White Hall

In 1880, the Van Buren Township District 2 schoolhouse was located just west of the C.W. & M. Railroad (Kingman, 1880), now the Norfolk Southern line from Anderson to Goshen, on the Mastic farm. That year, a Zion church sat immediately to the schoolhouse’s east (Kingman).

The brick building that still stands appears to have been built in 1899 (Madison, 2021). In 1909, the bulk of Van Buren Township’s schools proposed a plan to consolidate into Summitville’s District 3 Oak Grove School (May, 1909). That year, the District 2 school, known as White Hall Jackson, 2021), was still in operation.

By 1920, only the Oak Grove, North Summitville, and Harmony schools were still in existence, the remainder having eventually consolidated (Enrollment, 1921).

In 1929, a family from Fairmount, on their way home, saw a meteor the size of a car crash to earth half a mile north of the White Hall school (Vetor, 1929). Today, the old schoolhouse appears to be used for agricultural storage. It’s the only remaining one-room schoolhouse in Van Buren Township.

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: 2021 48-01-17-100-006.000-036.
May Combine Schools. (1909, July 15). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 4.

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

Enrollment at Oak Grove Breaks Record. (1921, September 17). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 4.

Vetor Family Saw a Meteor Fall to Earth (1929, July 27). The Alexandria Times- Tribune. p. 1.