Antioch/Cammack

The original Antioch school was one of Mt. Pleasant Township’s earliest, built in 1842 (Helm, 1881) after Belleshazer Dragoo deeded a portion of his property for the purpose of erecting a school (Delaware, 1841). Andrew Danner was the first teacher (Bottom, 1938). Ambiguous early plat maps seem to indicate that, at least as of the 1870s, some structure sat at the west end of Jackson Street at Yorktown-Gaston Pike (Kingman, 1874), but it doesn’t appear to me to have been the location of the Antioch school. In 1879, lumber dealer David Cammack came to the area, establishing a rail station, saw mill, and post office half a mile east of the school (Thanks, 1993). Over time, residents began referring to the school as Cammack to match the name of the village. 

High winds leveled the brick schoolhouse on July 4, 1911 (Celebrate, 1912) and classes were held in Cammack’s Red Man’s Lodge until a larger, two-room structure was erected on its site in 1912 (Cammack, 1977).

Grades 1 through 8 were taught at the new, two-room schoolhouse, which featured a removable partition that allowed the creation of a single, large, room. A portion of the school’s belfry was destroyed during the winter of 1935 when sparks from a nearby chimney ignited the wooden cupola (Cammack, 1935). 

Though it was Mt. Pleasant Township’s newest school building, the Cammack School -the last unconsolidated schoolhouse in the county- was closed in 1936, its students sent to Yorktown. There were brief discussions towards reopening the schoolhouse in 1938 after township officials refused to take on the debt to build a new facility necessitated by a proposed 125-unit Federal Housing Authority project (F.H.A., 1938), but this didn’t happen. The final two teachers at Cammack were Tarcy M. Wise and Charline F. Spencer (Delaware, 1936). 

In 1941, the building was sold by Mt. Pleasant Township at public auction to George and Edward Aul for $1,160, high above its appraised value of $400 (Old, 1941). In 1967, an 8,000-square foot addition to the south nearly tripled the building’s total area. Today, the old school remains in use by Aul Bros. Tool and Die, Incorporated. It is located at 40.211385, -85.499835, the southeastern corner of West Jackson Street and Yorktown-Gaston Pike.

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.

Delaware County, Indiana. (1841, June 15). Deed Book 4. p. 311.

Bottom Lands An Attraction. (1938, September 16). The Muncie Morning Star, pp. 25.

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

Thanks to David Cammack, this little town got its name. (1993, August 6). The Muncie Star, pp. 5B

Celebrate Completion of School Structure. (1912, April 13). The Muncie Morning Star, pp. 2.

Cammack Crossroads. (1977, July 3). The Muncie Star, pp. D1.

Cammack School is Damaged by Fire. (1935, December 6). The Muncie Evening Press, pp. 9.

F.H.A. Project is Blocked. (1938, June 25). The Muncie Evening Press, pp. 1.

Delaware County Public Schools. (1935). School directory, Delaware County public schools, Delaware County, Indiana 1935-1936. Muncie, IN. 

Old Cammack School is Sold at Auction. (1941, July 24). The Muncie Evening Press, pp. 10.