Early Education
In
Gibson County, Indiana

Researched and compiled by:
Bonnie Johnson
of the
Princeton Public Library
Genealogy Department
September 2002

FROGGERY SCHOOL
Johnson Township
1892

      The keynote of all educational institutions in Indiana was the wise provision of the State's first Constitution, adopted June 29, 1816, at Corydon, which reads as follows: "It shall be the duty of the General Assembly, as soon as circumstances will permit, to provide by law for a general system of education from township schools to a state university wherein tuition shall be gratis and equally open to all." Some years were to pass before this provision became close to reality. However, almost with the first settlement of Gibson County, schools were established and always in a neighborhood as soon as a sufficient number of scholars could be gathered. Poems have been written in their honor; songs have been sung about them; and they have been the subjects of the artists' canvas. But the greatest glory of the rural schools lies in the memories of the children who received their elementary education within those simple walls.

      The History of Gibson County, Indiana, Jas. T. Tartt & Co., 1884, states:

      The first schoolhouse in Gibson County is believed to have been erected in the northern part of White River Township in the Robb settlement about 1807. The structure was a one-story log house with clapboard roof and puncheon floor; the roof was held on by weight poles and made fast by hickory withes. It had windows of greased paper to admit light, a portion of a log being left out on each side to make room for this substitute for glass. 

A large fireplace and chimney, made of clay and sticks, extended across the entire rear end of the room. On cold days a roaring fire of logs piled high sent out heat. The schoolmaster took good care to have his seat in the warm corner of the room.

Slabs fastened up and around the sides of the room by pegs driven into the logs answered as a writing and ciphering table, while puncheon benches served for seats. The pupils all faced the wall when studying, but they arranged themselves in a semicircle in front of the fireplace when called on to recite. 

The teachers boarded around from house to house among the patrons of the school, receiving their salary in goods or produce.

It is believed that the second school in the county was taught by Joseph Duncan, an Eastern man, in the year 1808 in an old log cabin situated one-half mile northwest of the present town of Owensville. During the period from 1807 to 1813 a number of families settled in what is now Princeton. Its first school was organized in a log cabin which stood on the south bank of the little creek near what is now main street. The school's first teacher was Adley McDonald in 1812. In 1818 William Putnam taught at a school in Barton Township. These men were a few of the first pioneer educators in Gibson County.*

By the latter part of the nineteenth century the log-cabin schoolhouses of the pioneer days had evolved into frame (or, in a few instances, brick) buildings--the old houses being torn down or allowed to fall into ruin. Most of these rural schools were designed on the same pattern. There was the large room with numerous windows because there were no means of artificial lighting, such as candles or lamps, to aid students in studying their lessons on gloomy days.

The following is a quote from the Manual of the Public Schools of Gibson County in 1900:

Lighting is cheap and easily provided. The schoolroom should be so constructed as to admit the light from the left and rear of the pupils and never from the front of them. The windows should be so placed in the walls as to equally distribute the light to all parts of the room. The base of the window should be about three feet from the floor. Light admitted from the upper part of the window is the best. The south light is the best. The schoolhouse should face south for this and other valid reasons.

Sometimes there was a small entrance room in which hung the bell rope. On each side were benches for the lunches and hooks or nails for wraps the boys using one side; the girls, the other. A small table near the door held a water bucket and dipper. Some students had individual folding drinking cups.

*Stormont, Gilbert S., History of Gibson County, Indiana.

Desks of various sizes were nailed to the floor facing the teacher's simple wooden desk, behind which was a windowless wall of blackboards. A large potbellied stove furnished heat. Sometimes there were maps, maybe a globe, and handmade bookshelves with reference and perhaps "story" books. The McGuffey readers helped to teach morality as well as to increase the vocabulary. Mathematics was extremely important, and one was considered very intelligent if he could work cube root as well as square root. History, geography, and good penmanship were stressed. It was common procedure to begin the day with the pledge to the flag, inspirational reading, and singing. Outside, there was usually a small coal shed; and a short distance away were two "restrooms", although there wasn't much "resting" done when the snow sifted in and the temperature was below zero! Each class "passed" to front seats or to a long bench near the teacher's desk to recite each subject for periods of approximately ten minutes. Recesses and noon hours were treasured times, and the children took full advantage of all the outdoors, the large school yard for playing games, the nearby woods for gathering nuts, and occasionally a creek for wading. Some popular games were Handy Over, Needle's Eye, Baseball, Sheep-in-My-Box, Fox and Dog, and Hide-and-Seek.

The last day of school was always a great occasion, sometimes celebrated with a picnic and with programs of music and recitations by the pupils for the enjoyment of their parents. Often the teacher prepared a souvenir booklet with his or her picture on the front and, on the inside, an inspirational poem or a copy of the "closing exercises" of the school year. A few verses from one such booklet were submitted by Ida Block Berger. The booklet was presented to her by her teacher, Herman Graper, at the Strickland Public School in 1906.

The time has come to say farewell,
     For now our term is through,
To sound our present school days' knell
     And bid you all adieu.
For months together we have met
     And conned our lessons o'er, 
And done our best to know and get
     A part of learning's store . . . .
And Oh! My pupils, I have tried 
     To do the best I could.
I've opened the book of knowledge wide 
     And hope you understood . . . .
Most fondly do I wish you well,
     And hope you each may be 
An ornament where ever you dwell
     And from all vices free.


As the county's population increased, each community built its own school, making a grade-school education available to all who desired one. These schools were located only about two miles or so from each other, within walking distance. There were approximately one hundred thirty-five of them which are known by name in Gibson County.

The simplicity of this early educational system did not prevent students of these schools from going to high school in town and then on to college where they were able to "hold their own." Some of the teachers, who began their teaching careers shortly out of high school, later became school principals, superintendents, county superintendents, and college professors.

Taken from BITS AND PIECES ABOUT RURAL GRADE SCHOOLS OF GIBSON COUNTY, INDIANA compiled by Alpha Lambda Chapter, Alpha Epsilon State, and The Delta Kappa Gamma Society, 1985

Play at School

Hunt School

Miss Essie Rumble. Teacher
Ist Row L to R. George Shoultz, Jean White, Bertha Brittingham, Betty J. Shoultz, Pauline Harvey, Fern Eloise Walker, Beulah Harvey, Gene Hale, John Walker. 2nd Row L to R. Charley Crecelius, Clarence Hunt, Laura Campbell, Lonella Campbell, Peggy Crecelius, Vernon McDaniel Joe White, Buddy Shonitz 3rd Row L to R. Gearld Shoultz, Frank Brittingham, Edra Campbell, Admin. Shoultz, Jean Smith, Gerthel Lindy, Roscoe Hunt, Earl White, Don Crecelius.

B. M. A. School - District No. 24

Giro (Buena Vista) School