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Canaan is a village in Shelby Township, Jefferson County, that grew up in the Hoosier countryside during the 1820s. Its peak population was 251 in 1850 and it had shrunk to 85 by 1880. The town was not separately counted in the 1860 and 1870 censuses, nor were population counts made before 1850.

A great deal of information has been circulated about the town, especially during the annual Canaan Fall Festival. The story is usually told that Canaan was founded in 1812 by John Cain and that the nearby Indian-Kentuck Baptist Church was also founded in 1812. A sign in the Canaan cemetery, now owned by the Indian-Kentuck Baptist Church, states the cemetery also dates from 1812.

These dates do not hold up under investigation. Canaan’s 1812 founding date appears to stem from information given in a History of Shelby Township, which was probably written in the 1920s by William Ryker for the Jefferson County Historical Society. This history reports that John Warfield settled on the site in 1812, but there’s no evidence that Warfield did anything more than establish a farm.

The Indian-Kentuck Baptist Church was founded in 1814, according to a sketch written in 1870 for the minutes of the Madison Baptist Association. The author was probably the Rev. Robert Stevenson, who was commissioned the prior year to write such a history, and who had access to the church minute books as noted in the sketch. The church joined the Silver Creek Baptist Association in August 1815, the earliest independent record.

On Nov. 27, 1819, a lot was sold to the church trustees for a site on Toddy’s Branch. The proposed building was apparently not constructed. The church was then moved to the site of Flat Bottom Cemetery about 1820. and then to its present site in 1844 by one account, in 1865 by another.

The first evidence of commerce does not emerge until the late 1820s. Cain operated a store as early as May 1829, when he was granted a store license by the Jefferson County Commissioners. The store was still operating about 1831 when William McLelland worked as a clerk there, according to McLelland’s biographical sketch in an 1889 account. But county deeds show that Cain owned no land, and would not normally be considered a founder in the legal sense. His later history is not known. In1833, he is listed as a insolvent debtor of the estate of Levi Poston, who operated a store on Fry Ridge. The story that a resident, William Gordon, humorously derived Canaan from Cain’s name sounds plausible, but is not proven.

The Canaan cemetery cannot be dated any earlier than January 1829, the death date of a child Susan Littlejohn, who was buried there, according to DAR tombstone transcription published in 1941. It may have been a Littlejohn family cemetery since this burial predates the founding of the Canaan Methodist Church by John Cain, William C. Sullivan, John Warfield, and Marscia Cook and their wives. (The Historical Society account says the church was founded in 1830.) The next oldest tombstone was for Katherine Cain, consort of John Cain, who died July 30, 1833, age 44. On April 22, 1834, Amos Simpers deeded land for the cemetery to the church trustees.

The Historical Society account says that E.B. Bishop related that there were three buildings: one of logs about a quarter mile northeast of the final church, the second, built in the 1840s and the final church, built about 1868, the latter two once stood on a site next to the cemetery.

The first recorded use of the name Canaan comes in a road petition dated May 6, 1833, which requests a change in a road to Versailles “beginning at what is commonly called Canaan.” But the name was probably not in general use much earlier. On Nov. 15, 1832, Edwards Ayres advertised that he had opened the Bee Hive, a public house, twelve miles from Madison and 14 miles from Canaan. This is roughly Canaan’s location, and Ayres is probably the same Edward Ayres who operated a store in town during the 1830s. McLelland also clerked for Ayres.

Canaan’s original plat, dated March 15, 1836 and filed in a Jefferson County deed book, shows seven lots laid out along the road that is now State Road 62. Although there is no name on the map giving the founder’s name, sales of lots by Amos Simpers, who deeded land for the church, identifies some of these lots as being shown on the original plat of Canaan. In fact, all sales of lots in the summer 1836 are by Simpers. Therefore, Simpers was the true founder of the town in the legal sense.

Jeremiah Salyers platted 26 lots, but rescinded this action on Aug. 1, 1836. Simpers recorded a 10-lot addition on the same day, Aug. 1, 1836, which refers to a first addition, perhaps Salyers. The Simpers addition was laid out on the west side of the Madison-Lawrenceburg Road. Jesse Lewis also laid out an addition later in the decade. The map of Simpers’ addition shows that a carding machine, owned by a Mr. Smith, was located next to the church. The carding machine was still in operation by 1848 when Richard Salyers and Jesse Lewis purchase a third interest in a steam mill and carding machine from Jeremiah Salyers.

A series of merchants operated stores during the 1840s and 1850s. These included William and George McLelland, Wesley McCoy, Robert Benefiel, Richard Salyers, and Abram Ryker. But the best known merchant was Joseph Lochard, who opened a store by July 10, 1866 after operating in Manville for many years. The store was run by Joseph and later by his son Solomon. Solomon would expand the family operations by opening another store on Hicks Ridge later in the century, but his son Don Carlo Lochard sold that store in 1897 and moved back to Canaan to resume family business there.

The existence of businesses other than stores and the carding mill have little documentation before 1850. The late Alois Bishop reported that Etherton & Littlejohn briefly operated a tavern near the site of the former Bishop feed mill in1829. Perhaps Littlejohn is related was related to Jared Littlejohn, age 33, listed on the 1850 census for Canaan as an Innkeeper. It is not known how long that establishment, or Ayre’s Bee Hive, operated.

The most unusual commercial operation in Canaan was the Kennedy tobacco factory. The Kennedys came from Vermont to Jefferson County by 1819 and moved to Canaan about 1832. At first, they opened a store, with Ephraim and Coy Kennedy receiving a store license from the county commissioners in September 1837. The tobacco factory probably opened by 1840, and was certainly in full swing by 1850 when E& B.C. Kennedy were operating a business that used 8,000 pounds of tobacco a year. The factory was a family affair, operating under the name Kennedy & Bros. by 1870, and employing seven people at its height, most of whom were Kennedys. They made 780,000 cigars in 1850 and maintained that pace as they made 760,000 cigars in 1870.

The town’s high school opened in 1872, according to a history by William Kremer. Another account notes that in 1878, the town also had a drug store, along with the high school, and the cigar business.

The town was also a social center. The Canaan Lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows was incorporated on Feb. 1, 1872. According to Kremer’s history, the Canaan Lodge 393 F&AM was organized on Aug. 17, 1868, but its charter was annulled on May 25, 1886. Canaan Lodge 583 was organized on Feb. 28, 1890.

Canaan was served by the Barbersville post office until Nov. 29, 1838 when the first Canaan post office opened with William C. Sullivan as the first post master. Canaan never incorporated so it did not have elected officials. Like many farm villages, it had a justice of the peace court. The previously mentioned William McLelland served from 1847 to 1858, moving to Madison in the latter year after he was elected sheriff of Jefferson County. James McCoy took over as constable by 1859.

(Author’s note. This information is abstracted from the author’s unpublished History of the Indian-Kentuck, which contains a complete bibliography.)