Barry, Michigan was the original name of what was later called Sandstone Village. Sandstone was also the name of the township, an administrative division of a county, often made up of several villages. Back in the 1830’s, Barry was the crown jewel of Sandstone Township. While Sandstone took its name from a large deposit of sandstone rocks along a creek, Barry was named after William T. Barry, the postmaster General from 1829-1835. Sandstone settled between 1830 and 1834, and was organized into a township in 1836. An early settler in Sandstone, Dr. D.K. Akers purchased 160 acres of land in the township in 1834, and filed the plats for Barry Village. Akers built a blacksmith shop, church, shoe store, drugstore, hotel and a stone building housing the Farmers Bank of Sandstone, which issued banknotes including the one pictured here.

Barry was a bustling little town, which was even considered for a time as being the state capitol. That was beginning of the end for Barry. Lansing was named the state capitol, and Jacksonburg (now Jackson) became the county seat, and with it a prison. By 1838 the Farmers Bank of Sandstone, Barry, Michigan went under and the rest of the town soon faded away. Today, the only building left is the stone structure that likely housed the bank.