Mose’s wealth
As given elsewhere in this narrative, Mose was the master
of 54 slaves on his north
The 1860 census listed the following laborers on the plantation: Lewis Osteen, age 20, Georgia born; James Gunter, age 33, Georgia born; Calvin Livingston, age 18, Georgia born; and William Danthford (sometimes written as “Danford” and “Danforth”), age 16, South Carolina born.
At the beginning of the War Between the States, Mose
enjoyed a reported total worth of $135,580 in personal and real
properties. I haven’t been able to get
anything solid on his holdings in south Georgia. An estimated worth of a quarter million
dollars by 1868 is probably conservative.
His “wife” Miss Cook imputed millionaire status to him. A NEW YORK HERALD write-up said he still had
100’s of 1,000’s of head of cattle in the
Under the circumstances of war, neglect, and vandalism by
Union soldiers, it can be understood that life and environment at the
plantation were not up to the best standards during that miserable point in
Mose’s life. Of course, it could be true
that he always lived like that after Mary Leah died. Perhaps that is where I get my propensity for
living in squalor.
Mose acquired quite a bit of land from the State of
mose’s
politics
G-g-g-grandpa Mose early involved himself in
Mose was said to have been a Whig in his political leanings. As a Whig, he was conservative and initially opposed to secession. He called the war that ensued, “the rich man’s war”, strange labeling for one who was rapidly entering that rank. Perhaps when he also referred to the conflict as “the Virginians’ War”, he was stating a thinly veiled resentment of the sophisticated folks in whose caste he was never to be.
Mose remained ambivalent in his loyalties throughout the early years of the conflict, but when the war came to his home in February of 1864, Mose turned vehemently anti-North. He cast his lot with the Confederacy and added to his fortune by supplying beef and pork to the CSA army. On several occasions soon after hostilities began, he sold cattle at 10 cents a pound on the hoof, receiving amounts in the neighborhood of $1,000 to $10,000 per transaction. The hogs, at the current market price, went for $20 each. His payments were, initially, in gold. As the war progressed, the market price began dropping.
Thanks to my cousin Ward
Barnes of
Mother Vic Barber told her son Charley that Mose made at
least two trips to
Mose and his family during the war
When
Isaiah was lost in
On
When word came that the Federal troops were on their way
toward his home, Mose moved Rebecca and their children first to north of
Tuesday, February the ninth: Col.
Guy Henry’s Yanks took possession of
On
It was at this time, according to oral history, Mose’s daughters-in-law suffered verbal indignities and pillage from the invaders.
Mose’s neighbor to the west – Mrs. Emily Fraser – was sent as a spy by Gen. Joseph Finegan of the CSA at Lake City to ascertain the number
of Union troops at Barber’s and to rescue a wounded soldier - Pvt. Nathan Hunter – who had been left
there by his retreating comrades. She did her job
admirably, covering the wounded man under her skirt as she approached Union
soldiers. Even when they forced her to
stand and take the pledge of allegiance to the
The main Union force advanced toward
While at Sanderson, the Federal troops were the victims of guerilla warfare conducted by George Combs. Mr. Combs and his Cracker snipers killed several blue coats and disappeared into the fastness of the surrounding swamps.
The Union troops returned to Barber’s on the 13th and spent a week drilling and awaiting orders to move again. By sundown on Wednesday the 17th, 5,500 Union officers and men and 16 guns covered the fields on and around Barber’s Station.
Also arriving near Barber’s that day was the Georgia First
Brigade under the command of Gen. A.
H. Colquitt and the Georgia Second
Brigade under Col. George T. Harrison. They approached the Saint Mary’s near the
fork of the big river and its middle prong (some say the south prong, and I
will not dispute it). They waited there
for orders to cross over into
One of the Yankee soldiers camped there reportedly told former CSA Pvt. George T. Swain after the war (and Swain told the Barbers) of his and his fellow troops tearing down fences and buildings for campfires to ward off the February chill.
In Swain’s words, he said he heard, “The Union boys drilled, cussed, wrote letters, prayed, and waited.”
Some side notes on the above: Mr. Swain’s brother Charles Swain, US Army, of
On Friday, February 19th, as the sun went down
behind them, the Confederate force numbered 5,100 men and officers and 12 guns
at
The men encamped at Barbers’ were joined by units from
points east. It would be nearly 90 years
before the entire county could boast of a permanent population that matched the
number that moved out from Barber’s
Finegan waited for the Yankees at Olustee where Ocean Pond
and
In spite of Finegan’s preparations for battle in Olustee, the fight took place a few miles east of the community. The territory between the Confederate fieldworks and the approaching Union Army was a pine barren. No underbrush lay beneath the giant timber. A pair of white sand roads traversed the higher ground, dodging small swampy ponds. Two fields uncultivated since the previous year and about six scattered cabins lay between the opposing forces.
The Southerners found them selves fighting almost in the
open rather than from their well dug defenses (visible until fairly recent
times in Olustee). They also discovered
that the Northern force was somewhat larger than they had been led to
believe. Some officers began to worry,
but the continued reinforcements arriving from
It was told that Mose had revisited his plantation and
after socializing with the Union officers returned with a proper estimate of
the number of troops there, but none had taken into account that the Union
force would be swelled by others from
That afternoon saw a bloody battle and the only battle of
the war in
The Yankees contested their parcel of foreign pinelands stubbornly and gallantly but the Southerners, and especially the Crackers in their natural fighting arena, routed them. The boys in blue had marched 18 miles, fought with the sun in their eyes, and faced an enemy that knew how to blend in with the scenery. The blue lines were broken a final time and the U. S. Troops retreated in disorder (or “order’ depending on which reports one reads).
They gave up the fight near dark and were pursued for several miles by the Confederates who wreaked fatal revenge on the stragglers. Gen. Colquitt ordered a halt to the slaughter of the retreating enemy. His order was not needed as the Confederates were overtaken by fatigue, hunger, and darkness. The Yankees stopped long enough at Sanderson to tear up about a quarter mile of railroad track.
The Union troops made it back to Barbers’ Station
throughout the night. U.S. Doctor Smith reported four days
later, “We reached Barber’s Station at
The plantation house was used as a hospital. U. S.
Surgeon Adolph Majer rushed back to
The road to Barber’s was strewn with Union paraphernalia, wounded, and dead.
During the nights of the 20th, 21st,
22nd, and 23rd the
“A bloody battlefield” was, in the case of Ocean Pond, not a figurative term; at some places beneath the flattened wiregrass the sand was soggy with blood. “As usual with the enemy”, wrote Lt. Grant of the CSA Corps of Engineers, “they posted their Negro regiments on their left and in front, where they were slain by the hundreds and upon retiring left their dead and wounded Negroes uncared for, carrying off only the whites, which accounts for the fact that upon the first part of the battlefield nearly all the dead found were Negroes.”
