Seeing old photos of Welford Barker opened up a whole new view of the man I only knew as Uncle Welford. The man I remembered was the frail grandfatherly gentleman with the thick glasses who had married my father’s mentally challenged sister who was 17 years his junior. When James Welford Barker was born on August 3, 1902, in Nottoway, Virginia, his father, Hiram, was 30 and his mother, Mary, was 27. His family moved to Richmond sometime before 1910 which is where he may have been living at the time my father was born in 1916 as the first of the children of Joe and Edna Keller. By 1920 they had returned to Nottoway and lived in the Belfont District. The Keller family lived in the Blendon District, but at some point he was said to have lived a short distance down the road from the Kellers whereby he met Margaret. His obituary stated that he owned his own print shop in Blackstone in the early 1930s but by 1940 he was likely living in Richmond and working for Colonial Printing Co. as a typesetter and/or printer but so far I have been unable to find him in the 1940 census. He was not living with his family at the time of that census.
He married Margaret Ann Clay Keller on April 9, 1952, in Midlothian, Virginia at Tomahawk Baptist Church. They lived in one or more one story frame houses outside of Blackstone but their home eventually fell into such poor repair that the Keller family arraigned for a modular home for them to live in. He died of on September 6, 1985, in Blackstone, Virginia, at the age of 83, and was buried there in Lakeview Cemetery where his parents are also buried.
He married Margaret Ann Clay Keller on April 9, 1952, in Midlothian, Virginia at Tomahawk Baptist Church. They lived in one or more one story frame houses outside of Blackstone but their home eventually fell into such poor repair that the Keller family arraigned for a modular home for them to live in. He died of on September 6, 1985, in Blackstone, Virginia, at the age of 83, and was buried there in Lakeview Cemetery where his parents are also buried.
Seeing old photos of Welford Barker opened up a whole new view of the man I only knew as Uncle Welford. The man I remembered was the frail grandfatherly gentleman with the thick glasses who had married my father’s mentally challenged sister who was 17 years his junior. When James Welford Barker was born on August 3, 1902, in Nottoway, Virginia, his father, Hiram, was 30 and his mother, Mary, was 27. His family moved to Richmond sometime before 1910 which is where he may have been living at the time my father was born in 1916 as the first of the children of Joe and Edna Keller. By 1920 they had returned to Nottoway and lived in the Belfont District. The Keller family lived in the Blendon District, but at some point he was said to have lived a short distance down the road from the Kellers whereby he met Margaret. His obituary stated that he owned his own print shop in Blackstone in the early 1930s but by 1940 he was likely living in Richmond and working for Colonial Printing Co. as a typesetter and/or printer but so far I have been unable to find him in the 1940 census. He was not living with his family at the time of that census.
He married Margaret Ann Clay Keller on April 9, 1952, in Midlothian, Virginia at Tomahawk Baptist Church. They lived in one or more one story frame houses outside of Blackstone but their home eventually fell into such poor repair that the Keller family arraigned for a modular home for them to live in. He died of on September 6, 1985, in Blackstone, Virginia, at the age of 83, and was buried there in Lakeview Cemetery where his parents are also buried.
He married Margaret Ann Clay Keller on April 9, 1952, in Midlothian, Virginia at Tomahawk Baptist Church. They lived in one or more one story frame houses outside of Blackstone but their home eventually fell into such poor repair that the Keller family arraigned for a modular home for them to live in. He died of on September 6, 1985, in Blackstone, Virginia, at the age of 83, and was buried there in Lakeview Cemetery where his parents are also buried.
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