Twelve Mile High School - Milette Yearbook (Twelve Mile, IN)

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History of Twelve Mile School The first school house ever erected in Adams Township first saw the light of day in the year of our Lord 1838 on the Joel Black farm. It was not worthy even of the title . school house , being a tiny affair of round logs, the chinks filled with sticks and m.ud. One thinks of course, of Abraham Lincoln and his log cabin. l.Iighty oaks from little acorns grow. ' ' The complete cost was ,;39.50. Mr. S. A. Custer was the first teacher, and he received the dazzling swn of iri2 per month. Of course, it was primitive .There v ere planks for desks, and the pupils ranged fror, six to twenty-one years of age, The water bucket stood by the door and the patrons contribut- ed wood for fire which the boys took turns to see was kept going. Those nearest to the stove figuratively roasted, and those farthest away froze to death. One imagines that tho pupils in betv een suffered in varying degrees. It v as some thing of a hardship to get an education. In 1842, this building vms destroyed by fire. It will alvmys remain a matter of deep mystery, just how the fire started. The book from Y hich this information was secured was silent on that point. Did the fire occur in the night, and the lo3 al pupils tumble out of bed to try to save it? ' j3id the fire start when school was in session, and Mr Custer was putting his pupils through their paces of readin ' writin ' and ' rithme.tic? We shall never know, 1842 was a long time ae-o. Adams Tovmship, from the very earliest, hov ever, had a thirst for education. You may be proud of this. Undaunted by such a disaster, officials met and conferred as to this point. Here, again, history fails to tell us why. It seems fairly certain that there was a determined feud, because this disagreem ent ' as history puts it was not ironed out, ■ Adam.s Toimship found itself, even at so early a date as 1842, the proud possessor of two school-houses. ' One xvas on the Dillm.an farm near the Corinth Church, the other on William Murden ' s farm. The later was known as the Prospect School and seems to have flourished more than the other, so somebody won that argument or disagreem-ont . About fifteen years later, to keep pace with rapidly ad- vancing times, the log cabins were replaced by frame houses which were considerably improved. The Prospect School was destroyed by fire in 1910. Fire seems to be the chief m.enace. The pupils from Prospect were transferred to Twelve Mile-— the first step in consolidation. The Tloover School building was built in 1916 at a cost of ;iij9,000. It is quite m.odern. The Twelve Mile building was erected in 1910, after the Prospect fire. It v as of course, an enorm.ous improvem.ent . ' i affj (continued on next page) ,f : Z MlE -— iM — T?