Some Federal units remained at the Barber place until the 23rd. It was left in shambles. We were told the only structure left standing was the main dwelling house. A small shed that sat near the old slave quarters remained until the 1960’s.
For reasons never ascertained Mose became a Confederate
soldier at his advanced age. Some think
his military service might be confused with that of his son Little Mose or his
nephew Moses B. F., but his grandchildren and great grandchildren swear he was
in the CSA army, and they learned of it through Mose’s daughters-in-law. Confederate army records do not always make
it clear which Mose is which, but we feel the Moses Edward Barber, Sr. of
At the time of the skirmishes and
But some family historians said Little Mose was the
deserter and he supplied intelligence of Confederate strength and positions to
the enemy that later turned out to be incorrect (? on purpose). Moses B. F. also was branded a deserter (born
out by records and his own words). As
stated by Jeanne Barber Godwin of
We do know Mose had difficulty obtaining amnesty after the war’s end.
after
the war (but no peace)
At the war’s end, Mose found his
Mose wasted no time applying for a pardon for his
Confederate sympathies. Initially, he
had been opposed to secession, later changed his mind when the Yankees invaded
Before Lt. A. A.
Knight of the
“To his Excellency Andrew Johnson President
of the United states Washington, DC, The petition of Moses E. Barber a citizen
of Columbia County in the State of Florida, respectfully showeth that believing
that he may constructively be deemed within the thirteenth exception of your
excellency’s amnesty proclamation of 29th May 1865, He makes this
application for special pardon, so as to place himself in his rightful
position, and obtain the rights of citizenship again, and for cause, of
extenuation begs leave to state that at the time of the commencement of the
rebellion he was a farmer and large stock keeper, or cattle man, that he was
always a union man, and bitterly opposed to multification or secession, and in
his quiet way used every effort in his power to influence his friends and
neighbors to vote against secession; and has never during the rebellion voluntarily
participated in said rebellion, but having a large stock of beef cattle, and
the protecting shield of the United States Government being removed from him or
the whole country where his stock ranged was within the bounds and under the
military control of the so called Confederate States, and he without the means
of resistance to them his cattle were impressed and he was forced to deliver
them up for the use of its army, much against his will. His whole stock of cattle were seized by
them, and he was not permitted to sell to any one else, or even to select the
cattle he could spare or was willing to dispose of, by which a loss was
entailed upon him of over one hundred thousand dollars at the lowest gold
valuation. He is now and always has been
loyal in his principles and attached to the government and principles of the
Constitution of the United States, and promises if pardon is awarded to him to
hereafter always conduct himself as a good and loyal citizen in every respect. And therefore humbly prays that executive
clemency may be extended to him, and that he may be permitted to take the oath
prescribed by your excellency’s proclamation, and resume his rights and duties
as a citizen of the United States, and your petitioner will ever pray (last word illegible).”
The petition was signed by Mose and dated
There can be little doubt that Mose was galled at being forced to lie, and lying he was about his Confederate loyalties. He willingly sold provisions to the CSA army, and at first made big money and insisted on payment in gold. His disgust with his adopted government came when it no longer paid gold but took his cattle and offered him Confederate notes. He was intelligent enough to understand the paper was becoming more worthless by the day
Although his daughters-in-law said amnesty was denied Mose (some prominent owners of great real and personal properties did not fall automatically under the general amnesty proclamation), there is a document stating he received Presidential pardon.
“
Sir:
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the President’s Warrant
of Pardon bearing date tenth day of October, 1865, and hereby signify my
acceptance of the same, with all the conditions therein specified.
I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, Moses E.
Barber”
The paper was a standard printed form except for the date and Mose’s signature (Mose’s signature gives evidence that we Barber men just cannot write legibly).
Another of Mose’s lies in his application for pardon was that all his stock of cattle was gone; too many reports, and some from dispassionate sources, gave contradictory information, sometimes in the extreme (see paragraph below).
Mose tried to take advantage of the post war need of beef,
pork, and lumber. THE NEW YORK HERALD
reported in 1868 that Mose still had 100’s of 1,000’s of head of cattle in the
state. In
Immediately after the war Mose’s sons Isaac and Mose, Jr.,
his nephews, and others were dispatched to central
Mose also turned to his timber resources. He cut pine, cypress, and in particular red
cedar for shipment out of the
George S. Wilson
sued Mose in
The disaster of falling lumber prices seemed to presage a
downturn in Mose’s life. His son and
chief drover James Edward died in the winter of 1867-68, while swimming the
the barber-mizell feud
Most non-family and a few family versions of the feud I’ve read are rehash jobs with sentences and paragraphs flagrantly plagiarized from my 1965-’66 column “The Way It Was” in THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS and from some mimeographed Mose bios I handed out at family re-unions in the very early 1960’s. One would think that as poorly written as my accounts were, no one would have deemed them worthy of copping and copying.
Whereas the family in north
Except for a blatant subjective slant, thinly veiled rudeness toward the Barbers, and what appears to be an approach to a personal agenda, a 2001 lecture and write-up by a Mr. Woods of the University of Central Florida (I believe that is correct…I wasn’t there - fortunately for Mr. Woods - I just have a copy of the presentation) was rather complete with footnotes and cites but offered little new in spite of his touting that his lecture was based on newly discovered material.
To begin with, there was bad blood between the Barbers and allies and the Mizells and their allies (referred to as “henchmen” by the Barbers) that stretched over decades and parts of two states. It was an enmity that wasn’t going to go away; it needed, evidently, the tragic catharsis of blood letting…about the only logical conclusion known to old time pioneer families.
The Mizells of central
See
my story on the Mizells in “The Way It Was” columns 18
September through 16 October.
By-the-way, old time Mizells of southeast
The events leading up to the murders and the murders themselves were convoluted in the extreme and made more so in the epilogues heard from the various branches of the family.
Before I begin relating the following incidents, and they are complex and contradictory, I suggest the reader bear in mind that although I am trying to be somewhat objective, I lean toward the Barber versions (how surprising).
Our branch of north Florida Barbers were told the chief rustler of Mose’s cattle was one George Bass (? Related to Dick and Sam who were involved in the shooting of Isaac Barber). He was prone to take one to a few beeves at a time. Mose had made dire threats against him and elicited a promise from Mr. Bass that he had given up his cow stealing habit, in particular of Mose Barber’s cattle.
