Blair School house

The Monroe County Library states that a school was to be taught in the home owned by Marion Blair, who lives in Section 18 in Van Buren Township, and he would be employed as the teacher. (Source: Mabel Pafford Hornocker, A Century of Development Van Buren Township (Bloomington: Van Buren Farm Bureau, 1940), 74.)

Marion Blair was the man who made the strongest mark as a portrait painter in the village of Bloomington during the Civil War period. A native of the town, he attended the university, married a local girl, and gradually came to be recognized as the community’s resident painter. It appears that he was unschooled in the finer points of painting; if he received any instruction it was probably from itinerants passing through Bloomington or in the studio of one of the artists established in Indianapolis.

Blair was born in 1824, the son of Enos and Rachel Blair. When a young man he moved a few miles south of town to a spot called Blair Hollow. His strong inclination toward art, literature, and natural history, coupled with his antipathy for farming or manual labor of any kind, did not make him a good provider for his growing family. His wife, unable to cope with his habits, finally left him and moved to Kansas, taking their children with her. (Source: Pioneer Painters of Indiana by Wilbur D. Peat, published in 1954)

Current Monroe County GIS photo of the property owned by the Van Buren Township Schools

On December 5, 1854 it was ordered that a new school to be started in a house owned by Marion Blair in section 18 in Van Buren Township and he was to be employed as the teacher for the present term. There is also a note that said school was to be District #9 and wasn’t until September of 1855 that an enumeration was taken for this district.

On July 31, 1858 the Van Buren township purchased a site for a new school building to be known as district #5. This parcel purchased for $5.00 is located on the Northwest half of the Northwest Quarter of Section #20. John Jones built the structure by April of 1860. (Source: Monroe County Library records)

In 1884 a book was published by F.A. Battey & Co. publishers out of Chicago, Illinois that recorded on 1880 school-house #5 in Van Buren Township was a single room school-house that measured 20×28 feet, enrolled 49 pupils, and was taught by John D. Morgan. (Source: Counties of Morgan, Monroe & Brown: Historical and Biographical 1884 Chicago: F.A. Battey & Co., Publishers Charles Blanchard, Editor).

The Blair School-house was listed as School #5 in the Van Buren Township map of Monroe County Indiana in 1889. One interesting fact is that there is an area that sits off of Gardner Road (just north of Eller Road) is in a valley that is named after the Blair family as Blair Hollow and the creek that runs through it is known as Blair Creek. This is also present in the 1895 map.

In 1884 a book was published by F.A. Battey & Co. publishers out of Chicago, Illinois that recorded on 1880 school-house #5 in Van Buren Township was a single room school-house that measured 20×28 feet, enrolled 49 pupils, and was taught by John D. Morgan. (Source: Counties of Morgan, Monroe & Brown: Historical and Biographical 1884 Chicago: F.A. Battey & Co., Publishers Charles Blanchard, Editor).

Located on the far west end of what today is known as Eller Road, which is notorious for various caverns that have explored by many over the years myself included. The most popular cave on this road has to be what is known as Buckner Cave, however the only cave mentioned was named Blair Cave on the 1895 Monroe County plat map of Van Buren township. In the early 90’s there was a cave equipment shop on Eller Road called The Bent Arrow owned by a nice gentleman by the name of Buddy. He would provide all the required safety harnessing and illumination equipment in order to properly explore these caverns. At the entrance to the path that lead to Buckner cave stood a timber framed sign-in to provide any rescue crew some account of whom was in the cave if trapped. Somewhere along the lines of 1999-today while the sign-in area is still there, it is closed off completely from the public. I recall speaking to someone that was the caretaker of the cave and property and remember them stating it was closed off due to the Indiana University college students partying out there and leaving the place a mess with trash and mud-ruts.  The Blair family home is shown on this map directly north of the little cross icon near the Blair creek.

Near the same gated off sign-in area there is another gate to a large amount of property that is owned by the Pike Lumber Company. Near the southwest corner of Pike Lumber Companies property, which lands on Section Corner 17 of Van Buren Township, lies another parcel contained within it that measures 198 feet by 165 feet that is owned by the Van Buren Township Schools. This, under my assumption, is the original site for the Blair schoolhouse as there would be no reason what-so-ever that Van Buren Township Schools would own such a parcel out in the middle of nowhere in the wooded area without some ties.

As you meander throughout the woods along the many trails, there is a small aluminum framed chair sitting at an intersection.  The path to the east of this intersection runs directly to the Blair one-room school house parcel owned by Van Buren Township Schools.

The trek to this location is not something I would recommend as there’s steep wooded area’s and large stone cliffs, however I wanted to know if anything still existed. After walking about two hours my wife and I finally came to the approximate location based on the plat maps and GPS. There was no trace what-so-ever that any structure of any type was there. This is not to say it wasn’t over 100 years ago, but nothing remains to this day.