Indiana’s Blackford County Home

Read time: 9 min.

I’m drawn to places where people once congregated. For me, abandoned areas that once bustled with people evoke a sense of solitude and reflection. They also serve as historic artifacts that compel me to learn more about the past! That interest is what forms the majority of my writing, and it’s what drew me to Green Acres in southwestern Blackford County. At first glance, only a small, stone, marker differentiates the old county home from other farms in the area.

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Licking Township’s Carney schoolhouse in Blackford County

Read time: 3 min.

John Carney deeded the land for Licking Township’s District 4 school sometime prior to 1865. The first school, a frame building, sat half a mile south of the extant schoolhouse on the western side of Gadbury Road and was later moved to the southeast corner of Gadbury and West County Road 100-South in order to be used as a rental house1. A brick building replaced the frame dwelling and was used until 1904, when the present school was built.

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What’s left of Licking Township’s Corn Cob schoolhouse in Blackford County

Read time: 2 min.

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

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