In the summer of 1868 upon the word of an insider among
the Mizell faction, Mose investigated a herd at the cow pens of Bill Cook in
Mose reckoned the culprit was George Bass and was said to have declared, “That son uv a bitch ain’t quit a’stealin’ cows, but I c’n break the bastard frum suckin’ aigs!” Mose was informed Bass would be there directly bringing up a few more cows. “I got a string in my pocket fer ‘im when ‘e gits heanh”, said Mose (an old threatening term for a hanging noose). This paragraph was borrowed from various sources and freely Crackerized.
Mose’s men were heavily armed, and they took Bass into their custody and threatened to whip him. Bass, in his testimony at court, said Mose was not present when the men took him prisoner but had later approached him and gave him thirty days to quit the country or he would be hanged. He also said Mose did not hold a pistol on him while giving the ultimatum.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Mose’s side of the story was different. Mose said he and Tom Johnson came across George and D. C. Bass and Mr. Cook in the woods driving cattle. He claimed to have seen three of his steers – one with Jack Barber’s brand “AJ”, one with one of Mose’s brand “a fleur de lis”, and one of the Whiddon stock. When questioned, George Bass allowed the steers were for butchering.
Mose testified to the court he had told George he thought he and his kind on “this side of the prairie (
That last remark reminded me of my uncle Edward Barber, a bail bondsman in
During the same session there was an adultery trial in which Moses B. F. and Ed Summerlin were the defendents in a charge of adultery. Moses “Ben” Barber and Ed Summerlin had taken Miss Jane Green into the woods not far from Holopaw for a little bit of “you know.” Although Miss Green was a willing partner, the boys were fined heavily - $6,000 (sin was quite expensive in those days).
Soon after court sat for that session, the courthouse was torched and a new court date was set. Moses B. F. supposedly was charged with arson. The authorities allegedly found incendiary materials – pine rosin, spirits of turpentine, and coal oil (items likely found in and around most homes of the day) - in his possession. Within a few weeks the jail also burned to the ground, an incident rumored to be connected to the courthouse arsonist.
At his new trial Mose protested he could not get a fair
trial in
In the summer of 1869, another case of false imprisonment was brought against Mose, this time by William Smith. Anyone reading the proceedings and with only a modicum of intelligence could see the transparent railroad job done on Mose and his co-defendents.
In the years after the close of the war, Barber stock was frequently stolen with no attempts on the part of Sheriff Dave Mizell and his brother Judge John Mizell to halt the problem. I heard one old timer attribute to Judge Mizell the statement, “If it [a cow] was in Mose Barber’s herd, it was stolen in the first place, and to get it back regardless of the method is justice.” In addition to hiked up taxes, court cases against Mose and his nephews were frequent and obviously prejudiced on the bench. Attorneys’ fees and court costs were rapidly eroding his fortune.
Mose’s nephew Jack could tolerate the bias and ill treatment no longer. When one of his prime heifers showed up in the Mizell herd with its brand altered in the summer of 1869, he took matters into his own hands and recovered his cow. Sheriff Dave Mizell heard Jack had been in his herd, and he made pursuit. Jack was warned by a friendly member of the Mizell group, and he felt forced to butcher his own heifer into beef to disguise his act. He could account for the hide when the sheriff approached him, and could show that his brand had been altered into one of Mizell’s brands, but Mizell arrested him and, through his brother Judge John Mizell, was able to get a judgement against Jack.
Mizell made ready to escort his prisoner down the Saint Johns to Jacksonville where they would entrain for the state prison at Chattahoochee (I could not find a record of Jack’s imprisonment at the state prison…records of the time are sparse). Mose insisted on accompanying them to protect his favorite nephew from what he suspected would be Mizell brutality.
An aside note: Jack’s nephew Deed Barber, according to notes
received from several Barbers of central
Mose and Jack engaged the
services of lawyers Fleming and Daniel of Jacksonville and were able to bring
Jack home in a few months, but at an enormous cost. Mose’s contribution to the fees are not
known, but Jack transferred a herd of forty five cattle, more or less, he had
in lower
On the boat north, Jack asked for a chew of tobacco. The sheriff had taken all of his prisoner’s belongings, including his plug of tobacco. Sheriff Mizell rudely slammed the plug into Jack’s mouth causing a serious cut on his lip. Mose was livid with anger and he stared hard at the sheriff, “This day, Dave Mizell, you’ve started on the road to hell!”
It was then that Mose Barber decided he must wreak the ultimate revenge on his enemy David Mizell.
Sheriff Mizell was not intimidated; he reckoned he had the strong protective arm of the reconstruction government around him. He continued to enter the Barber herds to claim court costs for cases both legitimate and rigged. Mose again stared hard at the sheriff. “Dave Mizell, the next time you enter my herds, you’ll leave feet first!”
Mose probably did not shoot Dave Mizell, but it was common
knowledge among the Barber family that he probably engaged his kinsman
Late in the day of
The sniper(s) gave out fake Indian whoops perhaps to lay blame on the red men, but Indian hostilities had ceased long before.
Evidently Morgan Mizell and the deputy rode back to the Mizell place (the present Orlando/Winter Park) for help. Dave’s young son clung to his father’s body and a floating tussock in the stream all night warding off wolves and awaiting the rescue party. The sheriff was immediately made a martyr by his alleged last words: “Let no one avenge me.”
Dave Mizell is buried along with
some members of his family in a little plot in the corner of
I
finally brought myself to visit the Mizell grave in the early 1970’s but did
not do on his grave what I had once promised myself I’d do if ever presented
with the opportunity. If fact, I felt an
eerie attitude ease over me; I had been fed poison about those people, and the
poison and guilt surely must have flowed in both directions during their
conflict. I nodded to old man Mizell and
allowed the bitterness, which was foolish to begin with, fade away…there was
one Barber who would not seek revenge in any fashion…except maybe in his
writing.
Why it took almost a month for the Mizells to organize and begin their systematic eradication of the Barbers and the Barber kin is not known to me. Perhaps there were some legalities to tend to (not that they usually felt the impediments of legalities), perhaps there was planning to do, but in a few weeks, they acted.
Mose had made too many threats on Dave Mizell’s life not to be the primary suspect. An arrest order was drawn up by Judge John Mizell. Newly appointed sheriff Jack Evans (considered an unsavory sort [some say the appointee was David Stewart…this needs checking]), deputy Dave Mizell, Jr., and a posse went searching for Mose. The judge had ordered them to take no prisoners.
Some Yates descendents told me Need’s sons Need, Jr., and William were also apprehended. I haven’t learned their fate.
Mose and his nephew Jack had already decided to leave the state, and were packed and on fresh fast horses procured from a family friend named Story when news of the posse reached them. They escaped while the posse’s hard ridden mounts mired down in Boggy Creek/Shingle Creek (both names are given in oral histories). Conflicting stories have Mr. Story either being shot or hiding out until the worst blew over.
