James D. HOSTETTER dies in Oklahoma (1916)

submitted by Karen Zach:

Source: Crawfordsville Review (Crawfordsville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, March 21, 1916 - page 2:

Lebanon, March 20 - Harry Hostetter today received a message from Calumet, Oklahoma, announcing the death of his uncle, JD Hostetter, who passed away at that place Friday after several months of failing health.

Mr. Hostetter was born in Montgomery County and is well known in this county. He was county superintendent of the schools of Hendricks County for two terms and was superintendent of the schools at New Ross for some time. Mrs. Hostetter is a sister to Charles Mitchell of this city. His mother, L.W. Hostetter, resides near Indianapolis.

Danville school board purchases & demolishes Primitive Baptist Church (1985)

source: Danville Gazette (Danville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, December 12, 1985 - page 1, columns 5-6:

According to a newspaper article, in December 1985 the Danville school board reached an agreement to purchase the former Primitive Baptist Church that was next to the Danville Junior High (at the intersection of US 36 and North Wayne Street) for $11,500 and to spend another $4,800 demolishing it.

NOTE: Today the former Danville Junior High is now the site of Danville Town Hall, and the site of the former Primitive Baptist Church is a parking lot adjacent to the town hall.

Hendricks County votes on consolidating school districts (1962)

source: The Republican (Danville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, November 1, 1962 - page 1, columns 4-5:

According to a newspaper article, in the primary held in May 1962, Hendricks County voters had rejected a referendum to consolidate the schools in 5 townships - Center Township, Marion Township, Eel River Township, Middle Township and Union Townships - into one corporation, called the Northwest Community School Corporation.

A new referendum was put on the ballot for the general election in November 1962. It would consolidate the schools in Center Township and Marion Township into one corporation to be called the Danville Community School Corporation. According to a November 8, 1962 article, this referendum passed.

There was another referendum on the ballot that would consolidate the schools in Eel River Township, Union Township and Middle Township into one corporation to be called the North Hendricks Community School Corporation. According to a November 8, 1962 article, this referendum failed.

Ground broken for Cascade High School (1963)

source: The Republican (Danville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, September 19, 1963 - page 1, columns 4-5:

According to a newspaper article, on Saturday, September 14, 1963 a groundbreaking ceremony was held by the Mill Creek Community School Corporation (which represented Liberty Township, Clay Township and Franklin Township) for the new Cascade High School in Clayton. The building was to cost $1.5 million and when completed would serve the students from the former high schools of Clayton, Amo and Stilesville.

The site of the new school was described in the article as being on Jacktown Road (aka County Road 200 West), north of US 40.

North Salem dedicates new high school building (1954)

source: Danville Gazette (Danville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, September 30, 1954 - page 1, column 1:

According to a September 1954 article, a new high school building was dedicated at North Salem on Sunday, September 26, 1954. It was one story, cost $315,000 and was adjacent to the grade school. It was made possible by the formation of the Eel River Township School Building Corporation. Walter H. Page was president of the corporation's board of directors.

Hendricks County first graders must show birth certificate (1945)

source: The Friday Caller (Plainfield, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, March 8, 1945 - page 1, column 4:

According to a newspaper article, beginning in the fall of 1945 all those entering first grade in Hendricks County schools must first show their birth certificates, as proof that they are at least 6 years old. This was because "most of the schools are badly overcrowded" and they could not accept any more children before the minimum age of 6 years old. This decision was made by the Hendricks County board of education, which was comprised of all of the township trustees.

Site for new high school in Clayton purchased (1958)

source: The Republican (Danville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, March 20, 1958 - page 1, column 5:

According to a newspaper article, in March 1958 Liberty Township trustee Harry Ward paid $15,000 to purchase a 27 acre piece of land on the northeast corner of US 40 and Hazelwood Road (aka County Road 0) south of Clayton. This site, which was formerly the Dorothy Walker Wilson property, was to be used to build a new Liberty Township High School.

NOTE: Cascade High School opened in the fall of 1964 on a site north of the intersection of US 40 and County Road 200 West.

Avon builds new elementary school building (1958)

source: Danville Gazette (Danville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, August 21, 1958 - page 1:

According to an August 1958 newspaper article, Avon's new elementary school building was to be used to house students in grades 1 through 6. According to an October 2, 1958 newspaper article, the final cost was $627,511. The population of Washington Township at that time was estimated at 5,000. In 1957, 28 students graduated from the high school. They had 9 school buses covering 18 routes.

