Hamilton

The first District 7 school appears to have been built on the Noah Ryan farm a mile west of the present-day intersection of West Eighth Street Road and North County Road 600-West. It may have originally been called Ryan due to its location (Bock, 1969). In 1880, the schoolhouse was three quarters of a mile further east (Kingman, 1880).

The schoolhouse that still stands -the third- was finished in 1903 as a two-story, two-room structure (Schools, 1904). Upon its completion, students from the old District 7 school and the District 8: Epperly school consolidated into it (Bock). In 1912, the school shut down for several weeks because of a diphtheria outbreak (May Close, 1912).

In its later years, the students of Jackson Township attended elementary classes at Perkinsville before completing middle school coursework at Hamilton. After eighth grade, they went on to the High Schools at Lapel in Stony Creek Township or at Walnut Grove in Hamilton County (Perkinsville, 1954).

In 1955, a Jackson Township consolidated school opened nearly four miles northwest of the District 7 schoolhouse and it was shuttered (New, 1952). At the time, the Perkinsville and Hamilton schools were the oldest in the county. Today, the old District 7: Hamilton schoolhouse is a dwelling.

References

Bock, G. (1969, August 23). No Kidding, There Was Once Bell Rattle School. The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 4.

Kingman Brothers. (1880). History of Madison County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. Chicago, IL.Harden, S. (1874).

History of Madison County, Indiana, from 1820 to 1874. book. Markleville, IN.

Schools of Jackson Township Good Ones (1904, February 5). The Elwood Daily Record. p. 1.

May Close The School (1912, October 31). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 8.

Perkinsville School To Be Used For Last Year (1954, September 1). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 19.

New Township School Planned (1952, January 22). The Anderson Herald. p. 1.