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Barbersville and Buchanan’s Station

Nothing remains of the town of Barbersville, whose history is intertwined with nearby Buchanan’s Station, except its name. However, the area was one of the early settlements of the Jefferson-Ripley County area, and was home to the first post office in Shelby Township.

The earliest indication of European settlement came on August 1, 1809, when John Gullion of Dearborn County patented the northwest quarter of Section 3 Twp. 5N Range 11E. This tract adjoins the Ripley County line and is just to the west of the future site of Barbersville in the northeast quarter of Section 3. On August 25, another Dearborn County resident, John Buchanan, whose family was to lend its name to Buchanan’s Station, patented the southeast quarter of Section 34 Twp. 6N Range 11E and the southwest quarter of Section 35. These sections are in Ripley County, but adjoin Section 3 in Jefferson County.

At this time, the nearest settlement was one forming just south of Manville, where the earliest land patents were entered in the second half of 1809. It is not known why settlers picked the Barbersville area, unless its elevation gave them a better defense against Indians.

It is difficult to assess how big this settlement was. But it was judged big enough to warrant the construction of a fort after Indian troubles broke out in the winter of 1810/11. The height of Indiana troubles triggered the construction of a line of blockhouses in Jefferson County in 1811 and 1812. On May 15, 1812, Lt. Col. David Hillis ordered Capt. Elisha Golay to enlist a militia company and to proceed along the north line of Jefferson County. Hillis ordered Golay to build the blockhouse “without delay” to accommodate a detachment of forty to fifty men. Perret Dufour, who wrote in the 1870s in Switzerland County, says this blockhouse was known as Buchanan’s Station. The fort was just over the boundary in Brown Township, Ripley County.

Although historical markers in the area say the fort was erected in May 1813, the military record looks solid in supporting the year-earlier date. Furthermore, although the Buchanans contributed the land for the fort, they probably played no special role in its construction. In fact, no members of the Buchanan family served in the militia company that built the fort.

Indian troubles soon were a memory and settlements in the county grew rapidly in Jefferson County in general, and along the Ripley County border in particular. Wilson Buchanan, George Benefiel, and James Whitton platted the town of Edinburgh on November 3, 1815. Although the plat does not give the location, these men lived in the Buchanan’s Station and Barbersville area. Benefiel owned land in Section 3, and Buchanan owned land in Section 34 in Ripley County–the fort was on his land–and also owned land just over the line in Jefferson County. The town’s name shows up on several road petitions before 1820, but none of the sixty-four lots shown on the plat map were ever sold.

Despite the publicity that has been given the fort, the most commonly used name for the area around Buchanan’s Station was David’s Settlement, until at least 1820. For example, a road petition on May 11, 1818 mentions a road leading up the Indian-Kentuck Creek intersecting another from Madison to David's Settlement. It seems fairly certain that David’s Settlement was the area around the fort as deeds show that Charles David, who probably gave his name to the settlement, owned land in Section 34 in Ripley County that bordered land sold by John Buchanan to Wilson Buchanan (the fort was on his land) in 1819.

Records of the Jefferson County Commissioners before 1820 show several references to Edinburgh and David’s Settlement–generally as landmarks in road petitions--but none to Buchanan’s Station. In fact, there aren’t many references to Buchanan’s Station until a short-lived post office by that name opened.

The first evidence of commercial operations in this area are found in the second half of the 1820s. The name Barbersville first appears on Dec. 7, 1826 when Timothy Barber was appointed the first post master. In fact, until the Pleasant Post Office opened in 1829, Barbersville was the only post office in the triangle bounded by Madison, Vevay, and Versailles.

Since post masters were often store operators, Barber may already had opened his store, but he did not receive his first store license from the county commissioners until May 1829. (Licensing appears to have been a spotty procedure. Most store owners did not renew licenses every year.) Barber clearly operated a general country store as a journal kept by Robert Stevenson of nearby Poplar Ridge shows Stevenson made purchases in July and August 1832 from Timothy Barber, including "sundry articles," calico, and tea.

