Betterton/Cup and Saucer/Pleasant Corner

In 1880, Union Township’s District 1 schoolhouse stood on R.G. Betterton’s land a quarter of a mile north of the intersection of today’s East County Road 150-N and North County Road 400-East (Kingman, 1880). Because of its location, the schoolhouse was known as Betterton.

The extant schoolhouse was erected around 1900 (Madison, 2021) and by 1901 was visible in its present location on land owned by Lucy McCarty (Atlas, 1901). A brick struture, it was known as the Cup and Saucer school due to a unique brick design on its rear wall (Brenner, 2019). According to Madison County Historian Stephen T. Jackson, the schoolhouse was also commonly known as Pleasant Corner (Jackson, 2021).

The District 1 schoolhouse is absent from a plat map of Madison County that is believed to have been published in the mid-to-late 1920s so it likely closed prior to that time, consolidating either into Chesterfield a mile south or to the District 2: John’s schoolhouse a mile and a half northwest. In 1929, the John’s schoolhouse was so badly damaged in a lightning storm that local officials decided to abandon it and send its students to Chesterfield (Items, 1929), and a new consolidated school was built there the following year (McBride, 2008).

Today, the Betterton/Cup and Saucer/Pleasant Corner schoolhouse is a dwelling.

References

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

Madison County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2021). Parcel ID: 48-12-03-100-015.000-033

Bremer, H. (2019, March 25). Historic Hidden Treasures 2.pdf. The Herald Bulletin. Retrieved September 30, 2021, from https://www.heraldbulletin.com/hiddentreasures/historic-hidden-treasures-2-pdf/pdf_a6dc7bd4-4e48-11e9-9dc3-3731a3dfea98.html.

Jackson, S. T. (2021, August 13). Madison County schoolhouses. email.

Items of News Told in Lines (1929, August 21). The Elwood Call-Leader. p. 2.

McBride, M. (2008, September 4). Remodeled school full of life in Chesterfield. The Muncie Star Press. p. 11.