Schools  of  Shelby  County  Indiana

Brandywine  Township


The  Shelbyville  Republican
Monday, April 27, 1936
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S O C I E T Y    N E W S
Frances Phares, Society Editor
Telephone No. O-N-E.
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Banquet  Held  By  155  Alumni
of  Fairland  School
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Annual Meeting of Group
Conducted Saturday at Building
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          The annual banquet of the Fairland Alumni association was held at the school building Saturday night with one hundred thirty-five members and guests attending.
          Robert Huffman  of New Augusta acted as toastmaster.  He was introduced by  Gerald Hasler, president of the association.
Welcomes  Class.
          The welcome to the members of the 1936 class was made by  Floyd Harrell, principal of the Boggstown school, who is an alumnus of the Fairland hight school.  Charles Newton Williams  made the response.
          Other toasts were given by  Charles M. Ewing,  Oscar L. Williams, both of Shelbyville,  C. M. Conger, principal of the school, and  Mrs. M. D. Guild.
          A two-act play was presented by the following cast:  French Williams,  Harriet Hasler,  Margaret Fisher,  Kenneth Bowman,  Russell Fields,  Madeline Totten  and  Geneva Parkhurst.  Group singing during the evening was led by Mr. Williams.
Award  Alumni  Prizes.
          Prizes were awarded to Mr. Ewing as the oldest alumnus present; the one coming from the greatest distance to  Mrs. Alice West Bennett, of Cincinnati;  to Mr. Williams as the alumnus present whose term of teaching in the school dates the farthest back and to the most recently married, Maurice Patterson.  Chester Patterson  and  Carl Williams tied for the prize for having the largest families.  Judges were Mr. Ewing, Mr. Williams and  Meredith Williams.
          Other officers of the association besides Mr. Hasler, the president, are  Miss Madeline Totten, secretary-treasurer;  and  Mrs. Roy Tucker, vice-president.
          The banquet was served by the Parent Teacher association of the school.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming


Beechwood Manual Training Academy


          This training school is under the direction of the Seventh Day Adventists of Indiana, and was established at Boggstown, Shelby county, October 29, 1902.  It was first named after Boggstown, but in 1907 took on the name of the beautiful natural grove wherein it is situated at the present time.  At first this institution occupied three rented buildings.  The first principal was  Prof. B. F. Machlan, who had but twenty pupils the first school year.  The work of erecting suitable school buildings went forward.  William Applegate donated the seven-acre lot and contributions all over the conference were sent in.  Nearly every conference worker was interested; it was no uncommon thing to see ministers, Bible workers, canvassers, farmers, and in one instance a dentist, laboring together, with one common object -- the building of a school where might be taught the Indiana youth.
          Before the close of the first year it had been determined to locate at Beechwood instead of Boggstown.  This was done and conference tents were procured and set up in the grove and there utilized as recitation rooms, dormitories, etc.  A well had been provided that was one huncred and twenty-six feet deep.  The autumn of 1903 still found the academy buildings unfinished and Professor Machlan's family still living in tents, where they remained until after snow fall.  The students, however, lived in new quarters.  About the grounds the unsightly stumps were blown out of the ground by means of dynamite and the campus profided in the spring with beautiful flower beds and shrubs.  Nurseries donated, or sold at a reduced rate, peach, pear, cherry and apple trees; also grape vines, currants, and berry bushes, and a fine orchard and vinyeard was the happy result.  Today this spot is among the most truly charming within Shelby county.  The academy buildings were completed in 1904; a well-house was built, and a gasoline engine installed and an eight room cottage profided new for the professor.
          The year 1905-09 opened with a faculty, as follows:  Prof. B. F. Machlan, principle;  H. F. Benson, preceptor;  Mrs. Lou Kirby-Curtis, science;  Nettie A. (Dunn) Saxby, preceptress;  Mrs Mertie I. Machlan, sewing and dress-making;  Mrs. Cora L. Strickler, music; and  Elizabeth Bailey, matron.
          At the close of that year H. F. Benson went to Japan as a missionary and there entered a Japanese college to master the language of that county.  There has been changes in the faculty, but the work goes on and at this writing there are over sixty pupils and all doing good work.  This school is located near Fairland, in Brandywine township.
History of Shelby County, Indiana, Edward H. Chadwick, B.A., 1909, page 258.
Phyllis Miller Fleming
Note from Sandra Howley:  Beechwood Academy was south of Boggstown.  When you go out of Boggstown from the park where the school used to be, the road curves to the left and winds to a T.  This is Academy Road and 100N.   The Academy was to the west of this intersection.  There is a grove of trees there now.   At one time there were several buildings, but none still stand today.

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