Starkesville

Starkesville was south of the site of present-day Detroit in western Red River County. Settlement in the area began in the 1850s, and when a post office was opened in 1860 with George A. N. Starke as postmaster, it was named Starkesville. For a brief period the village prospered, serving as a trading point for area farmers. In the early 1870s, however, when the railroad bypassed the town to the north, Starkesville began to decline. In 1876 the post office was moved to Bennett's Station (now Detroit). By 1881, when a correspondent of the Clarksville Standard traveled through Starkesville, he found that "there was nothing left of Starkesville proper, except one old store house, one cabin, and . . . half of Dan Robbins old house."