Perry Township’s District 6 schoolhouse didn’t exist in 1874, at least not on a map (Kingman). A District 7 school did nearby, though, at the spot that the Cardinal Greenway trailhead on South County Road 534-East is located today. In order to remedy the situation, Joseph Hewitt deeded a chunk of his land to Perry Township in 1876 for the purpose of building a schoolhouse (Delaware, 1876), just east of the modern-day intersection of County Roads 600-West and 700-South (Griffing, 1887). 

There really isn’t any record of colloquial names for many of the Perry Township schools, but Hewitt, Daugherty, Parks, and Hiatt would be good guesses based on the families that owned property around the schoolhouse. In 1881, Nancy Whitehead was the teacher of District 6. By that point, all of the schools in Perry Township were of brick construction (Helm, 1881). 

In 1902, the District 6 school -along with Districts 2, 7, and 8- petitioned the township trustee to consolidate into the District 9 school, which had recently been added to and was located in the center of the township. The request was granted. The following year, Districts 2 and 6 were established after their patrons expressed dissatisfaction with the arrangement. After two more years, though, residents changed their mind, and in 1904 the District 6 schoolhouse closed down for good (Kemper, 1908). 

Today, Perry Township’s old District 6 schoolhouse is a home. 

References

Kingman Brothers. (1874). Map of Delaware County, Indiana. Chicago, IL.

Delaware County, Indiana. (1876, June 5). Deed Book 39. p. 288.

Griffing, B. N. (1887). Mt. Pleasant Township. An atlas of Delaware County, Indiana . map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.

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.