Fortville Carnegie Library

The surface of Vernon township, like that of Buck Creek township, is exceedingly level except along the creek in the northwest corner, above Fortville, where it is rolling. Sugar creek crosses the extreme southeast corner of the township. Flat Fork creek rises near the southeast corner and flows in a northwesterly direction south of Fortville. Buck creek rises near the center of the township and flows in a southwesterly direction. Both Buck creek and Flat Fork creek, however, are simply large open ditches. The difficulty of draining Buck Creek has been discussed in the history of Buck Creek township. A Flat Fork drainage company was also organized in 1874 for the purpose of improving the outlet of Flat Fork creek. Many covered ditches have been constructed since that time, and at present the township is well drained.

Passage source: History of Hancock County, Indiana; Its People, Industries and Institutions, published 1916.

One of the first school houses in Vernon township was located at the northwest corner of section 36, township 17, range 5, or just one mile south of McCordsville. It was known as school district No. 1. Another was located where Fortville now stands. School No. 9 was located at the northwest corner of the southwest quarter of section 16, township 17, range 6, or just one mile south of Fortville. School No. 11 stood at the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of section 14, township 17, range 6: school No. 5, at the southeast corner of the west half .of the northwest quarter of section 23, township 17, range 6; school No. 4, on the east side of the Greenfield and Fortville pike, near the south line of the west half of the southwest quarter of section 26, township 17, range 6; school No. 3, at the southwest corner of the southeast quarter of section 28, township 17, range 6; school No. 2, at the southwest corner of section 29, township 17, range 6; school No. 7, at the southeast corner of section i8> township 17, range 6. All of these schools have been abandoned at this time except . school No. 4, known as Denny's, and another school known as Cook's, which stands on the west side of the Greenfield and Fortville pike near the center of section 22, township 17, range 6. The pupils from the other districts now attend either at McCordsville or Fortville.

Passage source: History of Hancock County, Indiana; Its People, Industries and Institutions, published 1916.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Vernon Township - 4,977 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.