Bentonville is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in central Posey Township, Fayette County,

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

History

Bentonville was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted in 1838. It was named for Thomas Hart Benton, a senator from Missouri. Bentonville was once a booming "frontier" town during the early days of westward expansion and was a frequent stopping place for traders. Among the local landmarks is Alfred Loder's store (built in 1848 and was one of the first brick structures in the area), which still stands and is a private residence. Other remnants of the past are still visible. Across the corner from Loder's store is a cement watering trough used for watering horses, and south of town in the wooded area next to the site of the former Bentonville Christian Church (which was struck by a tornado in 2018), a one-room schoolhouse, although dilapidated, can be seen from the road.

Location

It lies along County Road 700N northwest of the city of

Connersville Connersville is a city in Fayette County, Indiana, United States, east by southeast of Indianapolis. The population was 13,324 at the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of and the only incorporated town in the county. The city is in t ...

, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Fayette County. Although Bentonville is unincorporated, it has a self-serviced

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, with the ZIP code of 47322, an independent Christian church (under reconstruction after 2018 tornado), and a

volunteer fire department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respo ...

. Bentonville's Volunteer Fire Department serves 63 square miles throughout Fayette County, and also responds to emergency calls in Rush and Wayne counties when needed.

References

Unincorporated communities in Fayette County, Indiana Unincorporated communities in Indiana Populated places established in 1838 1838 establishments in Indiana {{FayetteCountyIN-geo-stub