According to a December 20, 1956 article, the addition would be built on 12 acres purchased on the west side of the current high school (which had been completed in 1952), and would extend south to the railroad tracks. An outlet to Avon Avenue would be created. The new elementary school would have 18 classrooms and a gymnasium with seating for 1,700 initially, with plans at a later date to seat 3,000 total.

In 1952, total enrollment had been 450 students; in 1956, the enrollment was 830; and was expected to reach 1,000 by the time the new elementary school was finished.

Teacher Robert E. MILLER dies of polio (1952)

source: Danville Gazette (Danville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, November 20, 1952 - page 1, columns 5-7:

BROWNSBURG TEACHER, 27, FATHER OF 3, DIES OF POLIO
Robert E. Miller, 27, industrial arts teacher in Brownsburg schools, died Monday evening, a victim of bulbar polio.

Mr. Miller, the father of three small children, was taken ill Friday but remained at school. He had been a regular timekeeper at Brownsburg High School basketball games but did not attend Friday's game at Danville.

His illness progressed and he was taken to Methodist Hospital Monday where he died about 8 pm.

Classes at Brownsburg are expected to continue, except for being dismissed so students may attend Mr. Miller's funeral. The state board of health in similar past cases has expressed the belief that closer observance is possible if children continue class attendance than if they are released.

Funeral services will be at 2 pm tomorrow (Friday) at Brownsburg Christian Church. Officiating will be Rev. Lester Yearick, church pastor, and Rev. Sharp, minister at Lebanon. Burial will be at Oak Hill Cemetery, Lebanon. Jones & Matthews, Brownsburg undertakers, are in charge.

The popular teacher had been employed at Brownsburg schools for three years and lived one and one-half miles southeast of Brownsburg on rural route 1.

Mr. Miller was born at Lebanon on March 27, 1925, the son of Jubal and Goldie Miller. He was graduated from Ball State Teachers College, Muncie. During World War II he was a gunners mate 3rd class in the Navy.

He is survived by his wife, Louise, and three children, Charles, James and Wanda June.

Brownsburg schools deal with rapid growth (1955)

source: Danville Gazette - issue of Thursday, June 23, 1955 - page 1, column 1:

According to a newspaper article, in June 1955, Brownsburg's schools were dealing with rapid growth. Figures from the Hendricks County Schools Superintendent show that for the 1950-1951 school year, Lincoln Township schools had about 500 students; for the 1954-1955 school year, Brownsburg's elementary and high schools had 951 total students, almost double what it had been just 4 years before.

In 1952 Lincoln Township built a new 8-room elementary school on 12 acres of land, at a cost of $160,000. In 1954 they contracted to build 4 additional rooms at a cost of $56,000, to be ready for the 1955-1956 school year. In 1955, they were in the process of designing a new high school and gymnasium east of the new elementary school, estimated to cost $450,000 to $500,000 and to hopefully be ready for use in the 1957-1958 school year. The new high school would have 16 classrooms and the gymnasium would have seating for 3,000 people, plus temporary bleachers to seat another 1,000 people.

Teacher Edward BRINEGAR charged with assaulting a student (1949)

source: Danville Gazette (Danville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, April 7, 1949 - page 1, columns 1-2:

According to an April 1949 article, Edward Brinegar, who taught 5th and 6th grades at the Amo school, was charged with assault and battery in Hendricks County Circuit Court. The charge, which was brought on behalf of Ray O'Dell, Sr., stemmed from a March 18 incident with O'Dell's son, 12-year-old Ray A. O'Dell, Jr. Brinegar's lengthy statement (published in the article) referred to the paddling he had done of his student for violating school rules. He waived arraignment and pleaded not guilty.

NOTE: According to Hendricks County Circuit Court Order Book 98 (1 April 1949 - 6 March 1950), the State of Indiana vs. Edward Brinegar was case #8920. On May 16, 1949, the prosecutor asked to dismiss the case, and the court granted the motion.

