The Barrett/Bussel Cemetery is in section ten bounded by 400 and 500 north and 300 and 400 east. It is situated very near the center of the section on land currently owned by Harold (Dusty) Miller and has no access road.
A remote, pioneer burial ground is not unusual but one located on the site of an abandoned town is unusual, at least in Hancock County. Rock foundations of the buildings are still visible.
The Cemetery is on a hill which overlooked the town of Benton, Also known as Bentonville or Milltown. It was a thriving community located where the Greenfield-Nashville Road crossed the Portland (Cleveland) and Huntsville Road; with a post office, grist mill, casket factory, and dead animal factory.
On 24 May 1863 George Tague and his wife, Emily, conveyed to Washington Stephens “…land twelve by twenty rods square where the Greenfield-Nashville roads crosses the Portland-Huntsville Road and half of the steam sawmill thereon and half of the machinery and fixtures there to…” Deed book x, page 185.
No one seems to know the reason for the town’s failure but its last resident was Silas Morgan who left about 1918. The area became so secluded it was used by “moonshiners” but they soon tired of trouble with the national Prohibition law and during the 1920’s moved on.
There are many early settlers buried in Barrett/Bussell Cemetery, for instance, John and Sarah (Kiester) Martin who arrived in the area about 1826 (two years before Hancock County was established) with twelve dollars cash, three milk cows, and six children.
Sue Baker, CGRS
Heritage Books Copyright 1993
1833-1933
Owned by private owners
Directions
E 500 N & E 400 N and N 300 E & N 400 E
Greenfield, IN 46140
United States