Settled in the mid-nineteenth century, Barryville had a post office by 1857 and by 1860 had grown into a town of several blocks with a gristmill, hotel, and sash factory. The gristmill, run by Melatiah J. Lathrop, was the principal industry for a number of years. After the Grand River Valley Railroad bypassed Barryville in 1869, the population soon declined from one hundred in the early 1870s to only fifteen by the next decade. The mill operated until the turn of the century.