37-year-old Blanche HOOVER a student at Lizton High School (1949)

source: The Republican (Danville, Indiana) - issue of Thursday, September 22, 1949 - page 1, columns 3-4:

37 YEAR OLD LIZTON WOMAN FINISHING HIGH SCHOOL
Mrs. Blanche Hoover, 37-year-old wife of a Lizton farmer and carpenter, has entered the junior class in the Lizton High School in an effort to meet college entrance requirements.

Mrs. Hoover rides the school bus daily with her three children who attend the grade school at Lizton. Her daughter, Kay, is a first grader; two sons in school are Morris, third grade, and Lewis, fourth grade. According to teachers who have had the children they are above the average for their age. Mrs. Hoover re-entered school with a very high scholastic record.

She attended up to her junior year at the Zionsville schools when she quit to get married. Now, she feels that will need a higher education in case she might someday have to make a living for her children. Mrs. Hoover's tentative plan is to further her education in a college where she will enter the field of psychology.

During the noon hour Mrs. Hoover works in the school lunch room preparing tables and serving food. She is a member of the Lizton High School Glee Club, but is not engaging in other extracurricular activities. She is very active in the Cub Scout work in her community.

Sixty Cents School in Brown Township Holds Reunion (1939)

From a newspaper clipping donated by Jerry Wiley. According to The Village of Brownsburg (1998), Sixty Cents School was built from land that was purchased in 1854 and was on the south side of County Road 1000 North in Brown Township, facing County Road 650 East. The Corinth Church was across the road from the school.

From the Brownsburg Record (Brownsburg, Indiana) – issue of 1939 [exact date unknown]:

"Old Scholars and Teacher of ‘60c School’

Left to right: Minnie (Herring) Marker, Viola (Turpin) Everett, Elsie (McCrory) Eaton, Nancy (George) McDaniel, Ona (Kennedy) Beaman, John F. Everett, W.H. Schenck, Herbert Johnson, 72, Albert Johnson, 88, William Johnson, 84, 3 brothers. John F. Everett was a former teacher.

About eighty former students and teachers of the old “Sixty Cent” school gathered at Corinth Church Sunday afternoon and talked over the old days, when they were much younger than at present. A fine basket dinner was laid upon tables in the church lawn and at the conclusion much visiting and reminiscing occupied the afternoon.

Above we show a picture of a group of some of the older students, including a former teacher, John F. Everett. No shiny school buses stopped at their doors for these boys and girls. Laboriously they plodded through mud, snow and summer suns, in fair and rainy weather to learn their three “R’s.”

A business session was held and Herschell F. Johnson was named President, with Mrs. Eva S. Waters as secretary of the association. They will meet again each year at the same place, the time to be announced at a later date. “Sixty Cent” school is standing just a short way west of Corinth Church at the cross road. Many and varied are the stores as to the origin of the name of this school. One version is that Samuel Schenck taught a subscription school there and charged sixty cents per pupil; another was to the effect that when the school was completed there was no lock for the door, this costing sixty cents; another story is that the carpenters who labored on the old frame structure receives sixty cents per day each. However, this known there is probably no other “sixty cent” school in the country."

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Stilesville Teachers Egged By Students (1920)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, April 29, 1920 – page 1, column 4:

UNFORTUNATE AFFAIR IN STILESVILLE SCHOOL
Roy Cox, superintendent of the Stilesville schools, with Cleo Casserly, Lloyd McClellan, Howard McClellan, Kathleen Ousler and Mary Warmoth, all pupils in the Stilesville schools, are in Squire Kennedy’s court with various charges against them of rout, assault and battery and assault. The parties against whom the alleged offenses were committed are Josephine Lewis, Marcena Kendall, Katie Coble and Helen Coble, teachers in the Stilesville school. It is alleged that a few nights ago Cox bought two dozen eggs and he induced his pupils, named above, to throw them at the four ladies as they were passing along the street. Some of the eggs took effect and some did not. The story goes, according to Prosecutor Owens, that Stilesville has not had much of a school this winter, that Cox is lax is discipline and there was friction between him and other teachers. It is alleged that Cox told pupils that the orders of other teachers were not to be obeyed. The defendants have their hearing May 16.

