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Indian Fields / Rockney School

Portage Township


Location: District #1 – Section 11, south side of Milham Road, between Portage Road and Sprinkle Road.

Kalamazoo County 1890, Published by Wm. C. Sauer. Local History Room

Located on what is now the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport. The original log school was built by Elijah Root about 1834 on the north side of Milham, just east of Indian Fields Cemetery.  It was replaced for a time with a frame building that shared its quarters with a Methodist Church. In 1856 it was superseded by a brick structure on the south side of Milham that was first known as Indian Fields School. Later (at least by the 1930s) it was called Rockney School and used until it was consolidated into the Portage Public Schools in 1946. It was demolished by 1955.

Teachers

1836 Miss Penelope Thayer
1921-22 Vivah Smith
1925-26 Irene Lewis
1927-28 Mrs. Blanche Harsha
1929-32 Ruth Elwell
1932-33 Roy McIntyre
1933-35 Mrs. Muriel Cronkhite
1935-38 Russell Eaton
1938-39 Evelyn Coyne
1939-41 Walter Nidy
1941-42 Walter Nidy, Mrs. Lois Carlisle
1942-43 no listing
1943-44 Mrs. Rozelda Brewer
1944-45 Mrs. Esther Richards
1945-46 Mrs. Rozelda Brewer
1946 Absorbed into Portage Agricultural School, Portage Township Schools.

Compiled by Catherine Larson, Local History Specialist, Kalamazoo Public Library, 1999. Mapped October 2008. Last updated 12 April 2022.

 

Sources

Books

Portage and Its Past, by Grace J. Potts, 1976

  • H 977.417 P871

An oral history of Portage Schools: Cleora Skinner to Pete McFarlane.

  • Portage, Michigan: Portage Schools Collection, Portage District Library, 2017.
  • H 370.9774 O633. p.143.

Articles

“Rockney School had more than 50 students: 1938-39” (photograph)

  • Kalamazoo Gazette, 7 March 1999, page F2 , column 2

Maps and atlases

USGS topographic map for Kalamazoo County, 1922/1950 (Schoolcraft Quadrangle)

  • History Room topographic map case, drawer 5B, folder #37
  • This shows as a school symbol on this map, but is not named.

Files

Teachers’ and School Officers’ Directory, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1921-22, 1925-1947 (title varies)

Shelved in a pamphlet box with H 379.774 K149 (History Room Storage)

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