The Mizells and their henchmen
were not to be outdone. They happened up
on Mose’s son Isaac Barber and some of Isaac’s kin (Little Arch, Little Joe, Champion, and Henry Barber and some cousins not with
the surname Barber…forgotten by the tellers of the tale) near Boggy Creek. Isaac was tied to a tree facing away from his
executioners and each man in the posse was required to empty his shotgun into
the helpless victim so that no one person could be accused of the murder; this
evinces guilt or fear already creeping into the minds of the murderers. It was estimated, according to Isaac’s
grandson Joe Barber of
Mary Ida Shearheart’s notes said Isaac’s widow left her home at Finney Point in a trip skirting bogs and lakes in her wagon to collect her husband’s body. By the time she arrived, the poor fellow’s corpse was so stiff its arms could not be straightened from where they had been bound around the tree. She buried him in the wagon body used to retrieve the body.
My father Dub Barber worked with the state in south
His story was that he and his brother Dick Bass, in their early teens, happened upon the posse’s vengeful shooting of Isaac. Dave Mizell, Jr. ordered the boys each to take a shotgun and shoot the body. This would preclude them as witnesses and include them with the perpetrators. With his life threatened if he did not obey, Dick shot Isaac’s already shot-riddled body. Sam Bass was frightened and knew he could not follow suit, so while his brother was performing the unpleasant task set before him, Sam broke from the crowd and rode to Isaac’s widow with the news of her husband’s death.
Harriett had no liking for the Basses, but having no choice but to accept one as an ally at that moment, armed Sam and herself and waited for the posse. The men arrived. John Mizell was heard directing his men to round up Isaac and Harriett’s cattle as he came into the yard. She stepped out onto the front porch, and church-founding God-fearing Harriett Geiger Barber blasted John Mizell and his men with language that Sam Bass said, in later years, he had neither before nor since heard the like. They departed and never bothered her again.
Mary Ida Shearheart gives the name Dick to the young Bass who gave the alarm to Harriett. I am torn between a researcher who has done an outstanding job on the feud story or the admitted eyewitness of the shooting of Isaac. Believing the Mr. Bass my father heard the story from might have given my father a false name or that my father might have remembered a name incorrectly, I am leaning to Mary Ida’s name of Dick Bass.
A gruesome reminder of the incident was a tattered black frockcoat that Isaac Barber had been wearing on the occasion of his murder. His widow kept the coat for years.
Isaac was murdered on
The north Florida Barbers said that although Little Mose was apt to be in some sort of trouble at all times, this was one of those rarities when he was, as his brother Isaac, an innocent party. His father swore to his widow Penny that her husband was not involved in the killing of Sheriff Mizell. Most sincerely believed he had no part in the killing and that he was too engrossed in his “messing around” activities to care much about feuding. I presume Mose did not confide in Penny regarding his son’s peccadilloes.
Nevertheless, that night after
his brother was killed, Mose, Jr., was overpowered by several men, bound, and
held overnight at their camp on the south bank of
Little Mose was exceptionally strong and was reputed to be one of the best swimmers among his peers. He freed himself and came to the surface. The posse members beat his hands off the side of the boat with their gun butts and shoved him under. He continued to break free and surface. The men had to resort to a shotgun blast to send him to the bottom.
“Th’ nex mornin’ his body riz”, so said his nephew John Barber of Palatka. His murderers were eventually brought to court but acquitted (I haven’t found court records to substantiate this).
Little Mose’s teenaged son Mose W. had been gator hunting on the north shore of Lake Okeechobee when news reached him of the killings. He headed for home and was intercepted by a family friend who informed him of his father’s death and to warn him to leave the country. “The Mizells”, so said the unnamed friend, “are out to kill ever’ Barber in the country!”
Mose W. was not known to shy away
from trouble; he hurried to
By the time the killing was done, several men were dead. Most were Barbers and Barber allies. In addition to Isaac and Mose, Jr. Barber, there were William Bronson, David Mizell, Lyle Padgett, Needham Yates, and William (or John) Yates. Bronson was aligned with the Mizells. Oral tradition gives other young Barber men as victims – Champion (son of William W.), Little Arch (don’t know who he belonged to), Little Isaac (?), and Henry (?) – and others whose names escape me.
Despite the prejudiced press given the Barbers by the
county government, most
I cannot find when Jack Barber returned from the state
prison, but his grandson Carl Barber of Fort Christmas said the term was less
than a year and he was back in time to be part of the feud and to travel to
north Florida with his uncle Mose soon after.
Indeed, Mose and Jack were at the old plantation sometime in the spring
of 1870. Some accounts from central
Mose told the Barber women their land and cattle were
“…down there in that God-forsaken land called
He and Jack re-saddled their refreshed mounts and headed
west, presumably for
Jack returned to central
From the 1870 fall term of the
Circuit Court of the 7th judicial Circuit of Florida,
“The State of Florida vs. Moses
E. Barber, Indictment for murder…The Grand Juries of the State of Florida
empanelled…do present that Moses E. Barber did on the 21st day of
February in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy in the County of
Orange and State of Florida willfully feloniously and of malice aforethought
kill and murder one David W. Mizell….”
Rebecca’s attorney throughout her period of securing
Mose’s assets was William B.”Bill” Turner of
The Suwannee County Barbers related a tale of Mose’s end
on the banks of the
It was said the husband succumbed to fear and dug up the
body and tossed it into the river. While
at a drinking establishment a few days later, he, in a drunken state, confessed
to the murder. Supposedly, the
Search as well as I could, I found nothing remotely
connected to such an incident in
Dennis Padgett found an inventory and appraisement of the
estate of Mose in the
There was also a list of notes belonging to Mose’s estate, viz. W. M. Ives, $150.00; David Hope, $135.00; Jesse Long, $30.00; P. G. Moore and W. H. Prat, $100.00; James Griffin, $50.00; James Griffin, $45.80; J. F. Hunt, $150.00; Thomas A. Perry, $7.50; and M. Whitsmith, $175.00.
Most researchers now agree Mose must have succeeded in
faking his death and either lived out his life in
If Mose Barber was such an outstanding character that influenced much of this state’s history, why haven’t more people heard of him?