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Danville School Teachers Named (1920)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, September 2, 1920 – page 7, column 4:

CONCERNING SCHOOL YEAR IN DANVILLE CORPORATION
Supt. D.T. Cushman, of the city schools, authorizes the following:

Danville schools will open Monday, Sept. 13 with the following teachers:

High school
--L.C. Winternheimer, principal, science
--Leroy Cook, mathematics, manual training, athletics
--Mattie A. Keeney, English
--Latin and history, to be filled
--Ruth Boyd, domestic science
--Mildred Christie, music

Mattie A. Keeney building
--C.C. Bosstick, principal, arithmetic
--Bertha Watts, English
--Ruth Pattison, geography and history
--Helen Hadley, 5th
--Eula Lawson, 4th
--Mae Comer, 3rd
--2nd, to be supplied
--Edith Peyton, primary

Miss Boyd, of Richmond, a graduate of Earlham, taught last year in the Richmond high school. Miss Christie, of Amo, taught music and art in the Clayton high school the past year.

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Township Schools To Become Part of County System (1923)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, February 1, 1923 – page 2, columns 2-3:

[TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: This is an excerpt from a longer article]

COUNTY UNIT SCHOOL BILL
The proposed County Unit School bill, known as Senate bill No. 87, was introduced in the Senate last week. The bill provides, among other things, that the township school corporation be abandoned and that “the county be declared a municipal corporation for school purposes.” If this bill becomes a law, the township trustees will no longer have charge of the schools, but the management will be vested in five members elected for a term of four years. One of these members is to be chosen from each commissioner’s district and two at large.

These five members, who are to serve without pay, constitute the county board of education and will have entire control of all of the schools in the county, except in towns and cities that maintain their own school corporations. They will choose the county superintendent of schools […]

The present elected trustees, according to the provisions of the bill, will constitute the first county board of education and will serve until Dec. 31, 1926. The section providing that members of the county board of education serve without pay does not apply to the present trustees. They will draw salaries as heretofore allowed, but will not have direct charge of their township schools.

Should this bill become a law, within ten days after it goes into effect the present trustees are to meet and organize themselves into a county board of education and immediately each one is to “turn over and assign to the county board of education all property belonging to his school township, after which the county board of education assumes all debts and financial obligations legalized by law and legally incurred by the trustee of the school township and shall pay the same.” The county treasurer of each county shall be the treasurer of the county board of education and shall collect and keep all money separately and pay the same upon warrant from the county board of education. They shall make the treasurer a reasonable allowance for doing this extra work.

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Brown Township School Names Explained (1927)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, March 17, 1927 – page 2, column 3

SCHOOLS OF BROWN HAVE LOCAL NAMES
Incidents That Made Them Peculiarly Their Own

When the announcement was made that “Sixty Cents” in Brown township had won the rural music memory contest, many people wanted to know how “Sixty Cents” received its name.

James W. Beck is authority on the history of Brown township where all the schools have more or less poetical names. Mr. Beck says the present school house at Sixty Cents is the third erected on that spot. It is a brick structure. The first was log and the second, frame. The frame building was erected about the close of the Civil war and when the builders pronounced it finished, a close examination showed that there was no lock for the door. A man present said he was on his way to Brownsburg and would bring back a lock. When he did so, he was asked what the lock cost and he said: “Sixty Cents.” And thus the school was named.

Mr. Beck says that other schools in Brown township have the following history. School No. 1 is called Bunkum and he thinks perhaps the proper spelling is Buncombe. The name traces back to North Carolina through the Gossett family which came from Buncombe.

School No. 2 is known as Beaver College because just across the road from it was a beaver dam. The signs of this dam are yet to be seen.

School No. 3 is Sixty Cents and No. 4 is Squankum but Mr. Beck is unable to give its history.

No. 5 is Sambo. The legend is that in an early day there was a teacher there by the name of Samuel Bough. A small boy on his way to school was stopped by a man who asked his teacher’s name and the boy replied: “Sam Bough.” And from this comes the name, “Sambo.”

No. 6 is Brown school, so named because the first coat of paint it received was brown.

No. 7 was “Greenwood” because it was located in a beautiful grove.

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Center Township School Land Sold (1929)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, March 14, 1929 – page 1, columns 4-5:

JORDAN SCHOOL PASSES AFTER MANY YEARS OF DUTY
With the publication of a notice in last week’s and this week’s edition, concerning the sale of the land comprising what is known as the “Jordan” school district, members of bygone days, back as far as 1825 have been recalled. An investigation of court records, and records of the Downard & Taylor Abstracting Co., brings forth many interesting facts and names of leading men of the community at that time.

