Buck’s Town Site

Submitted

By Stephen Jackson | For The Times-Post

Mill Creek was the name given to the post office at Chesterfield.
It opened March 15, 1827, and continued to be known by that name until it was changed to Chesterfield on Feb. 9, 1848.
Amasa and son George Makepeace were the only postmasters during its 21 years of operation.
The name must have had some lasting recognition, as it appears on 1864 and 1870 county maps.
In 1827, Amasa Makepeace Sr. built in Chesterfield, Union Township, the first house in all of Madison County.
This was not a one-story, rough-hewn log cabin with a dirt floor as most early settlers were living in.
This home was an impressive two-story structure framed and finished with planed lumber and insulated with plaster instead of mud chinking and daubing.
Sly Fork Station was a stop on the old Pan Handle Railroad almost three miles directly south of Chesterfield about midway between Anderson and Middletown.
When the railroad was completed in the mid 1850s, Sly Fork was established to serve the town of Chesterfield, which by that time was a going concern.
There was a platform beside the tracks but, as far as is known, there was never a station or a spur track.
A warehouse was maintained at the site by James Ross. This building burned in 1871.
Freight bound for Chesterfield was unloaded from Pan Handle cars on the Sly Fork platform and hauled the rest of the way to the destination by ox cart.
There was a general store in the settlement operated by Beningall and Tucker, then later by Burr and Windell.
It was during the latter occupancy that it burned.
There was a post office at Sly Fork named Branson’s that operated from Jan. 20, 1862, until it closed May 31, 1866.
By 1874, nothing to indicate a town except a few empty houses remained.
A short distance northeast, the Sly Fork and Mill Creek tributaries take their rise.
The former flows south into Fall Creek, the latter north into White River near Chesterfield.
Bubbling Springs was the name given to an area on the east side of County Road 500 East and the north side of its State Road 32 intersection.
At one time it was an interurban stop and gas station.
An artesian well was located there, providing the name.
The distinction of being the oldest name-place in Union Township goes to a Delaware Indian village located on a bluff overlooking White River about one mile northwest of Chesterfield.
Established around 1815, it was called Killbuck’s Town, or simply Buck’s Town by the early settlers after the village chief Captain Killbuck, known also by his Christian name, Charles Henry Killbuck.
In 1932, Madison County Historical Society purchased the 100-year-old 15-by-20-foot Daniel Noland log cabin located two miles south of Chesterfield from Daniel’s son Andrew for $20.
The treasury had a balance of $11.40. Arthur Brady donated $20 cash.
Mounds State Park Superintendent E.P. Lacy had it dismantled, logs numbered and reconstructed — Aug. 20, 1932, A.D.B.
Jan. 20, 1974, MCHS meeting minutes: “The Nolan log house has been destroyed because of termites.”
Madison County Historian Stephen Jackson is leading a series of “First Sunday” presentations covering the History of Madison County townships. The talks are set for 2 p.m. on the first Sunday each month in the Bowman Room at Museum of Madison County History, 11 W. 11th St., Anderson. The talks began Sept. 4, 2022, and run through Nov. 5, 2023. The information he prepares for those presentations form the basis of this series of columns in The Times-Post.