This Bio is from family history:
Bold and assertive as any of the Barker's his rather incautious economic adventures, combined with the intervention of the Civil War, served to eventually cause a sharp reduction in his own Fortunes and the possibilities open to his children. At about age 20, he went ahead of his parents to join brother John in Mississippi, and in 1835 joined with 17 year old Martha McCauley in one of the first marriages of the new Chickasaw lands. She was the daughter of Samuel McCauley and Rebecca Burch, who came up from Franklin & Madison Counties to pioneer in Marshall County, Mississippi. He stayed behind, when the others moved on to Texas, on the McCauley lands south of Potts Camp, finally joining the others in Hunt County, Texas after the death of his Mother-in-law in late 1856 or early 1857. He quickly applied for and got a 640 acre *patent six miles SSE of Greenville, Hunt, Texas, also patenting and quickly disposing of three other tracts in 1857, 1860 and 1868. A private party sold him 80 acres in 1861 which he did not keep long, located probably east of town near his sisters Rhonda's farm. With all his aborted patent attempts, and no clear record of exactly how he divested himself of land he had a solid title to, it seems he was attempting the style of the major speculators in western lands, but couldn't wear their boots without stumbling.
Despite his age of 48, he courageously enlisted as a "Hunt County Volunteer" in April 1862 with the 1st Texas Sharpshooter, and was made a 1st Corporal. The next February his unit floated down the Red River from Jefferson, Texas to Alexandria, Louisiana and by a month later arrived in Port Hudson, in time to get bombed by Admiral Farragut on there way down the Mississippi. Corporal Barker became quite ill during the turmoil there and resigned from the army. His comrades went into Mississippi in May, but he stayed behind to face capture and parole at the hands of the Federates in July. Returning home to a meager wartime subsistence he and Martha moved with four of their children to the Hays community area in Robertson County, Texas, probably in 1868. He was owner of 50 Acres there as late as 1872, but his wife Martha, who probably died about 1890, was a widow in 1880. Their graves, it is thought, never had stones.
* A patent is a grant made by a goverment that confers an individual fee-simple tital to public lands.
Note from me; We do not know why he did not get a Military Stone, maybe something done much later, but now it is believed that they had good wooden markers, that either rotted away or were lost in praire fires.
WLS
-------------------------------------
My Maternal G-Great Grandfather.
Bold and assertive as any of the Barker's his rather incautious economic adventures, combined with the intervention of the Civil War, served to eventually cause a sharp reduction in his own Fortunes and the possibilities open to his children. At about age 20, he went ahead of his parents to join brother John in Mississippi, and in 1835 joined with 17 year old Martha McCauley in one of the first marriages of the new Chickasaw lands. She was the daughter of Samuel McCauley and Rebecca Burch, who came up from Franklin & Madison Counties to pioneer in Marshall County, Mississippi. He stayed behind, when the others moved on to Texas, on the McCauley lands south of Potts Camp, finally joining the others in Hunt County, Texas after the death of his Mother-in-law in late 1856 or early 1857. He quickly applied for and got a 640 acre *patent six miles SSE of Greenville, Hunt, Texas, also patenting and quickly disposing of three other tracts in 1857, 1860 and 1868. A private party sold him 80 acres in 1861 which he did not keep long, located probably east of town near his sisters Rhonda's farm. With all his aborted patent attempts, and no clear record of exactly how he divested himself of land he had a solid title to, it seems he was attempting the style of the major speculators in western lands, but couldn't wear their boots without stumbling.
Despite his age of 48, he courageously enlisted as a "Hunt County Volunteer" in April 1862 with the 1st Texas Sharpshooter, and was made a 1st Corporal. The next February his unit floated down the Red River from Jefferson, Texas to Alexandria, Louisiana and by a month later arrived in Port Hudson, in time to get bombed by Admiral Farragut on there way down the Mississippi. Corporal Barker became quite ill during the turmoil there and resigned from the army. His comrades went into Mississippi in May, but he stayed behind to face capture and parole at the hands of the Federates in July. Returning home to a meager wartime subsistence he and Martha moved with four of their children to the Hays community area in Robertson County, Texas, probably in 1868. He was owner of 50 Acres there as late as 1872, but his wife Martha, who probably died about 1890, was a widow in 1880. Their graves, it is thought, never had stones.
* A patent is a grant made by a goverment that confers an individual fee-simple tital to public lands.
Note from me; We do not know why he did not get a Military Stone, maybe something done much later, but now it is believed that they had good wooden markers, that either rotted away or were lost in praire fires.
WLS
-------------------------------------
My Maternal G-Great Grandfather.