The victors always write the histories.
mose and leah’s children’s stories (and some
of their grandchildren too)
mary Ellen “Nellie” “Nell” Barber Hale
Aunt Nellie was a spunky lady, somewhat tomboyish. Her pluck can best be illustrated by a story from her teen years. She had, as was her wont, risen early to prepare breakfast for Jason the boss slave so that he could start his supervisory duties at first light. It was well before daybreak. She was frying bacon in a large open kettle over the fire. The grease was roiling rapidly. She caught sight out of the corner of her vision an Indian snaking in through the scuttle hole. She acted as if she was ignorant of the Indian’s presence, and when the intruder drew back his hatchet to bury it in Jason’s head she threw the kettle of boiling grease on the Indian. As he rolled on the sand floor in agony, Nellie grabbed a lighted faggot from the fireplace and torched the Indian. She and Jason managed to push the burning body into the fireplace. He burned to death before their eyes. His screams brought the family in. It was said Aunt Nellie’s hands were not blistered from handling the kettle. Some labeled it a miracle. Others claimed her hands were badly burned and she hid them in gloves when visiting or entertaining.
I asked what had the storytellers heard about the disposal of the Indian’s body. “They drug ‘eem out and used ‘eem fer buzzard bait.” I presume that meant the slaves quickly and unceremoniously deposited the corpse in a shallow grave in the woods
She married Joseph
“Joe” Hale. Their first farm was
several miles south of Barbers’ Station, and their last homestead was near
I don’t know about their children except for a daughter
named Nellie. Young Nellie lived in
Lawtey for a while and then moved to
Nellie was kin to the
Anne attended
She received her nursing degree at, I think, St. Luke’s in
Miss Harwick wrote a sports column for a weekly
Although Cousin Anne was a masculine sort of girl, wearing
jodhpurs and riding boots when most women in the area were not baring elbows,
she had her coterie of gentlemen friends.
Besides Sheriff Jones, there were Willard
Finley and my granddaddy Rowe Barber.
She retired to a home in Boonesville, Virginia and in 1968 wrote a novelette titled Possum Trot based on her experiences in Baker County (well, not all her experiences…some are best untold). This fulfilled a plan made with Willard Finley many years before. A small absorbing book, there are few morals taught, no seat gripping plot, but it is thoroughly readable and entertaining. The dialect is the truest Cracker and black speech ever attempted to date. Older heads of the county had a great time identifying the characters that are weaved colorfully and believably throughout her story.
I corresponded with her in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s. When her letters ceased, I assumed she had died.
Her brother was a lawyer in
I think there were other Hale children; if so, I lost their names in the ’79 vandalism.
Isaiah was Mose’s oldest son and was reputed to be his favorite. Mose believed he could trust him with his assets. Isaiah was fair, slender, and with longish hair worn in the popular windswept style of the day. His daguerreotype showed him to look much like my uncle Cary Barber. Like his father he was a smart dresser.
Isaiah married _________ Alexander. They lived south of Mose’s house, probably just north of the present US 90 and east of the river. Later he erected a house for them south of the present Glen Saint Mary. They had three sons (perhaps four). Their names were James Edward (born 1853), Wright (born 1854), and Isaac J. (or C.) “Crazy Isaac” (born 1855). Isaiah’s wife was a sister of William Wright “Bill” Alexander. Her parents were William Wright and Laston (? nee Osteen) Alexander, Sr.
His wife died in the mid 1850’s, presumably soon after her last child was born (perhaps in childbirth) leaving Isaiah with the three boys. A few of the older heads in the family claim there was another son named Jack, but this was probably another of the orphaned kids taken in by the Barbers (“Jack” showed up so frequently in Barber oral history that one sometimes wonders if he might not be the same young’un just popping up all through the Barber families).
Several of Isaiah’s first wife’s Alexander kin (Lazy Amos and “Pig”) and a few Barbers moved, for reasons never learned, to the area south of Tallahassee (I visited with their descendents in the late 1960’s).
Isaac wandered all over the state living with relatives
until a cousin in central
On
After Isaiah and Lizzie married
they set up housekeeping on Willingham Branch/Brickyard Branch south of the
present Macclenny and west of the present SR 228. It was where their children were born. A seedling pecan tree Isaiah and Lizzie
planted in the mid 1850’s stood west of
In case some wonder about the frequent moves of old time pioneers, it must be remembered that land wore out and the folks of that day had little choice but to seek new fertile ground.
Just prior to leaving for Confederate armed service, Isaiah owned four slaves.
At
this writing, I can look from my front porch to the northwest and see the site
of Isaiah’s house and then look east-southeast and see Little Mose’s home site.
After Isaiah went into the CSA Army, his older sons from the first marriage left home. It was said they resented having a stepmother not much older than they bossing them about. None was ever known to return home. Some of Lizzie’s grandchildren quoted her as saying, “I warn’t unhappy with their leavin’ neither.” James Edward and Wright supposedly went to Texas (as everybody was thought to do in those days when no one knew just where their departed relatives and neighbors had gone, and, incidentally, the entire world west of the Suwannee River was Texas to most folks in east Florida). Isaac remained with Lizzie for a few years.
When my grandfather Barber was a kid, two young men from
A number of people have sent me data about Jack Barber (or
Jack Barbers) who lived in
Crazy Isaac, as mentioned earlier, wandered about the state staying with relatives. When the kin in central Florida wondered why they had to put up with him, some one said, “Hell, he’s got a brother Duff Barber in Macclenny; let him take care of him.” When Uncle Duff was contacted, he gave them permission to put his half-bother away as he didn’t want to be bothered. Perhaps it is of interest that poor Crazy Isaac had a nephew, a niece and two great-nieces who were committed to institutions for mental illness.
Isaiah was literate, and this, plus his head for figures,
made him a wise choice for the job of shipping clerk for his father’s cattle
business. His first job was in the late
1840’s in
Isaiah received land in
Isaiah was conscripted into the
CSA Army (
Lizzie’s four kids were almost more than she could handle. After she moved back to the Barber Plantation, her kids sic-ed the dogs on a peddler and drove him up a shelter over the well. The shelter fell and the peddler fell into the well. The kids kept him there all day until their mother returned that night. They were punished, but it seemed to have no lasting effect. Peddlers avoided the Barber place for years much to the dismay of Lizzie who depended much on their wares.
A black hobo came
by and asked for a cup of water from the well.
They set the dogs on the poor fellow and sent him down the well
also. For this they were punished again
and were sworn not to chase anybody down the well again. They kept their promise, and the next time a
passer-by stopped for a drink of water, they made the dogs chase him up a tree rather than down the well.
Isaiah had gone to war and Lizzie left
Lizzie had heard from some soldiers on leave that Federal troops were to come through and meet the Confederates at Olustee, and some gave her hope that Isaiah would be among the Confederates there.
After learning of the Yankee approach, she and the kids buried their valuables in the creek bank. The valuables included her cured meat.
A black unit and its white
officer marching down either the pike or the
Lt. Duran advised Lizzie to get
away from her house as soon as possible; there would be many more
When the bluecoats left, Lizzie
immediately loaded her children into a wagon and made for her sister Margaret and brother-in-law Durham Hancock’s farm near the present
Lulu (? was Margaret still alive at that time and did Lulu exist at that time?). Before she reached
the Hancock’s, she heard the thunder of the cannon at Ocean Pond. She unloaded the children at her sister’s
house and headed for Olustee.
