Jarret Harrison Starnes (1804-1884) - Find a Grave Memorial

Jarret Harrison Starnes

Birth

1804

Cabarrus County, North Carolina, USA

Death

1884 (aged 79–80)

Caldwell County, North Carolina, USA

Burial

Sunset Hills Cemetery

Granite Falls, Caldwell County, North Carolina, USA Add to Map

Memorial ID

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Jarret Harrison Starnes was born to Joseph and Rachel Rice (Reiss) Starnes about 1804 in Cabarrus County, NC. He received a basic education of reading, writing and arithmetic as a child and spent a great deal of time beside his father and older brothers learning the skills necessary to manage a successful farm. In 1816 he and his family moved to lands in eastern Burke County, NC on Middle Little River and Rock Creek and about this time he must have begun to learn the skills of carpentry. He listed his profession as carpenter in the 1850 US Census of Alexander County, NC.

He married a local girl, Mary Bowman, about 1832. She also was of German descent and of the Lutheran faith. It seems likely that they lived with his parents until 1838 when his father deeded to him approximately 126 acres. By this time he and his wife probably had three children, David, Saphronia and Catharine. He would ultimately have a large family.

By the early 1840s he became interested in moving to the west. His sister, Sarah, and her husband, Solomon Loudermilk, had moved to Indiana, and it seems that Jarret had intended to moved to Indiana as well. He sold his farm in 1842. So he and his family probably headed west later that spring. Something must have gone badly wrong. They got as far as Washington County, TN, but no further. About 1855 he brought his family back home. The section of Burke County, NC where he had lived was now a part of Alexander County, NC. By 1861 his family had moved a few miles to the west to Caldwell County, NC. They lived on a small farm near Gunpowder Creek.

The Civil War brought many changes and hardships. Two of his sons, David and Jonas, served in the Army of the Confederacy. David Starnes died in the prisoner camp in Elmira, NY in 1864. Jonas Caldwell Starnes came back from the war.

The depressed state of the economy in the South after the war meant that it would take a long time for him to save enough money to buy any land. It took until 1884. Sadly he died shortly thereafter. The land was held jointly by his heirs until after the death of his wife, Mary, in 1895 when it was sold out of the family.

Gravesite Details

Tradition says that he was buried in a cemetery near Gunpowder Creek in Caldwell Co. and that it was lost in the 1916 flood. When the Walmart was built on Hwy. #321 the location was rediscovered. The remains were moved to Sunset Hills Cemetery.