KILGORE

The original Kilgore school was probably the first school in Mt. Pleasant Township (Kemper, 1908), and it was held by and named after David Kilgore, a man who later achieved some reputation as a judge and state representative (Olson, 2012). Born in Harrison County, Kentucky, Kilgore came to the Yorktown area after he was admitted to the bar in 1830. The following year, he began teaching students in an abandoned cabin on Jonathan Bentley’s farm (Helm, 1881). In 1851, Kilgore deeded a half-acre of his property to the township for the construction of a schoolhouse (Delaware, 1851). Shortly after, a wood-frame (History, 1956) schoolhouse was erected there, just west of the present-day intersection of Indiana State Road 32 and West County Road 300-S (Kingman, 1874). 

By 1874, the Kilgore school was conducted on KIlgore’s land just west of the present-day intersection of Indiana State Road 32 and West County Road 300-S.  Six months before his death, David Kilgore granted the township trustee three-quarters of an acre for construction of a brick schoolhouse at the northeast corner of State Road 32 and Priest Ford Road (Delaware, 1878). In 1907, a pro-consolidation law passed that compelled county trustees to abandon a schoolhouse and send its pupils elsewhere when its average attendance dropped below twelve students. As a result, classes were held at Kilgore until it closed in 1908 and consolidated into Yorktown. S.Z. Pittenger was the last teacher at the District 9 school (Delaware, 1907).

References

Kemper, G. W. H. (1908). Education in Delaware County. In A Twentieth Century History of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume 1 (Vol. 1, pp. 237–237). book, Lewis Publishing Company.

Olson III, A. A. (2012). Tracking the Political Career of David Kilgore Across Pioneer & Civil War Era Indiana. Muncie. 

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. (1851, June 24). Deed Book 12. p. 309.

History of the Mount Pleasant Township School System. (1956). Delaware County Historical Alliance. p. 1.

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

Delaware County, Indiana. (1878, June 26). Deed Book 43. p. 207.

Delaware County Public Schools. (1907). School directory, Delaware County public schools, Delaware County, Indiana 1907-1928. Muncie, IN.