Sometimes I stumble across a schoolhouse that proves troublesome to research. Today happens to be one of those days! This is the old Schrader Schoolhouse in Whitley County’s Columbia Township. Unfortunately, that’s just about all I have. I hate posting about schools I know so little about, but sharing them sometimes opens the door for someone else to fill in the blanks. Maybe someone local can shed more light on its past.
The Whitley County assessor says the old Schrader schoolhouse was built in 19001, but I know better: that year is often a placeholder date for old buildings, and I bet this one was built in the 1890s. There’s a stone plaque above the front entrance that would answer my question, but I didn’t get close enough to take a peek. That’s part of why I hope someone who lives nearby -or maybe the property owners themselves- reach out to me here.
Whitley County plat maps from the days before 1902 are hard to come by. That year, though, the school sat on an acre near J.V. Smith’s land2. It appears to have served students from Columbia Township’s District 103. The schoolhouse was unique in that it featured a full basement with a furnace and two cloak rooms4.
I’m not certain when the Schrader schoolhouse closed, but it was sometime after the 1933-34 school term5. In 1956, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Murbach moved to the old school, which was by then in use as a home6. Today, absent its old belfry, it remains one…