Jackson

Originally a frame building that stood on the south side of West County Road. 700-North to the east of Clear Creek (Hinshaw, 2008), Ward Township’s District 5 school, commonly called Jackson after the farmers who owned the land it sat on (Fittes, 2015) was relocated to its present site in 1891. 

The extant schoolhouse only operated for twenty years; it closed in 1911 after the Jefferson School just south of Deerfield began to absorb the students from the western part of the township (Public, 2018). Students who attended District 5 were split between the two districts, and the building was sold to the Jackson family two years later (Hinshaw). 

The school was used to store grain for many years until Greg Sommer, Jon Meeks, and Bobby Manning formed a nonprofit group to rehabilitate the structure in 2014 (Fittes). Part of the restoration efforts including utilizing bricks and foundation stones from the demolished District 9: Clark school that once stood at the corner of North County Road 100-West and West County Road 500-North, four miles southwest of the District 5 schoolhouse (Sommer, 2016). A replica cupola, similar in style to the original, was added in 2021 (Sommer, 2021).

References

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

Fittes, E.K. (2015, July 16). “One-room schoolhouse gets a second life”. The Muncie Star Press. pp. A1-A2.

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.

Sommer, G. (2016, October 29). Here is some of the work that was done by the crew from Midwest Maintenance Company out of Piqua Ohio [Image attached]. [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10209622182248183&set=pcb.1134659476621669. 

Sommer, G. (2021, June 1). Installing the Bell Tower by Goodhew Roofing in which the built it like the one that was up there when [Image attached]. [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10224144767143729&set=pcb.4079321782155409.