Crothersville: A Depot Agent Renamed the Town

Jackson County's southernmost town started out as Haysville when it was laid out along the new railroad. But the man running the local railroad depot on the Jeffersonville, Madison, and Indianapolis line had other ideas. A man named Crothers, described as a depot agent or railroad official, offered to build a proper station house on one condition: the town had to bear his name.

Residents agreed, and Haysville became Crothersville. The gamble paid off. The town grew into a busy shipping point, and at its peak it ran what was reportedly the largest stave factory in Indiana, producing the barrel components that moved regional goods to market.

Today fewer than two thousand people live here, but the story of the depot man who traded a building for a legacy still gets told.