She arrived in time to have her wagon and herself commandeered to haul ammunition from the train to the battlefield. After each delivery, she set in to loading rifles for the men. It was said by family and non-family that she was the first civilian to reach the battlefield.
The battle died down, and by dusk the Union troops retreated hastily and in a disorganized manner. Lizzie went among the dead and wounded soldiers looking for her husband. Other women had arrived by this time, and, like her, they were searching for husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers. As Lizzie made her way through the dead and dying, some begged for water. She returned to her wagon for a bucket and fetched water from some source (? At what was later known as the John Brown farmhouse within the battlefield). More begged. She brought bucket after bucket. She later said that when she answered their pleas to have their thirst quenched, she didn’t take notice of the color of uniform or of skin.
She didn’t find her husband (he
was already dead far away in
After the war she was able to write the young man’s parents and send them the prayer book and crucifix. They answered with deep gratitude and asked if they may visit her and see their son’s grave. For several years they were winter visitors with Aunt Lizzie. They stayed at her Hotel McClenny until age prevented their traveling.
We know that there is at least one grave in the vicinity of the battlefield (see my column THE WAY IT WAS stories on the Battle of Ocean Pond/Olustee for more known interments at the site).
The Barber girls - Lizzie and Vic - returned to the old Barber house after the Federal troops had departed and tried to make it habitable, but its condition resisted all efforts. The house had been used as a Union hospital and was in a horrid state, fetid, dirty, and blood stained. An old story that might be apocryphal since it has been heard from several different parts of the country for various times and reasons had it that Lizzie and Vic scrubbed the blood stains from the wounded Yankee soldiers from the floor puncheons in vain. The stains not only would not disappear but they got brighter. They then called in a neighbor who was handy with carpentry tools to plane away the blood marks, but that too was of no avail; the red became redder.
In the early 1870’s the Barber widows lost the plantation, bloodstains and all. Reconstruction robbed them of their property and inheritance. Their brother-in-law George William “Bill” Barber and Joseph Andrew “General” (whatever his relationship was) availed them selves of their not rightful shares whenever they could. It was in the late 1870’s that Mose’s house burned to the ground.
Lizzie moved to her house near Willingham Branch/Brickyard Branch south of the present Macclenny and was there until she was able to purchase the Hotel McClenny (see later).
Mr. Charley Turner, former
That any of the Barber widows would seek medical advice from a newcomer strikes one as strange if one knew the women. Lizzie and Vic were accustomed to using witchcraft (for lack of a better word) for their physical ills and ill fortunes. Once when Lizzie’s hogs were dying (? Cholera) she sought the advice of Mr. Elisha Wilkerson, Sr. He was known as the local witch. He instructed her to get her young’uns together and all of them gather a huge log pile, throw the swine corpses on it, and set it afire. He further advised her that before sundown a stranger - a woman - would come a’borrowing, but that she must not let her have the item wanted or the spell would not work.
She did as told, and as the dead hogs were burning, sure enough a woman she had never seen approached and asked for the loan of a smoothing iron. Aunt Lizzie hated to turn the lady down, but she refused to lend the iron. The lady pleaded. Aunt Lizzie felt sorry for the woman but she held resolute. The woman then cried, cursed, shrieked, fell on the ground, and urinated all over herself, but Aunt Lizzie held fast.
The hogs’ deaths ceased except for those healthy ones intended for hoisting on the gambrel post that winter.
I think we can see that destruction of the dead swine and the cholera that killed them (if it was cholera) was more effective in halting the epizoodic than refusing to lend a smoothing iron. Of course, had there not been a little mysticism involved, Aunt Lizzie might not have thought much of the witch’s advice and instructions.
Aunt Lizzie did a little witching herself. Talking out fire and talking off warts seemed to be her specialty. Like her sister Victoria, she used scriptures; therefore it couldn’t be labeled the devil’s work.
Sometime around
the mid 1870’s and again about the turn of the century Lizzie and Vic traveled
to Kissimmee and neighboring areas to investigate whether it was possible to
acquire land or cattle that was owing to them from the Barbers there. Vic held a deed for forty acres of what is
now the city of
When I began to
visit the Barbers of central
Charley and Duff,
sons of Vic and Lizzie, respectively, tried a few times to claim property down
the state, but they were unsuccessful also.
Charley said he would rather have the good will of his kin than to push
their claims, and he ceased his efforts.
Aunt Lizzie was on
the tax list for
Soon after the
war, Aunt Lizzie tried to operate an overnight inn or sorts for travelers at
the old Barber house. On one of those
nights when she entertained a guest, her sole guest, she experienced an eerie
event (Aunt Lizzie’s bunch loved eerie events).
She and the gentleman traveler were sitting at her fireside conversing
when they heard a shower on the shingled roof, a shower that sounded like many
small rocks. The conversation
stopped. They listened. Again a shower of what sounded like rocks hit
the roof.
Aunt Lizzie kept
an ax by the fireplace with her at night (and it accompanied her to her
bedchamber when she retired). She clem’d
on a lantern (lit it, you benighted non-Cracker souls), picked up the ax, and
went into the clear chilly night to investigate (never heard why the gentleman
did not go in her stead…maybe he surmised haints were not given to attacking
ladies…maybe he was just smart like me and didn’t check on ghostly
things). On her way out, there was
another shower on the roof.
She related the
tale to her grandchildren that she checked the entire yard that had been
freshly swept that day and there were no footprints to be seen. She added that in the first light of morning
she went farther from the house around the big yard and found no indication
anyone had chunked rocks on the roof, and…she found no rocks anywhere. Her grandchildren told me she said she then
sat and wondered where rocks would have come from in
Showers of rocks that couldn’t be found have been happening in this county down into the 1960’s (? meteor showers).
Lizzie was able to sell her boarding house in
George Washington Barber was the oldest of Isaiah and Lizzie’s children. He married Cornealia “Nealie” “Neal” Tanner, daughter of David Hagin and Harriett (nee Campbell/Camel) Tanner. There were several children by this marriage.
They homesteaded west of the
When the Rowes and Tanners
exchanged properties in the 1870’s, George and Nealie went to
Uncle George was a quiet man who engaged in farming, cutting timber and cross ties, and raising cattle and swine. He was never affluent, but his family never went hungry.