The Barbersville post office operated until November 29, 1838. Postal service shifted to the Buchanan’s Station post office from February 2, 1840 to June 27, 1848, and was then transferred back to Barbersville, with the second incarnation operating until May 31, 1906. Despite the post office’s opening in 1826, it wasn’t until December 18, 1848 that Enoch and Thomas Bray platted the town of Barbersville. The plat map, shows fifteen lots and three named streets, including Main Street, sixty-feet wide, Broadway, fifty-feet wide, and Main Cross.

How big was Barbersville? It is difficult to determine, but it seems unlikely that buildings occupied all fifteen lots. A Historical Atlas of Indiana, published in 1878, lists the population of Barbersville as 100 in 1870. Since Barbersville was not counted separately in any census, this number probably represents people served by the town’s post office, which would have included area farms. A Jefferson County directory for 1859 shows forty landowners with Barbersville addresses, which would indicate a total population of more than 100. There were twenty-seven landowners with Barbersville addresses in the 1887 county directory, the decline probably reflecting the opening of the nearby Hicks post office in 1884. It is unlikely the population of the town ever exceeded fifty persons.

It’s not known how long Barber operated a store, but he doesn’t appear in the area in the1850 census. That population count does list two merchants, James W. Torbett and W.A. Peak, adjacent to Enoch C. Bray, a blacksmith. Since Torbett purchased lot 7 in Barbersville in 1852 and Peak served as post master from June 27, 1848 until April 1, 1851, when he was succeeded by Torbett, these men were almost certainly Barbersville residents. Samuel Sailors, a miller, also likely lived in town as he lived two households from Peak in 1850. The 1850 Manufacturing census showed Samuel Sailors operated both a grist mill and saw mill.

Other merchants included Charles Schnitger, who received a grocery store license in 1846, and who served as Barbersville postmaster from November 18, 1852 to April 13, 1854, and again from December 11, 1854 to July 17, 1857. Robert G. Benefiel, Barbersville postmaster from April 13, 1853 until December 11, 1854, is also listed in the 1860 census as a merchant. Schnitger would soon move to Canaan were he is buried.

Robert G. Benefiel’s brother, William H. Benefiel, operated the store with the longest history. William H. Benefiel opened his store in 1857 and had operated continuously as of 1878, according to an account in 1889, which shows that the town also had a school. Benefiel served as postmaster from July 17, 1857 through July 9, 1886 and again from Oct. 11, 1886 until the office closed in 1906.

By the 1880s, the town had faded. Many lots came into the hands of William H. Buchanan, who sold them to his children in the 1870s, and the lots were absorbed into larger farm tracts. In 1887, the county directory lists no property owners with lots in Barbersville, although it does show owners of town lots in Canaan.

The town had a corn mill, according to a Madison Courier dated Jan. 31, 1895, which said the mill "grinds every Friday and Saturday when not too bad" and was under the operation of Milford Smock. The town also had a justice of the peace court which lasted at least into the latter part of the nineteenth century. The Madison Courier reported in 1895 that "Squire Van Antwerp's Court will convene Sept. 24." Judging from practices at the time, the justice of the peace court moved from locality to locality and would not have been permanently located in the town.

Benefiel’s store continued operating until his death in 1911. William Kremer’s history of Canaan and Shelby Township notes that a sale of store articles from Benefiel’s estate was held on August 8, 1911. With the sharp decline in the rural population that began after 1900, it is likely that Barbersville was already fading away at this time.

Barbersville had a lot going against its survival. It was not the site of a church–the nearest church was the Jefferson Presbyterian Church founded in 1818. The next closest church was Center Baptist Church founded in the 1830s, probably located on Hicks Ridge, gave way to the Center Grove Separate Baptist Church, which became the Hicks Baptist Church. And while being on the main road contributed to Canaan’s survival, Barbersville was off the beaten path. With no store, no post office, and never having been the site of a church, Barbersville had little left to define it as a town as the twentieth century began.

Excerpted from the soon-to-be-published History of the Indian-Kentuck by Robert W. Scott