Shakerag

Ward Township’s District 11 schoolhouse was commonly known as Shakerag. In 1874, the schoolhouse sat on Benjamin Clevenger’s land (Griffing, 1874), but by 1882 a community called Goodfield had sprung up around it that consisted of several homes, a mill, and a Christian Church (Tucker, 1882). Over time, the burgh -and the school- got the unusual name of Shakerag in reference to a farmer’s wife who commonly shook a white rag to signal the men to come home for dinner while they worked (Cupp, 1986).

The school, a frame structure, closed in 1918 (Hinshaw, 2008) when its students were split between the consolidated Jefferson and Saratoga schools that first opened in 1911 (Public, 2018).

Today, the District 11 school is used as a home. 

References

Griffing, B. N. (1874). Ward Township. An atlas of Randolph County, Indiana . map, Philadelphia, PA; Griffing, Gordon, & Company.

Tucker, E. (1882). History of Randolph County, Indiana. book. Chicago, IL; A.L. Kingman.

Cupp, D. (1986, June 15). Father Sits With Son on Saratoga Town Board. The Muncie Star. p. 10.

Hinshaw, G. (2008). A History of Education in Randolph County, Indiana. Retrieved February 13, 2022.

Public Education in Randolph County, Indiana. 2018. Sharing history for 68 years in Randolph County, Indiana. Randolph County Historical Society and Museum. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://rchsmuseum.org/schools.