Osceola

The town of Osceola was laid out in 1855, apparently named after the Seminole Indian. Several businesses sprung up like a general store, a blacksmith, and a cobbler. Later, a mill was opened, but it closed after the timber was gone. Apparently, that -along with the lack of railroad and discontinuance of the post office in 1859 (Forte, 2021) led to the loss of the community (Jackson, 2019). The District 13: Osceola School exists on an 1880 map on the land of an L. Carver (Kingman, 1880).

In 1922, a petition circulated that hoped for the abandonment of the Osceola school in favor of consolidating it with the consolidated schoolhouse at Orestes. It failed (Osceola, 1922). 

In 1925, the building was condemned, along with nearly every building in nearby Duck Creek township after the Indiana high school inspection department examined them. The condemnation of the Osceola School was a surprise, since it’d been thought of as one of the best of the old one-room school buildings in the county. At that time, newspaper articles noted that it was only two miles from the newly-built consolidated school at Orestes (Some, 1925). In 1926, its students were sent to Orestes for good (Osceola, 1925).

Today, the old Osceola schoolhouse is a home. 

References

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

“Madison County”. Jim Forte Postal History. Web. Retrieved 11/29/21.

Jackson, S. T. (2019, August 4). Steve Jackson column: The ‘madness’ in the name of Orestes. The Herald Bulletin. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.heraldbulletin.com/opinion/steve-jackson-column-the-madness-in-the-name-of-orestes/article_82330385-6632-595b-9b44-175a0270d730.html

Osceola School District Refuses to Consolidate With Orestes Schools (1922, May 31). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 1. 

Some School Houses In County Condemned (1925, August 24). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 3.

Osceola School House Condemned By Board (1925, July 13). The Alexandria Times-Tribune. p. 4.