This Bio is from family history:
Bold and assertive as any of the Barker's his rather incautious economic adventures, combined with the intervention of the Civil War, served to eventually cause a sharp reduction in his own Fortunes and the possibilities open to his children. At about age 20, he went ahead of his parents to join brother John in Mississippi, and in 1835 joined with 17 year old Martha McCauley in one of the first marriages of the new Chickasaw lands. She was the daughter of Samuel McCauley and Rebecca Burch, who came up from Franklin & Madison Counties to pioneer in Marshall County, Mississippi. He stayed behind, when the others moved on to Texas, on the McCauley lands south of Potts Camp, finally joining the others in Hunt County, Texas after the death of his Mother-in-law in late 1856 or early 1857. He quickly applied for and got a 640 acre *patent six miles SSE of Greenville, Hunt, Texas, also patenting and quickly disposing of three other tracts in 1857, 1860 and 1868. A private party sold him 80 acres in 1861 which he did not keep long, located probably east of town near his sisters Rhonda's farm. With all his aborted patent attempts, and no clear record of exactly how he divested himself of land he had a solid title to, it seems he was attempting the style of the major speculators in western lands, but couldn't wear their boots without stumbling.
Despite his age of 48, he courageously enlisted as a "Hunt County Volunteer" in April 1862 with the 1st Texas Sharpshooter, and was made a 1st Corporal. The next February his unit floated down the Red River from Jefferson, Texas to Alexandria, Louisiana and by a month later arrived in Port Hudson, in time to get bombed by Admiral Farragut on there way down the Mississippi. Corporal Barker became quite ill during the turmoil there and resigned from the army. His comrades went into Mississippi in May, but he stayed behind to face capture and parole at the hands of the Federates in July. Returning home to a meager wartime subsistence he and Martha moved with four of their children to the Hays community area in Robertson County, Texas, probably in 1868. He was owner of 50 Acres there as late as 1872, but his wife Martha, who probably died about 1890, was a widow in 1880. Their graves, it is thought, never had stones.
* A patent is a grant made by a goverment that confers an individual fee-simple tital to public lands.
Note from me; We do not know why he did not get a Military Stone, maybe something done much later, but now it is believed that they had good wooden markers, that either rotted away or were lost in praire fires.
WLS
-------------------------------------
My Maternal G-Great Grandfather.
Bold and assertive as any of the Barker's his rather incautious economic adventures, combined with the intervention of the Civil War, served to eventually cause a sharp reduction in his own Fortunes and the possibilities open to his children. At about age 20, he went ahead of his parents to join brother John in Mississippi, and in 1835 joined with 17 year old Martha McCauley in one of the first marriages of the new Chickasaw lands. She was the daughter of Samuel McCauley and Rebecca Burch, who came up from Franklin & Madison Counties to pioneer in Marshall County, Mississippi. He stayed behind, when the others moved on to Texas, on the McCauley lands south of Potts Camp, finally joining the others in Hunt County, Texas after the death of his Mother-in-law in late 1856 or early 1857. He quickly applied for and got a 640 acre *patent six miles SSE of Greenville, Hunt, Texas, also patenting and quickly disposing of three other tracts in 1857, 1860 and 1868. A private party sold him 80 acres in 1861 which he did not keep long, located probably east of town near his sisters Rhonda's farm. With all his aborted patent attempts, and no clear record of exactly how he divested himself of land he had a solid title to, it seems he was attempting the style of the major speculators in western lands, but couldn't wear their boots without stumbling.
Despite his age of 48, he courageously enlisted as a "Hunt County Volunteer" in April 1862 with the 1st Texas Sharpshooter, and was made a 1st Corporal. The next February his unit floated down the Red River from Jefferson, Texas to Alexandria, Louisiana and by a month later arrived in Port Hudson, in time to get bombed by Admiral Farragut on there way down the Mississippi. Corporal Barker became quite ill during the turmoil there and resigned from the army. His comrades went into Mississippi in May, but he stayed behind to face capture and parole at the hands of the Federates in July. Returning home to a meager wartime subsistence he and Martha moved with four of their children to the Hays community area in Robertson County, Texas, probably in 1868. He was owner of 50 Acres there as late as 1872, but his wife Martha, who probably died about 1890, was a widow in 1880. Their graves, it is thought, never had stones.
* A patent is a grant made by a goverment that confers an individual fee-simple tital to public lands.
Note from me; We do not know why he did not get a Military Stone, maybe something done much later, but now it is believed that they had good wooden markers, that either rotted away or were lost in praire fires.
WLS
-------------------------------------
My Maternal G-Great Grandfather.
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