Barryton / Frank Barry

In 1894 Frank and Marion Barry registered the plat for a new village named Barryton with the state of Michigan. The twelve-block area consisted of Northern, Marion, and Angell Avenues, and Stearns, Renwick, Darrah, and Hudnutt Streets. A post office opened the same year. By 1896 Barryton had a sawmill, a planing mill, a livery, two general stores, two hotels, two restaurants, a pharmacy, and a hardware store. Within five years a daily stage and the Pere Marquette Railroad served the town’s five hundred citizens. Barryton incorporated as a village in 1908. Frank Barry Frank Barry (1853-1902) settled in Mecosta County around 1884. A druggist who lacked formal medical training, Barry became known as “Doc” because he treated patients at Rodney, located approximately seven miles southwest of here. He was also involved in lumbering at Round Lake. In 1894 he established the village of Barryton on farmland in Fork Township, at the fork of two branches of the Chippewa River. Barry sold groceries, drugs and real estate, residing with his family in the town that bears his name until his death at age forty-nine.