove Church was built nearby shortly afterwards2.
Continue reading “Hamilton Township’s Williamson schoolhouse in Delaware 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”
I have a soft spot in my heart for old, country sanctuaries. I’m sure I’ve driven by hundreds of them over the years! Although many are incompatible with the needs of huge, modern megachurches, their continued existence is testament to dwindling congregations that push against the current, passionately committed to the glorification of a higher power. I’ve always morbidly wondered what happens to the actual buildings once their membership falls off, but I’m sorry to say that I found the answer at Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church in eastern Delaware County.
Continue reading “The sad fate of Delaware County’s Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church”
Going swimming is fun! It’s a great way for kids to meet new friends, develop coordination, or just splash around for a while as I tended to do. For forty years starting in the 1930s, tons of kids went to the old Maxville Swimming Pool, which sits about seven miles east of Crystal Pool in Randolph County. I’ll try to resist taking a deep dive today, since spring-boarding into it in 2023 would be a tricky proposition. The place hasn’t operated in forty-five years.
Continue reading “Resisting a deep dive into Randolph County’s Maxville Swimming Pool”
John W. Vincent entered into section 27 of Delaware County in 18361. It’s unclear when the first schoolhouse on his land was built, but it was probably prior to the state passing a law providing resources for a free, common school system in 18522.
Continue reading “Niles Township’s Oak Grove schoolhouse in Delaware 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 Indiana’s 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”
Little is known about Harrison Township’s District 3 schoolhouse. There was no school in the area in 1874 and there weren’t any close by. Perhaps that’ wa’s because Harrison Township has never had any significant communities aside from the hamlet of Bethel1.
Continue reading “Harrison Township’s Brady schoolhouse in Delaware County”
Ted Shideler 