The Stuff Of Legends

The Schools and Churches

At one time there was a school located every couple of miles in the more populous places around Van Buren but after the purchase of the land for the Brown County State Park, Yellowwood Forest; Monroe Reservoir and the Hoosier National Forest most of the schools and churches disappeared along with most of the residents of this area.

From an original once upon a time count of 23 schools and numerous churches, only one school and a handful of churches survive in Van Buren Township today.  There is only one school (Van Buren, grades K-6) and the following six churches still standing and being used today.  The list of churches includes: Mt. Nebo, Christiansburg, Beck’s Grove, Grandview, Pikes Peak and Bellsville.

I have tried to make a list of the schools that at one time served as the educational foundation for the children of Van Buren Township. With the assistance of retired educator Bud Brand who had a copy of former superintendent of schools Warren Ogle’s book, Brown County Indiana Schools, we were able to arrive at the following names of the Van Buren Township schools: Gravel Creek; Story; Van Buren; Beck’s Grove; Pikes Peak and Bellsville. Mr. Ogle (Louise Fleetwood’s dad) is long deceased but many of his family still remain in Brown County.

Also making the list was: No. One School; Kelp; Valley Branch; Christiansburg; Mt. Nebo; Grandview; Spurgeon’s and Mt. Zion schools. Only one school remains today and that is the Van Buren Elementary School now located just north of Stone Head on State Road 135. This is not the same Van Buren School originally noted by Mr. Ogle.  The old one contained grades one through 12 and could be better described as Christiansburg and was demolished. 

Other schools in the same general area, but located in then Johnson Township, are included here because those areas later became a part of either Van Buren or Washington Township depending upon their location. After the reservoir filled with water Johnson Township no longer existed. The properties lying east of the reservoir now belonged in Van Buren Township; the ones on the west side of the lake became Washington Township properties. Schools included were: Deckard; Crooked Creek; Axsom Branch; and Dewar Ridge on the Washington Township side and Elkinsville, Blue Creek and Browning schools on the Van Buren side.

The new Van Buren Elementary School at Stone Head was completed and bus routes assigned to bring the children to one location just before 1960.  My husband graduated from Van Buren High School at Christiansburg in 1956 and it closed after the 1958 school year, and I moved here in 1960.  It was during those two intervening years that the new elementary school was completed at Stone Head.

Once the Monroe Reservoir was built and had filled with water there w