Granville

The town of Granville was platted by John Gregory in 1836, five years after he purchased the land it was situated on (Helm, 1881). Aside from the short-lived settlement of Georgeville located just upstream (Kemper, 1908), Granville has been the only community in Niles Township for its entire existence.

The first schoolhouse in Granville was a log structure, which also held meetings of the Granville Christian Church from 1835 to 1842 when a new, frame, sanctuary was constructed. By 1852, the Granville school was one of ten in the township (Helm). Beginning that year, the frame schoolhouses were replaced with brick structures after the state began to provide funds for common, public schools (Natali, 2007).

In 1881, Helm related that the District 8 schoolhouse was taught by Isaiah Dudeston. The present schoolhouse was erected four years later (Delaware, 2021) and sits adjacent to the site of the 1870 Granville Christian Church, which is no longer standing. By 1887, Granville had eight named streets, a school, a fraternal lodge, and two hotels (Spurgeon, 1994). It also featured two additions to the original plat (Griffing, 1887). However, railroads bypassed the place in favor of Eaton, Albany, and Desoto, so Granville withered.

The school soldiered on until the 1916-17 year, when it -along with the rest of Niles Township’s schoolhouses- closed in order to send their students to consolidated schools in Eaton, Albany, and Dunkirk. Ralph W. Milligan of Shideler was the last teacher at Granville (Delaware, 1916).

The abandoned schoolhouse was converted to a dwelling prior to World War II at a time when its owner had started a greenhouse businesses there (McBride, 2006). Today, it’s still a house, outlasting all indications of Granville’s former commercial prominence.

References

Helm, T. B. (1881). Mount Pleasant Township. In History of Delaware County, Indiana: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers (pp. 268–269). book, Kingman Brothers.

Kemper, G. W. H. (1908). Education in Delaware County. In A Twentieth Century History of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume 1 (Vol. 1, p. 252). book, Lewis Publishing Company.

Natali, B. L. (2007). The Impact of Caleb Mills on the Hoosier Education Debate: An Edition of Two Unpublished Addresses (thesis). University Graduate School, Indianapolis.

Delaware County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2021). Parcel ID: 0431231001000. Delaware County, Indiana Assessor. map, Muncie, IN.

Spurgeon, B. (1994, December 12). Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 4.

Delaware County Public Schools. (1916). School directory, Delaware County public schools, Delaware County, Indiana 1916-1917. Muncie, IN. 

McBride, M. (2006, August 17) Town now home to few. The Muncie Star Press. p. 5C.