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| English: This is a map of Jefferson County, Indiana, USA which highlights the location of Madison Township. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| English: Jefferson County, Indiana Courthouse. Built 1854-1855 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Old NPS picture of the school (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Barbersville a ghost
town in Shelby township in Jefferson County, Indiana was probably preceded by
the municipality by Edinburgh, which platted on November 3, 1815 .This town was
recorded in land contracts in the county of Jefferson. No legal definition of
ground was included, but aged property chart showed the landowners to be ,
Wilson Buchanan, of George Benefiel, and of the James Whitton. All these men
had the farms in the area of Barbersville.
The Barbersville post office officially began
operations on of December 7, 1826 until. November 19, 1838 Then it was
transferred to Buchanan Ripley county. The mail service was then provided by
the post office of Canaan The government restored the post office of
Barbersville June 27, 1848, and it functioned until May 31, 1906, when the service
was again transferred to Canaan .
The first post office was run out a general
store that sold hard to get commodities such as sugar and coffee . In December
of 1848 local record showed that the town had 15 platted lots and three
streets. These included Main
Street Cross
Street
The Historic Atlas of Indiana, published in
1876, enumerates its population as 100 in1870. The town never was separately
enumerated in the censuses. The population was figured by the number of
addresses that listed Barbersville as post office. William H.Kramer operated a
grocery in the town from 1857 until his death in 1911.
The 1890 Gazetteer of Indiana described the
municipality as having a population of 50 households. Grain, cattle, and fruit
were the main products produced by the community. A local school that offered
education through high school operated in the community until the end of the
18th century. The town also had a Justice of the Peace until 1895. There was a
local corn mill that operated two days a week when the weather allowed. This
mill is thought to have been still in operation until the early 20th century.
The town at its peak had two grocers, cattle auction, farm implements store,
and fertilizer business.
The town became a ghost town in the early 1900's
as transportation advancements allowed people who farmed to travel more easily
to more populated places. There are no residences or commercial building within
a two mile radius of the place where the town of Barbersville
There is very little information about
communities such as Barbersville. There are three cemeteries in Shelby township in Jefferson County
Barbersville was part of an area known to be
part of the Underground Railroad. It was rural and isolated during most of its
existence. Barbersville may have a very interesting history of abolitionist
activity that we may never know about . In the volume JEFFERSON COUNTY(By W. P.
Hendricks, Esq.) Biographical and Historical Souvenir for the Counties of
Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott and Washington
published in 1889 the anti slavery attitudes of this area was discussed.
Mr. Hendricks said ," This county was
settled largely by a class of people coming from slave States, who were
convinced that human slavery was a sin, and for that reason fled from it in
order to raise their families in a territory where its blight would not affect
their children. As the Act of Congress passed July 13, 1787, establishing the
territory north-west of the Ohio Indiana
This feeling of the wrong about slavery was
only strengthened by their residence here, and finally developed into what was
known as the "Underground Railroad." This incorporeal corporation had
two distinct routes through Jefferson
County Hanover , Smyrna
Many of them were known to the detectives of
those days, but so well and secretly did they carry on their work, and so true
where they to each other, and to what they held to be the great principle of
right for which they strove, that but few convictions were ever made under the
law, which they were breaking, or at least disregarding. They will have their
reward. It was very seldom that a convoy was seen during daylight. The mode of
operating has never been fully divulged, but it ought to be; and a full history
of this work and the men engaged in it would make a most fascinating book.
"
Only those residents buried in the three local cemeteries know if Barbersville residents gave sanctuary to runaway slaves.
Only those residents buried in the three local cemeteries know if Barbersville residents gave sanctuary to runaway slaves.
My family settled buchanan station in barbersville and my 3rd great uncle is who owned and ran barbersville generalstore he died in 1911. The third cemetery your looking for is jefferson Church cemetery.
ReplyDeletecan someone give me directions to the location of Barbersville the town and or a number i could call so i can go check this place out?? I live in the Canaan area. I know where Fort Buchanan is and the 3rd cemetary being looked for is at The Jefferson Church on Jefferson Rd
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have info or location of the first or original Canaan post office. My grandfather apparently lived in that place in the 60s-80s. Was located along a creek and didn’t have extricate or running water. Thanks
ReplyDelete