George was his cousin Charley Barber’s strong-arm man. Whenever G-grandpa Charley was to keep an appointment with an unfriendly sort, he always took his cousin George with him. George sat on a log at a distance and whittled while G-grandpa and his adversary discussed their differences. It was said the adversary, enemy, whatever would keep darting his eyes over to where Uncle George sat silently whittling and seemingly unaware of the meeting. People were afraid of him, but his children remembered only a kind and gentle father.
Some of Uncle George’s sons and grandsons were rough customers (see the newspaper account below of the killing of his son George Isaiah “Buddy” Barber).
After their son George “Buddy” was killed at Mattox
Crossing in 1902, George and Nealie and their children moved to Peniel near
Palatka. When they died, the family
buried them in
Uncle George and Aunt Neal had a
large family. They were John Benjamin, Harry Monroe, George
Isaiah “Buddy”, Robert B. “Bob”, Alonzo S. “Lon”, Thomas McDuffy “Duff”, Harriet Elizabeth “Hattie”, David Burton “Burt”, Grace, Pearl, Wade Hampton, Moses
Edward “Mose”, and “Red” (Red is surely one of the listed sons…? Burt). Uncle
Bob married Delia Chesser (or Motes). Uncle John married (1) Alice Charity Chesser,
daughter of William Marten “Bill” and Zilphia (nee Hicks) Chesser (2) Ida Dixon. Uncle Harry married Sarah Rachel “Babe” Wilkinson. Aunt
Hattie married a Smith. Aunt Pearl married a Motes.
Wade married Stella
___________, Red (whatever his proper name) married Emmy Hicks.
John Benjamin
had two sons by Alice – George Isaiah who went by his first
name George and Francis Pons “Frank.” After
Aunt Alice died he married Miss Ida
Dixon and they had Earnie and Mildred. Earnie married Grady Chitty of
In Uncle John’s last days he lived in a tiny apartment on
Uncle John knew the old Barber tales; he had listened to his grandmother Lizzie and absorbed well. I particularly liked the fact that his narratives were in the old Cracker speech.
Uncle John spent most of his childhood living with his
grandmother Barber in the Hotel McClenny in Macclenny. He was the City of
I think he was the oldest of his siblings.
HARRY MONROE BARBER
Uncle Harry Barber and
his wife the former Miss Sarah Rachel “Babe” Wilkinson (a pretty lady)
lived in a small house in Hollister.
This list of their children might be incomplete: Mabel,
born 1900, married Kirby Cannon; Edward, born 1906, married Naomi Williams;
He was a happy gentleman. His speech was clipped and rapid; I have never known anyone who talked as fast as he. He laughed about how some people couldn’t understand his fast speech. He once said, “They’se been times I couldn’t keep up with m’self to know what I’uz a’ talking about” (imagine that line with no spaces between the words). His eyes were dark, and his hair was still black even in advanced age. Aunt Babe was sickly when I knew her.
Uncle Harry lived with his grandmother Barber in her Hotel McClenny and was the appointed Bible reader for his great grandmother Mary Thompson. He recalled sitting at her feet on the porch of his grandmother Lizzie’s hotel reading aloud his great grandmother’s requested passages. He said if he missed a word, his great grandma was quick to correct him, and none too gently either. He often interrupted his narratives with laughter. I kept the homespun cloth covered Bible (printed in the 1850’s) for several years before I gave it to my cousin Gary Barber.
I remember several warm visits sitting around his and Aunt Babe’s’s little “red hot” wood-burning heater.
Ms. Julie (nee Barber) Kowalski of
George isaiah “Buddy” Barber
George “Buddy” Barber was unmarried I believe. See his story in the T-U article that follows.
“the
STORY OF TRAGEDY AT MATTOX STATION…Told by
Both Sides, and Very Differently…GOSS MATTOX ARRESTED…Will Be Taken Back to
Nassau County…Mattox Says that he Killed George Barker [sic] in
Self Defense – Barker’s [sic] Relatives Claim That This is Not the Truth [capital
letters are as copied]
“The shooting of George Barber, a resident
of Mattox Station, which took place on Thursday afternoon, had its sequel
yesterday in the capture of Goss Mattox, who was found by three county officers
at the St. Charles Hotel on
“At the time this statement was given out by
Mr. Mattox, another version of the story was told by M. D. Barber, an uncle of
the deceased, who was instrumental in Mr. Mattox’s capture. He said that when Barber met Mattox he had no
ill-feeling against him. They were close
neighbors, and for a long time had been the best of friends. George Barber went over to see Mattox about
the opening in the fence. The rough
words were used not by Barber, but by Mattox, he said, who he said was very
high tempered, and became angered very easily.
This statement was made by George Barber before he died, according to
their side of it. While talking with
Mattox, Barber was joined by his younger brother, Robert, who had been out
hunting alligators. They made no threat
to shoot Barber [sic…should have read “Mattox”], but when they saw that things
could not be settled amicably went away quickly. It was then that Mattox, as they said, ran to
the house and came back with a
The Mattox family owned a large turpentine distillery on
the unpaved
For the uninformed, a cooper was a barrel maker, a necessity for the turpentine distilling industry. A stiller “cooked” the raw gum (sap) of the pine and distilled the pure spirits of turpentine from the steam.
Goss Mattox died in an automobile crash several years later.
Molly (nee Chesser) Crews and her husband John lived at Mattox Crossing. Her sister Alice was married to George and Robert Barber’s brother John. She was convalescing from the birth of her first child when the murder occurred. She had rolled over in bed just in time to see the shooting through her bedroom window. She told me a slightly different story from either of the above, and her version did seem to make the Barber boys the aggressors and that there had been difficulty between the two families for quite a while. It doesn’t take much reading of the account to figure out there had to be much more of a problem than a hole in a fence, and that problem had been around for quite a while.
Aunt Molly and her new born were taken by wagon to the county seat (Fernandina) about 60 miles away where she would be called as a witness. Uncle John made a pallet in the wagon bed for them. She recalled the trip was rough on her. Although she had another baby – Jesse - she always believed it was the major factor preventing her from having more children. I could not understand why a wagon trip was necessary when the citizens of Mattox Crossing could have taken the train to the county seat. Uncle John said the rail company claimed they had no facilities for a new mother and infant.
George was buried in
Uncle Duff and G-grandpa Charley did some excellent sleuthing to find Mr. Mattox. Both had connections with the various law enforcement offices of the area, and they utilized them in tracing Mattox.
Uncle Bob Barber was a delightful character. He had run a little ‘shine in his younger days and accumulated considerable assets in land and money. He and Aunt Delia lived in a modest frame house on Route 19 just out of Palatka (pronounced “Platkee” by Crackers). He sported diamond rings on his fingers and wore a broad brimmed hat. He raised cattle and was an avid hunter. When Uncle Bob talked he lowered his head and spoke soft and low as if he were telling a secret. His speech was clipped and accompanied by an impish smile.
