Bracken (Ghost Town)

At first, the village was called Claysville after the clay soil. Unlike the soil, the name would not stick. When it filed a request for a post office, that name was already taken in Indiana, and duplicate names were not allowed. So, the residents changed the town’s name to the name of the county in Kentucky where the Westover and Guffin families had come from. (They were the families that platted the hamlet.) Bracken had a post office from 1868 to 1905. At one time, there was a district school on the north of the village and a sawmill just southeast of it. As the only settlement between Huntington and Liberty Mills, it was able to support a drug store, two small groceries, two doctors, a church, two Blacksmiths, a wagon shop, a saloon, and even a barber shop at various times over its history. The saloon was destroyed by a mysterious fire which legend says was started by a woman inspired by the temperance movement.

The school, District #2, was first built before 1866 on the north side of the village, west of what is now Indiana 105. In 1883, the frame building was replaced with a brick school that was built on the east side of 105 at the corner with 1100 N. The school closed after the 1920-21 school year and its students went to the Bippus consolidated school. The building itself was torn down some years ago (sometime after 2010), but a small monument was built on the location using a few of its bricks and the dedication stone showing the name and year it was built.

Like many of the smaller hamlets in the area, its demise arrived with the automobile and the consolidation of the one-room schools into township schools. The last business was a small store that closed in the late 1960s. Besides the school monument, all that remains today is about a half-dozen homes.

1. Ghost Towns of Huntington County. 1971. Doris Chambers, p32-41
2. History of Huntington County, Indiana. 1887. Chicago: Brant & Fuller, p862
3. 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
4. M1126, Post Office Department Reports of Site Locations 1837-1950. Roll 162: Indiana, Hancock – Jasper Counties. Image 793 of 1190 – Application for a post office at Bracken. 1986. National Archives and Records Administration. Online access at https://catalog.archives.gov/id/68325942.
5. Combination Atlas Map of Huntington County, Indiana. 1879. Kingman Bros., p65.
6. “Bracken … established out of necessity … faded into obscurity.” 23 Sep 2010. The Tab (Huntington, Indiana).
7. Directory of the Huntington County Schools, 1920 – 1921.
8. Directory of the Huntington County Schools, 1921 – 1922.