DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's got the story, and here's how I tell it. Picture yourself out in Van Zandt County, somewhere along the old Dallas-Shreveport road, and you stumble across a place called Barren Ridge. Now that name alone ought to tell you something.
This wasn't exactly a boomtown waiting to happen. But in 1850, somebody decided this crossroads needed a post office, and James Bundy got the nod as the first postmaster. Seems reasonable enough.
Except here's where it gets good. Over in Smith County, there was already a post office called Canton. And the postal service — being the postal service — was not about to hand out the same name twice.
So the good citizens of Canton, Van Zandt County, the county seat, mind you, found themselves in a fix. Their own town couldn't have its own name on a post office. Which meant every time somebody wanted their mail, they had to climb into a wagon and rattle eight miles down the road to Barren Ridge.
Eight miles, there and back. For a letter. Now, Barren Ridge at least had something going for it — that post office doubled as a stage stop on the Dallas-Shreveport road, so there was some life moving through.
A man named Chesley Parker served as the only other postmaster the place ever had. Just the two of them, Bundy and Parker, holding the whole operation together. Then 1857 came around, the post office was discontinued, and Barren Ridge did what places do when the reason to stop there disappears — it dissipated.
Folks drifted off. The crossroads went quiet. The stage rolled on to somewhere else.
Today, the lone remaining sign that any of this ever happened is the Blair/Bundy Cemetery. Barren Ridge. Even the name turned out to be a prophecy.
What the marker says
A post office opened at the crossroads settlement of Barren Ridge in 1850, and James Bundy was named the first postmaster. Because there was already a post office in Smith County called Canton and the postal service would not grant a post office by that name in Van Zandt County, citizens of the Van Zandt County seat of Canton were forced to travel eight miles to Barren Ridge for their mail. The post office also served as a stage stop on the Dallas-Shreveport road. Chesley Parker served as the only other postmaster, and when the post office was discontinued in 1857, the settlement soon dissipated. The lone remaining sign of the settlement is the Blair/Bundy Cemetery.