Ellis School
Ellis School
The original Ellis School house was a one-room log building built circa 1871. This building was located across from Ellis Church and Asher Page’s Grocery (this would be about one half mile south from the present building). The property was not deeded to the county. The log building was replaced in 1873. Asher Page purchased the first one-room school building several years later and kept one of the doors. He later sold the school to Leonard Hunter, minus one door.
On July 16, 1873, William and Milley H. Ellis deeded one-half acre to George W. Ellis, Trustee of Stockton Township and his successors, for as long as the house was used for school purposes. This school was to be known as the Ellis School. It was located on County Road 1500 West and State Road 54. The deed was recorded September 1, 1873, with the Recorder of Greene County. Dan B. Hatfield was Recorder of Greene County, Indiana, at that time.
The building erected in 1873 was reported as being a one-room school in Ferd Page’s article, while another source referred to it as a two-room building. However, both references stated that this was the second Ellis School which was located at that site.
In 1910 this school burned and was rebuilt at a new location. In the History of The Ellis School, the report confirmed that this was a two-room structure. It was located at the southwest corner of the present school lot or northeast corner of the junction of State Road 54 and County Road 1500 West. In 1916 it was torn down (or moved) and a three-room building was erected at the present location, which is at the northeast corner of the school lot.
In 1920 the three-room school burned. After the fire most of the students residing north of the school completed the year or school term at the No. 9 School in Wright Township, which is approximately two miles north of the Ellis School. During that same year, the present two-room school building, which is still standing, was completed and classes resumed in the fall. The school continued until 1956 when it was closed as a result of the consolidation with the Linton-Stockton Elementary School, a part of the Linton-Stockton School Corporation.
As documented in the History of the Ellis School, there have been five school houses and over fifty-two teachers. Until 1996 the school building was used as a church since its closing in 1956. The building now stands vacant. The legal description of the Ellis School is in Stockton Township, Town 7 North Range 7 West as shown in the Plat Book for Greene County, Indiana.
According to a newspaper article, as well as neighbors and a former student, a time capsule was buried under a sycamore tree in approximately 1957-1960. About 1995 the reunion committee obtained permission from the church to hunt for the capsule. When they went to dig it up, they could not find it. They thought perhaps the tree under which the capsule had been buried had been cut down or that the wind had blown it down. As they were hunting for the box, Linton Daily Citizen published a story about the missing capsule.
The news of the capsule being lost reached quite a distance. Unfortunately no one had any information that they could use--except for one person. This person telephoned Orell Overman and said that his grandfather had gone the same day they buried the capsule and dug it up. He took it home with him, and the box has been in his family ever since. The caller said he would send the box to Overman. However, two years later Overman had not received it. The committee had been wanting the capsule for their sixtieth reunion but now wish they can just have it returned for any of the reunions.
This information was used with permission from the Linton-Stockton School Corporation.
Pictures can be found in our photogallery.
