Delaware County Public Schools collection
Scope and Contents
The Delaware County Public Schools collection contains records such as school directories and manuals meant for all schools within the county. The remainder of the collection contains yearbooks, photographs, student newspapers, histories, commencement programs, reunion programs, instruction notes and other related materials from eleven of the twelve townships in Delaware County, Indiana (Center, Hamilton, Harrison, Liberty, Monroe, Mount Pleasant Niles, Perry, Salem, Union and Washington) ranging from 1872 to 2000.
Dates
- 1872 - 2000
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Ball State University Libraries make every reasonable effort to provide accurate information regarding the copyright status of materials held by Archives and Special Collections. Patrons may scan items or request a reproduction of one or more items in the collection; however, it is the responsibility of the patron to evaluate whether or not the intended use complies with copyright law.
In cases where the University holds copyright to collection materials, staff must grant written permission for most commercial uses of the collection. Staff will not grant permission in cases where copyright is owned by other individuals or organizations.
Historical Note
The Delaware County Public Schools once contained schoolhouses located in the twelve townships of Delaware County, Indiana: Center, Delaware, Hamilton, Liberty, Monroe, Mount Pleasant, Niles, Perry, Salem, Union, and Washington.
The first school house in Delaware County, Indiana was created in Perry Township on land owned by Aaron Richardson northeast of New Burlington. The building was a 20 square foot log cabin with eight foot tall ceilings. Over the next 10-15 years, each of the remaining townships in Delaware County would create or build a school house.
Muncietown's (later to be known as Muncie, Indiana) first school was located at the southwest corner of Main and Walnut in the winter of 1829-1830.
Mount Pleasant Township's first school was created in 1831 and taught by David Kilgore.
Salem Township held school during the year of 1828-1829 and built a school house the next year on the farm of John Van Matre. A second school was taught in 1833-1834 east of Daleville on property donated by Henry Miller.
Delaware Township had no school house until 1836 when a cabin previously owned by William Venards was converted. In 1837, a school house was built on the farm of Adam Keever, south of Albany, Indiana.
Liberty Township converted a cabin on the farm of John Moore to a school house in 1831.
Monroe Township's first school house was a converted cabin on the land of Robert Gibson. In 1838, the first school house was built.
Niles Township held school in the cabin of John Sutton in 1837 until the school house was completed on the farm of Walter Mann in 1839.
Harrison Township built a school house which opened in 1834-1835.
Washington Township held school in the home of William Heal which was taught by his wife in 1833-1834. A school house was built in 1839.
Most of the schools in Delaware County, Indiana were subscription schools until 1850-1873. In 1865, Muncie became a city and the schools seperated from the township schools. District consolidation started in the county schools in 1899. Royerton was said to have the first "modern" school building for consolidated school districts.
For further information please see:
Haimbaugh, Frank D. History of Delaware County, Indiana vol. I. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908.
Extent
3 Cubic Feet (6 boxes and one oversized map)
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
This collection is arranged with materials from Delaware County Public Schools first and then arranged alphabetically by township in Delaware County, Indiana.
Custodial History
The Delaware County Public Schools directories were received by Archives and Special Collections as two separate donations from Patrick Black and Bill Barnett in 1987. The Yorktown High School yearbooks were received by Archives and Special Collections as a donation from Becky Monroe on 2011-10-18. The remainder of the collection was compiled from several different donations.
Processing Information
Collection processing completed 2000/10/09 by S. Reilly. Revised 2007/07/17 by M. Read. EAD inventory created on 2012/05/01 by Julie Hausknecht. EAD finding aid created 2012/05/21 by Stephen Jones.
Collection reprocessed completed 2018-11-13 by Rebecca Marangelli.
- Delaware County (Ind.) -- History -- 19th century -- Sources Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Delaware County (Ind.) -- History -- 20th century -- Sources Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Education Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Public schools Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Delaware County Public Schools collection
- Status
- Completed
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the Stoeckel Archives of Local History Repository
Alexander M. Bracken Library
2000 W. University Avenue
Muncie Indiana 47306 USA
libarchives@bsu.edu
