The Ghost Town Within a Village: Jackson County

There was once a village in Jackson County that has been swallowed up by the passage of time. It was the town of ‘Barry’ that is now called a ‘ghost town’ by some Jackson area historians.

The last remaining vestige of Barry is a stone building, that I’m sure many of you have seen as you head out on West Michigan Avenue. What was that building used for all those years ago? That is up for speculation: a depot, school, bank, store...those are some of the guesses made throughout the years.

Included on a very few old maps, Barry was the original name of the village that would later be named Sandstone.’

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Barry was nothing to ignore; on the contrary, it was quite the bustling little community. There was indeed a bank, blacksmith, church, drug store, more than one hotel, post office, school, shoe shop, and various shops & stores.

According to the “1881 History of Jackson County,” via MLive, Sandstone was named after “a large deposit of sandstone rock along the creek, which furnishes some valuable quarries.”

According to Michigan Place Names, a plat for Barry was filed in early 1834 after 160 acres of land were purchased in Sandstone Township. The village was then named after William Barry, President Andrew Jackson’s postmaster general beginning in 1829 until he died in 1835. In 1881, recorded history says Barry was even rivaling Jackson in popularity and prosperity; but leave it to politics to get rid of a good thing. County seats and a state capital needed to be selected. Jackson(burg) and Barry were rivals for these selections. While Jackson was intended to be state capital, that eventually went to Lansing. Jackson was given the title of county seat, leaving Barry alone to fend for itself.

By 1838, the Bank of Sandstone collapsed, adding to the demise of Barry. With no title and prominence, residents slowly left, leaving the place a ghost town. According to MLive, “it soon resembled one of the ghost towns which could be found throughout the West.”

Along with that old stone building, the church still survives.