The Little Known Ghost Town of Barbersville Indiana

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 , and Broadway.

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 once stood.

There is very little information about communities such as Barbersville. There are three cemeteries in Shelby township in Jefferson County. This makes genealogical research in this area very difficult. There may be more information about the character of the community in vanity biographies in that county, especially of public officials such as the Postmaster or Justice of the Peace. There was no information about churches in Barbersville . I find it unlikely that with a population of a 100 there was not at least one.

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 rive, provided: "Article 6 There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime." These men made Indiana their home.

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. The eastern route having its entrepot in the region of Eagle Hollow, and route of travel by way of "Ryker's Ridge," along Indian Kentucky Creek through Shelby township, thence towards Canada. The western route had its entrepot in Saluda township; route of travel through Hanover, Smyrna, Lancaster and Monroe townships into Ripley county. There were many stations along each of these routes. At each station, there was generally a change of conductors. A very lively business was carried on along this road. Many of the active employees are still living.

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.
Sources

http://home.att.net/~Localhome.att.net/~Local History/Jefferson-Co-IN.htm#Shelby%20Townshipm#Shelby%20Township

http://ingenweb.org/injefferson/jeffhistofearlysettlers.html

http://ingenweb.org/injefferson/connections.html

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=census/search_census.asp

http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu/IndianaPlat/

http://208.119.72.68/cemetery/