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BARNETT
FAMILY
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1887 History of Vernon County, Missouri. p.
787. Chapter XXVIII. Moundville Township.
A very sad case of
accidental loss of life in early days was long remembered by the people.
An old man named James H. Barnett, who was one of the first settlers in
Moundville township, was frozen to death on the 29th of March, 1844.
Mr. Barnett, Judge Wm. Hudson and Reid Hudson had been down on Spring
river and were returning home. A heavy snow storm came up and blew
in their faces and it grew very cold. The party became chilled and
bewildered and wandered aimlessly about over the trackless prairie
waste, until at last, near the Round Mound, in the edge of Barton
county, old man Barnett lay down and froze to death. |
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Additional
details written by Theresa Caton Barnett in 1933 tell that her husband's
Grandfather, James H. Barnett, and two other men had gone south about 50
miles with 2 yoke of oxen in a covered ox wagon to get their cornmeal
ground for their summer food. As they were returning home, it
began to rain and then turned to snow. They got wet and their
clothes froze. When they were within a short distance of home,
they turned the oxen loose (the oxen could no longer pull the wagon through
the mud), and the men started to walk but soon found that
Grandfather Barnett could not go any further. He persuaded them to
leave him and the two of them go on to the settlement. They didn't go very far
until the young man dropped and could go no further.
He told Grandfather Hudson to try to get to a nearby house and send out
help to find them. The men found young Hudson and he survived,
however
they could not find Grandfather Barnett until the next day.
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Robert Barnett was a son of James H. Barnett.
Robert's wife was Eliza Hudson, daughter of William P. and Sarah Elizabeth
(Bingham) Hudson. In the 1850 Bates (Vernon) County, Missouri
Census, Dist 6, Dwelling 118, the Robert Barnett family was enumerated
as follows:
BARNETT, Robert, 30 yr old male, wheelright, $150
real estate value, born AL.
....Eliza, 21 yr old female, born TN.
....Sarah, 7 yr old female, born MO.
....James, 4 yr old male, born MO.
....William, 3 yr old male, born MO.
Families living nearby included George Taylor,
William Hudson, C. P. Hudson, and John Branson. |
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Another
tragic accident befell the Barnett family when both Robert and Eliza Barnett
were killed in a buggy accident, leaving their three small
children orphans. The children were taken by different family
members to raise. William P. Barnett
was taken to live with Andrew
Jackson and Nancy (Hudson) Hall of Pottawattamie County, IA.
The
burial place of Robert and Eliza Barnett was unknown until a recent cemetery
survey found a stone in McMullin Cemetery, Vernon County, Missouri, which reads:
R. Barnett
Died Feb 16, 1851
Aged 30y 3m 7d
It is
presumed that Eliza Barnett is also buried in McMullin Cemetery, although
a stone has not been found.
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