Cuba (Ghost Town)

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The Pleasant Chapel church and the area surrounding the intersection of 1100 N and 100 E used to be a thriving hamlet. In area newspapers, the hamlet was variously called Cuba, Smoke Town/ Smoketown, and Donald. As Donald it even had a post office for a few years from 1898 to 1901.

Images

Pleasant Chapel Church in Cuba

Pleasant Chapel Cemetery in Cuba

Backstory and Context

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Like most of the hamlets in Huntington County, Cuba developed as a gathering of area farmers who needed a place to worship and do daily business in the time before automobiles. One room “district” school houses were also a common feature of these places, including Cuba. Jackson Township District School #3, most frequently called Simon or Simons School, was located just south of the intersection on the west side of 100 E according to the 1866, 1879 and 1903 maps of the county. The Simons School was one of the last two district schools to close in Jackson Township. Its last class left the building after the 1925-26 school year. After that, all Jackson Township students went to the consolidated school in Roanoke.

The invention of the automobile and the creation of the Rural Free Delivery postal routes in the 1890s made good roads a county mandate. With good roads came easy travel and school and post office consolidation. As a result, most of the hamlets disappeared as identifiable communities. Today, many of the hamlets are completely gone. Sometimes, as here, a church continues to exist. That, its cemetery, and a few homes are all that remain of Cuba today.

Sources

Ancestry.com. U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com, 2010. Original data: Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971. NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls. Records of the Post Office Department, Record Group Number 28. Washington, D.C.: National Archives
M1126, Post Office Department Reports of Site Locations 1837-1950. Roll 162: Indiana, Hancock – Jasper Counties. Image 805 of 1190 – Application for a post office at Cuba/ Donald. 1986. National Archives and Records Administration. Online access at https://catalog.archives.gov/id/68325942.
Huntington County, Indiana History: Township by Township. 2004-2005. Jean Gernand.
“A New Post Office.” Huntington Weekly Herald (Huntington, Indiana), 6 Jan 1899, page 3.
Directory of the Huntington County Schools, 1925 – 1926.
Directory of the Huntington County Schools, 1926 – 1927.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

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