Tick Ridge

The Tick Ridge schoolhouse has existed in some manner since shortly after 1854, when free schools were established at Wayne Township’s Districts 1 and 2 (Helm, 1880). Though the first structure was log, it was replaced by a frame schoolhouse 4 (Neal, 1978) that was eventually superseded by a brick building in 1892 (The Original, 1982).

The school’s unique name comes from its location. Though several stories purport to tell the origin of the Tick Ridge area, the specifics have been lost to time. Someone -or some people- were attacked by a swarm of wood ticks either while bringing the cows home or out hunting raccoons (Guthrie, 1952).

Along with the District 8 school at Clarksville and the District 1: Willow Pond schoolhouse, District 2 closed after 1929-30 school year in order to send its students to the township’s new, consolidated school at Durbin (Hamilton, 1929). The school was sold at auction in 1940 (Notice, 1940).

Though the schoolhouse was demolished in 1975, its bricks and cornerstone were incorporated into the home erected at the same site, which -as a Hoosier Homestead farm- has been owned by the same family for more than a century (Montgomery, 1990).

References

Helm, T. B. (1880). History of Hamilton County, Indiana: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers). book, Kingman Brothers.

Neal, G. (1978, November 6). A Table Of Extraordinary Dimensions. The Noblesville Ledger. p. 4.

The Original Bricks (1982, August 23). The Noblesville Ledger. p. 1.

Guthrie, W. (1952, May 19). Hamilton Ridge Is Monument to a Pest. The Indianapolis news. p. 11.

Hamilton County Public Schools (1929). Teacher’s directory: names and addresses of officers and teachers of Hamilton County Public Schools, 1929-1930. Noblesville, IN.

Notice of Sale of Township Abandoned School Properties (1940, March 18). The Noblesville Ledger. p. 5.

Montgomery, G. (1990, September 24). Bean supper draws crowd to county’s ‘Tick Ridge’. The Noblesville Ledger. p. 1.