Thank you for all the helpful background information about this little community! I am glad to have it.
It's been a long time since I posted this question; and in the meantime a helpful person (whose name I no longer can find) with access to local newspaper archives sent me a copy of a story, "Family Row--Lead to Murder of John Pfeester [sic] at Reed's Station." from The Daily Mail, Bedford, Indiana, Monday, July 29, 1901. Later stories showed that Nelson Fritz and Albert Fidler of Reed's Station were eventually tried and punished for the murder of John Pfister, a distant cousin of mine.
I appreciate your giving this historical reference.