When children attended the first day of classes at the new Lancaster Elementary School in 1887, they arrived prepared to learn to read and write and do arithmetic.

They would learn about President Grover Cleveland and Indiana Governor Isaac P. Gray – both in office at the time.

They would learn to read from the McGuffey Reader, found in many elementary classrooms across the nation until the mid-20th Century.

They would learn about their home territory’s role in the Civil War.

What they didn’t know then was the significance of the very building in which they were studying their ABCs.

In a report from Aileen Clashman, we learn that in 1878, John Craven, son of Eleutherian College founder the Reverend Thomas Craven, tried to revive the college. His attempt failed, and the building was sold to Lancaster Township.

From 1887 to 1937, Lancaster Township used the former Eleutherian College building as a public school. The school eventually closed when many of the county’s schools were consolidated. Lancaster Township students were sent to Dupont to continue their education. Most were transported by horse-drawn wagons long before school buses became the preferred mode of transporting students.

Today, Eleutherian College is among the most important remaining historical structures in the state … and the nation.

A photo published in “The Madison Courier” in 1919, was captioned “Mothers Made the Flag, Fathers Cut the Pole.” The caption written by teacher Claude M. Oliver read: “Since the school year was during World War I everyone was in a patriotic frame of mind. The school had no U.S. flag. The children, with the help of their mothers, preceded to make a 5-foot by 7-foot flag. The men of the community cut and erected a 40-foot pole. A special ceremony was held at the one-room classroom that served eight grades.

Surnames of some of the students still are familiar today. The children involved were: Hazel Boyd, Marie Bishop, Bernice Lowry, Irene Griffith, Rosa Hough, Juanita Spicer, Kirby Lowry, Leonard Kyle, Robert Hough, Homer Spicer, Eddie Temple, Clifford Giffith, Jennie Boyd, Dorothy Finch, Nellie Lowry, Lutie Benefield, Charlotte Spicer, Lawrence Clashman,  Earl Boyd, Earl Finch, Kenneth Griffith, Willie Temple, George Smith, Faith Griffith, Mable Smith, Mabel Rector, Nellie Smith, Grace Hough, Foster Boyd and Gerald Ray.

Little has been written about the Lancaster School era. One fascinating document is a bound volume of notes from teacher and administrator Joseph G. Officer. He wrote, in a handwriting that we suspect only he could read, notes of items from the minutes of the Volga Literary and Debating Society to a record of students and who they married.

In a fitting tribute to the Lancaster School era, Curtis Marshall, judge of the Jefferson Circuit Court, wrote in 1938, “Lancaster Township has ever and always been a fair – nay a superior community of American ideals, and American citizenship – a fine representative Hoosier municipality. It is fitting that it should keep step with advanced methods, and up to date equipment in and for the education of its young people. With it the past is secure, for it has right well played the part in the great drama of American life, and progress and accomplishment.

“Out of a sturdy past, our face and our feet are set onward and upward to a glorious future.”

The board continues to search for information about the Lancaster School era. Anyone with information to share is invited to Tompkin at tompkinelliot@gmail.com.

Our thanks to the Jefferson County Historical Society for its generous help offering research and guidance.

By Elliot Tompkin
Board Member