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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

 

BARNWELL

 

FAMILY

 

We have no history of the Barnwell family prior to their coming to this county except the family tradition that they are of a family of that name which has been prominent in the affairs of South Carolina since earliest colonial times. A Barnwell post office now or lately has existed for many years in the southern part of that state, and the name is connected with almost every prominent movement back to the American Revolution and before. The family reached its greatest eminence, however, or at least received the most mention, in the slavery agita­tion during the thirty years preceding the Civil War. A Robert Barnwell was one of the Commissioners ap­pointed by South Carolina to deal with the federal gov­ernment at the time the state seceded, and Robert Barnwell Rhett, possibly a relative, or at least a namesake,

 

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was at the same time editor of The Charleston Courier the leading pro-slavery newspaper of the South.

 

The family is represented in this county by two broth­ers, Robert H. and John Barnwell, whose relationship to the rest of the family in South Carolina is not known because the original family records have long since been destroyed by fire. The descendants of Robert H. Barnwell have been fairly well established by resort to tombstones, recorded affidavits, and the family Bible of his son, Jul­ian F., now in the possession of Mrs. Laura A. Moreland, his daughter, but the known facts as to John Barnwell are very limited.

 

   Robert H. Barnwell was born March 16, 1810, and died August 6, 1886. His wife Eliza Jane, whose maiden name is thought to have been White, was born March 7, 1812, and died September 22, 1899. The date and place of their marriage is not known and the date of their coming here is only approximate, but is known to be well over a hun­dred years ago. Their home place was on the upper Bourbeuse near the present Southard Cemetery, the predeces­sor of the Star and part of the Lacy school districts hav­ing been known as the Barnwell District in a very early day.

 

 Seven children were born of their marriage, of whom Lomena, born June 25, 1835, married John G. Moreland, and Rebecca L., born March 25, 1839, married his broth­er Jerry. Their descendants will be found in the Moreland chapter. William Oliver Barnwell, born March 3, 1837, died in the Confederate Army; his wife was Sarah, daughter of William W. Moreland Senior, by whom he was the father of one child. Rose Ann, who married John Giesler. His widow later married Joshua Giesler under which name their descendants will be found. Althabridge Barnwell, born May 5, 1841, died in infancy.

 

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Anderson Barnwell, born February 19, 1844, was mar­ried August 15, 1861, to Millie, daughter of David Hart and died in the Confederate Army in 1863. The one child of this marriage, Robert V. Barnwell, born May 30, 1862, died in 1881, single. The widow later married John C. Robison and her further descendants will be found under that name.

 

Robert F. Barnwell, born March 22, 1846, died Febru­ary 15, 1911, childless.

 

Julian F. Barnwell, the remaining child, was born June 12, 1891. He married Julia Matlock, who was born October 7, 1846, and died April 22, 1917. Of the eight children born to them, three, Eliza L., Fairy E., and Alex, died in infancy, and one, Mary E., born November 9, 1872, mar­ried John Johnson and is also dead leaving three children, Esther, Julia, and Clarence, all in Montana. James W., born February 13, 1869, Elbert H., born December 19, 1870, and Rebecca J., wife of Arthur E. Davis, born Feb­ruary 26, 1875, also in that state. Laura A., the youngest married W. C. Moreland and is the only member of the Julian Barnwell family now living in this county.

 

We have even less information about John Barnwell than about his brother; neither the birth, death, or marriage dates of himself and his wife, nor her maiden name are known, nor is the home place more definitely located than that it was 'down the creek' from his brother's home. He is believed to have died comparatively young and to have been survived by four children: Amanda Adaline, who married P. L. Love and spent her entire married life in Phelps County; Mary Elizabeth who married Elbert A. Shipp and moved to Arkansas in 1870, and later to Louis­iana; and Frank, of whom we have no record, nor do we know the descendants of the girls.

The fourth child, Samuel Felix Grundy Barnwell, was born November 29, 1851, and died June 16, 1912. His

 

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wife was Jerusha Elizabeth Parker (only sister of Levi F., John, and Henry Parker), who was born in Tennessee April 2, 1851, and who died March 28, 1900. Of the nine children born of this marriage the following six are yet living: John of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Robert of Rolla; Dr. James Wesley of Valentine, Arizona; and William, Thomas, and Emma, wife of Frank Newman, in St. Louis. Two children, Charles and Jesse, died in infancy. The remaining child, Amanda, married Isaac Otis, and has been dead a number of years. Her two children are Mrs. Hazel DeSpain of St. Joseph and Mrs. Mabel Talley of St. Louis.

 

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