Aunt Delia, on the other hand, was a quiet pleasant lady who was content to stay at home and rear her three children – Sidney, Ocie, and Belle.
See more about Uncle Bob in the Times-Union story (above) of the killing of his brother George by Goss Mattox.
Their older son Sidney married Jessie Johnson. I don’t think they had children,
but she might have had some by a previous marriage.
Ocie Barber married a delightful and pretty lady who was born a Heirs and was first married to a Heisler (a member of one of
His wife was lively and talented
in many directions, especially art and cooking.
She had children by her first marriage, and I can’t recall any by
Ocie. Ocie became an Alzheimer’s victim
in middle age. They
lived in an old large charming house outside the city of
Belle Barber married a Champion. She and her husband were asthmatic and
severely crippled by rheumatoid arthritis.
They lived in a tiny frame house with
All the family was Baptist. Ocie’s widow attended a little church near Salt Springs.
wade hampton barber
I didn’t know Wade
Barber well; he died soon after I made his acquaintance. His wife
Stella, a most pleasant lady, was unable to give me much information about
him due to the fact she was much more interested in telling me how the Lord had
led Wade and her self to the
Aunt Pearl
married a Motes, Aunt Grace married a Futch, and Aunt Hattie
married a Smith. All three ladies were conservative in
appearance and demeanor. I recall they
wore black a lot. None
was given to frivolity. Aunt Pearl wrote
me once with words of praise for her parents, especially her father. Sadly, I have little to offer on these lovely
ladies.
“red” barber
I don’t recall which of the boys was called “Red.”
Perhaps he was Burt. He was
confined to the
Mary leah Barber Rowe
Mary Leah “Cissy” Barber Rowe was a sharp-faced stern lady as I remember her. She was stern faced even in tintype photos when she was a teenager, and she was reputed to be somewhat hard to handle by her widowed mother. I was afraid of Aunt Cissy, and I’ve been told such fear about her in children was not uncommon. She was nearsighted with thick glasses, and she looked down her aquiline Barber nose on everybody, especially us young’uns. She is not remembered as having a sense of humor. She insisted on high morals in her children…a lesson well learned by them.
Aunt Cissy was a bit snobbish about being a member of the “first families” and she instilled some of that in some of her descendents. She referred to those she considered less than her status as, “…not our kind of people.” If it were kinfolk who didn’t measure up to her standards, she said, “They’re a bit different” or “They don’t act just like us.” Some of her grandchildren said they could not recall she ever took one of them on her lap or of hugging them.
My mother Pearle Chesser Barber and my aunt Dorothy Barber Spence, when young women, were invited to visit Aunt Cissy’s place by her son John to scratch penders (to the benighted, that’s “digging peanuts”). That was in the late 1930’s when women were just beginning to wear shorts and halter tops in the urban areas of the state. None of the local females dared dress in that manner, but the above-named girls had been out in the world and were ready to test their neighbors and kin with their fashionable costumes. Aunt Cissy met them at her door and asked, “What are you young women a’wantin’?” They answered, “Cousin John told us we could come over and scratch penders.” “Not dressed like that are you goin’ into my pender patch”, she snapped. “If you want to go into my pender patch, you can go home and put on some clothes.” I asked them years later, “What did you do?” They said, “We went home and put on some clothes and went back to scratch penders; we were afraid not to.”
She married Asa William “Acie” Rowe, a son of Edward Roger and Eliza Frances (nee Tanner) Rowe. Uncle Acie was fond of the bottle. They had several children. – Frank, Nettie Elizabeth, James Arthur, John William, Mary Alma, Bessie, DeWitt Talmadge, and Waldo Cummer. They were reared up to respect and follow the work ethic.
Frank rowe
Cousin Frank Rowe was a tall lanky gentleman with dark hair and his mother’s Barber aquiline nose. He married Miss Maud Britt, and they had several children – Irene (married Ike Shepard), Marie (married Jimmy Burnsed), Edith (married a Brant), Mary (married a Roberts), Bill, Curtis, Ruth (married A. L. Finley), Joe, and Richard.
Cousin Frank did some blacksmithing and worked on building
Cousin Frank was a hugger and kisser at church and family re-unions.
Nettie Elizabeth Rowe
Miss Nettie Rowe learned all the housework necessities as well as farming. There were no shirkers in her parents’ household. She believed in the dignity and need of hard work and had no truck for those who were idle.
In 1905 she was approached by a school trustee to try her
hand at teaching. She agreed to enter
the school system and taught intermittently until 1918 in the
Glen Nurseries opened jobs to women in the early 1920’s,
and after a short stay in
An opportunity presented itself in early 1939; the Macclenny Fish Market was up for sale (I think it was owned by the Jewell family). Miss Nettie, who had frugally saved most of her earnings, was able to buy the business. It was as owner of the fish market that most people remember her. “The fish market without a odor” was the way locals described her center-of-town business. She received her merchandise three times weekly and to the inevitable question of the fish being fresh, she curtly and unsmilingly answered, “Only kind I sell.”
Another opportunity came when the local Times-Union delivery route became vacant. Believing the job would be perfect for her sister Alma (the only one of the girls that drove), still at the nursery, Miss Nettie inquired for her. “No women” was the reply. Miss Nettie and her brother John worked to clear the way for a female to fill the position and Miss Alma began (feminists, take note: this was a real pioneering step).
Miss Alma soon tired of the somewhat difficult and tedious
job. She returned to the farm and John
became the deliveryman. For almost 18
years Miss Nettie remained in the fish market.
She rose at 3 a m, rolled papers until 7, took
a short nap with her shoes on, and opened by
To keep things interesting and busy while at the market (she had plenty of business during WW II since fish was considerably cheaper and more plentiful than meat), she cooked for her single brother Art, took in sewing, and added a line of penny candy to her wares.
Miss Nettie was a seamstress who could tackle any sewing job and conquer it…and conquer it superbly. She made all her own clothes, sewed for her family, and sewed as a means of supplementing her income at her fish market. In those days I designed my own shirts and Miss Nettie made them for me. I was quite a dandy (or so I thought).
She always dressed well and conservatively. And she always wore ear bobs and tasteful jewelry (keeping it minimal).
Miss Nettie retired in 1956 and went home to her house on
Miss Nettie was an individualist. She worked, knew difficult times, and laughed
all her 90 years. She was one of the
pianists and officers of the
She remained unmarried, but admitted to having had three serious suitors and two near trips to the altar (she showed me her wedding dress of white soft fine wool, linen, and Belgian seed pearls…I didn’t know a thing about all that but it was beautiful).
The day before her marriage, her intended canceled their
day together, claiming business in
Revised