This is the tenth of our new series, "The Old Schoolhouses of Decatur County." Our inspiration for this series came from an old book picked up at an antique shop about the history of schools in Decatur County from 1820 - 1978. It was an incredible project by the Rural Couples Club to celebrate the Bicentennial Year of the U.S.A. (1776-1976) Added inspiration for our geocaching series comes from one of the Hoosierdogs being a teacher in the Greensburg Schools. The inspiration for the series name comes from the poem, "The Old Schoolhouse" by John Greenleaf Whittier.
Still sits the schoolhouse by the road,
A ragged beggar sunning;
Around it still the sumacs grow,
And blackberry vines are running.
Within, the master's desk is seen,
Deep scarred by raps official;
The warping floor, the battered seats.
The jack-knife's carved initial;
The charcoal frescoes on its wall;
It's door's worn sill, betraying
The feet that creeping slow to school
Went storming out to playing!
I have for years noticed this old schoolhouse that serves as someone's residence. I always thought, how cool it would be to actually live in an old schoolhouse. This school was known as Brown, Center, or Samuels School. It was one of 15 one or two room schoolhouses in Clay Township. The first school recorded in Clay Township was in a log cabin on the Captain William Lowery farm. It was rent free to any wandering schoolmaster who could secure enough "scholars" to justify "keeping school." This first school was in Burney.