In the notice the same description of the land is used that is found in the original deeding of the land to the trustees of Center township, which deed was recorded on April 5, 1856. It showed that John D. Burks and his wife, Mary, conveyed the one acre of land contained in the tract now offered for sale, to the trustees of Center township, who were at that time, Enion Singer, Abraham Estes and Abraham Bland. Another name appearing on the record which is familiar to every one in Hendricks county, is that of P.S. Kennedy, justice of the peace at that time.

The land as recorded in the original deed, is in Deed Record No. 19, Page 451, and the description of the land in the notice read as follows:

“A part of the west half of the south-east quarter of section 1, township 15 north, range 1 west, bounded and described as follows, to-wit: Beginning at a point in the plank road where the lands of William Blanton, John D. Burks, Dan D. Hambleton and Moses Guynn corners, then running south on the line of said Hambleton’s lands, 20 rods; thence east on a line parallel with the plank road, 8 rods; thence north on a line parallel with Hambleton’s east line, 20 roads to the road; thence west along the center of said plank road, 8 roads to the place of beginning, estimated to contain one acre, more or less.”

Mention of the old plank road will bring to the minds of some few citizens of the county, the first road between Indianapolis and Danville, which was called the plank road because of its construction, made necessary by the bottomless condition of the roads during the spring and fall. More recent developments in the case of the old plank road, occurred when some of the old planks were dug up by workmen, repairing the gravel road which had replaced the plank road as the country became more populated. The present concrete road, of course, was a modern development of the last few years.

An inquiry into the first deed record, found the land originally belonging to one Basil Tout, who entered the west half of the southeast quarter in his name. This was recorded on May 10, 1831.

Basil Tout conveyed 80 acres to Geo. Burks on Aug. 30, 1834, while Geo. Burks, presumably the father of John D. Burks, conveyed the land to the latter named Burks on March 28, 1851. The tract of one acre of the 80 contained in the deed to John D. Burks was granted to Center township for school purposes on April 5, 1856. The land has remained in the hands of the trustees of Center township to the present time, when it will be sold to the highest bidder by Walter P. Hendrix, trustee, on March 28, just 78 years from the day it was conveyed to John Burks, the grantor of the land to the township. And thus passes, because of the trend of events, another rural school. Some well known men and women have taught at Jordan. Miss Jennie Craven, later Mrs. Samuel M. Ralston, taught one winter there in the brick building which burned a few years ago. She walked from Danville to the school and back each day. School wagons had not then been “invented.”

NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Schoolhouse in Washington Township Sold (1930)

from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, December 11, 1930 – page 5, column 5

CRAFTON SCHOOL HOUSE NUMBERED WITH THOSE GONE
Crafton school house in Washington township was sold at auction, Saturday. The following has been received from one of the community:

Gone But Not Forgotten
The White Lick Community club bids farewell to the old Crafton school house, district No. 4 in Washington township.

After being abandoned for three or four years the community conceived the idea of using it as a community meeting place.

The trustee being approached, gladly giving his consent, as he thought it a worthy move. The building being in bad condition we repaired it by putting in many window panes, fixing doors, putting on locks and other things needed. We then furnished it with chairs, tables, piano, stoves, curtains, dishes, cooking utensils, lights, song books, cleaned up the yard and kept it mowed, making it comfortable at a cost of several hundred dollars.

For seven years this club has met every months, besides many social entertainments, church programs and banquets given by other groups, always open to any worthwhile activity.

Our present trustee did not look on this club with favor. He sold the building and grounds in the face of a petition presented by the club, signed by 58 voters out of a possible 72 in the district, to hold the school house as a community center.

We feel our loss very keenly. The club is storing the furniture until they can find a suitable location.

Dear old Crofton, we tried so hard to save you. For seven years your friends have met with you and you have protected them and now we will look back on you with love and respect and recall the many happy times we have spent with you – Goodbye.

CRAFTON SCHOOL
After the Court had denied an injunction designed to prevent the sale of the Crafton school by the trustee, the building was sold at auction to John Robinson for $280. Then to make it a full day for him, Mr. Robinson gave the Avon high school athletic association his check for $500.