French, Indiana, Level 4 Ghost Town
Just west of Laughery Creek and north of the Ohio River in Ohio County, Indiana sits the small town of French, originally known as Buffalo, Indiana.
Rumor has it that this level 4 Ghost Town received its original name of Buffalo when one of Colonel Archibald Lochry’s men shot a Buffalo near the mouth of Laughery Creek. Lochry’s force was part of an army being raised by George Rogers Clark for a campaign against Detroit, the British regional headquarters during the American Revolutionary War.
Buffalo was first settled in 1794 when George Groves and a group of settlers laid claim to the area. The town was later named “French” after an early family inhabiting the town.
In 1877 a hotel was erected in town although I don’t have a clue where it was located. If you know, post a reply in the comments below.
The town never really grew and even in its heyday in the early 1900s the only businesses were a blacksmith shop, a grocery store and a tollgate for the Rising Sun & Laughery Toll Road. Only about a half a dozen homes remain that were built before 1900 or at the turn of the century.
Located on the east end of town is the Triple Whipple Bridge built in 1878 to replace a covered bridge that only lasted 9 years before dropping into Laughery Creek below. The bridge carries the former State Route 56 that was bypassed in 1959. The newer bridge downstream that was constructed in 1959 didn’t last long as it was replaced by the current bridge in 2014.
Next to the bridge is a mansion built by Timothy Newman for Stephen Speakman in 1846. The mansion has a very interesting history, too long for this video but hopefully we’ll do a documentary specifically about it in the near future.
As you travel west on former State Route 56 you come into town. The first building on your right is the former Fisk’s General Store which was built around 1895 and closed in 1971. It sat vacant for years until it was bought and rehabbed into a home as you see it today. An interesting piece of history here is that on the side of the Fisk building is a high water marker for the 1937 Flood. The marker is about 5 feet above street level. The 1937 Flood on the Ohio River devastated many towns including this one with a record level of 82.6 feet in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
I did discover the remains of a “Ghost Road” about 1 mile southwest of town. This was part of the original Thuermer Hollow Road alignment featuring a hard cut into the hillside. Look closely and your see a flat shelf where this road was located. This section of roadway was bypassed and realigned sometime after 1965.
GPS Location: 39º01’13.7N 84º53’02.3″W
