Mose’s second family

 

Rebecca Clements Barber

Mose’s common-law wife was Rebecca Clements.  Rebecca was reared by Mose’s brother and sister-in-law Sam and Mary near Olustee and is believed to have been orphaned as a result of an Indian raid.  She had family in Columbia County and in south Georgia and was probably a niece of Sam Barber’s wife.   As a young woman she was occasionally resident in Mose and Mary Leah’s house.

 

Rebecca was reported to be a comely and intelligent young woman who did a more than adequate job of running the north Florida and south Georgia farms in Mose’s frequent absences.  Mose’s daughters-in-law, however considered her less than trustworthy, and one of her actions after Mose’s death (or disappearance) belied her prudence (see later).

 

When Becky assumed control of the plantation on the Little Saint Mary’s about 1860 she set up a tavern and inn for travelers on the Jacksonville-Tallahassee Road.

 

Mose and Rebecca’s first child was Samuel Jeremiah “Sam” Clements, born in New River County (that part now Baker) in 1860.  Their second was the first baby born in the new county of Baker in 1861.  They named her Virginia E. “Jenny” Clements.  After the war, there were three others – Julia H., Allen, and Mary Clements.  Julia and Allen were born in 1866, and Mary was born in 1871, and all three were born in Columbia County.  Jenny’s sister Julia is not to be confused with her daughter Julia. Sam and Jenny are the only two I’ve been able to learn anything of.

 

In some court records there is mention of Hezekiah Clements.  When I first came across a deed with his name on it in Columbia County (there was also a re-recording in the Baker County courthouse that has since vanished, along with several other valuable papers), I thought I was misreading the florid handwriting or that the recorder must have misheard “Hezekiah” for “Jeremiah.”  However, the deed is dated later – 10 September, 1863 - than the one below for Sam and Jenny.  In it, Mose declares himself a resident of Baker County and gives a 13 year old, more or less, Negro girl named Mary and a hundred head of cattle that was ranging at the time in the County of Brevard.  He plainly indicated Rebecca’s part would go to Hezikiah at her death or remarriage.

 

On 14 March, 1862, Mose gave cows and a slave girl to Sam and Jenny, both named Clements in the deed, for their maintenance and education.  The marks were described, and the brands were, “W”, “B with a fleur de lis made from the cross bar of the letter”, and “D.”  The transaction was made in Columbia County, although Mose gave his and Rebecca’s residence as being in Baker.

 

When invasion of north Florida by the bluecoats was imminent, Mose moved Rebecca and her children for their safety to Georgia in the vicinity of Hazelhurst Plantation and Moody’s Farm (in the present Jeff Davis County).  He had relatives there – notably John and Holden Barber.  Mose remained there for quite a while.   Not that I think it’s pertinent to this narrative…Hazelhurst’s principle crop was rice and Mose tried rice farming for a while in what is now down town Macclenny.

 

After Mose left her for parts unknown (despite all the named destinations given in various tales) in the fall of 1870, Rebecca took the children to her stepson Arch’s farm in the present Dixie County.  It should be noted that Rebecca’s stepson Arch was much older than she.

 

Evidence that Mose and Rebeccca were either legally married or were considered common-lawfully so after seven years cohabitation, came from the following:  (1) she as “Rebecca Barber” petitioned Mose for a lost deed in May of 1870, (2) she, as Mose’s wife, and Moses deeded land to C. B. McClenny in 1870, and (3) she appeared before the clerk of court in Columbia County as ”Rebecca E. Barber” and was his legal heir after he was declared dead in November of 1870.

 

Thanks to Mary Ida Shearheart, a document of June, 1870, has come to light of Rebecca Barber having appointed attorney Turner to take charge, in her name, of a herd of cattle in Brevard and Orange Counties and drive them to Lafayette County for delivery to her son-in-law Arch Barber.  Turner was to sell a sufficient quantity of the cattle to defray all expenses, pay her attorney, and also to pay a debt Mose owed John E. Luten “…and which W. H. Turner is security to.”  Some cows were marked swallow fork and under bit in one ear upper slope and under bit in the other and others were marked crop crop split upper and under bit in each ear.  The brands were “CP”, “B”, “SJ” and “B fleur de lis.”

 

Lawyer Bill Turner was rapidly getting his hands on Mose’s cattle and money.  The Lafayette and Suwannee Counties Barbers said his expenses ate up most of the herd.

 

In February, 1871, another Columbia County document, courtesy of Mary Ida, showed Rebecca E. Barber giving power of attorney to (!) John R. Mizell to collect the remaining Barber cattle in Orange, Brevard, Sumpter and other south Florida Counties.  In Mary Ida’s words, ”Like letting the fox in the chicken house!!”

 

About a year later an Orange County certification of a deed named Sam and Jenny as Clements again. 

 

If Rebecca received any assets from her dead husband’s estate, they didn’t last; it was told she died in poverty and dependent on her son-in-law Arch.  Some swore it was because her stepsons swindled her, but it is most likely that her new husband had his hands on her money even before they were married.

 

Rebecca’s attorney for all the proceedings to claim some of Mose’s estate for herself and her children was William B. “Bill” Turner (originally from North Carolina and a short time resident of Baker County.  His father William A. Turner was an attorney also).   They married before Mose’s supposed corpse had been figuratively laid out on the cooling board.  They had a daughter Ida Turner who was epileptic and who died in the state hospital at Chattahoochee.  After Mr. Turner either died or was divorced (no record found of either yet), she moved in with her sister Sylvanie and Sylvanie’s daughter a short distance east of O’Brien in Suwannee County (some of the Suwannee County Barbers said the sister’s name was Maggie).  She then married a Morgan.   In 1879 Rebecca was wed to W. F. Miley.  Grandma Becky didn’t stay still for long.

 

The Suwannee County Barbers think Rebecca moved back to Baker County and died there.  None of the Baker County clan recalls ever having heard of her after she left the Barber Plantation during the war.  The Baker County Barbers knew very little of Rebecca and evidently wanted to know even less.

 

Samuel Jeremiah Barber

The first child of Moses and Rebecca was Samuel Jeremiah “Sam” Barber, known as Sam.

 

Sam was reared mostly in Georgia near Hazelhurst and Valdosta where Mose had sent Rebecca prior to the Yankees taking over the plantation.  When his father disappeared, Sam, his sister Jenny, and their mother went to live with Arch’s family in Suwannee County and at Horse prairie (Cross City).

 

Sam’s first marriage was to Virginia Clements in Lake City in 1881.  There were two sons – Burrell (or Verdell) and Francis “Frank” – born of this marriage.  The boys’ mother died when Burrell (or Verdell) was about two years old and Frank was about six months old.  Sam left them with their grandmother Clements in Georgia.  He adopted them to their grandmother, but later decided to bring them to Suwannee County.  The boys were last known to be somewhere in southern Georgia.

 

Sam married, second, Nathan Americus Calhoun (nee Bryant) Howell, mercifully called “Callie.”  Their marriage was in Lake City in 1889.  After Sam’s death, Callie married Lige Byrd (? From Baker County). 

 

Sam built a large house on the banks of the Suwannee River near old Fort MaComb.  Fort MaComb was a leftover from the Second Seminole War and was on a road that ran from Saint Augustine to Tallahassee (The Spanish Trail I suppose).  There were two spacious “fire rooms” connected by a breezeway of about twenty feet width.  The kitchen connected to the main house by a long covered dogtrot.  Fire room was the term for a room with a fireplace as opposed to those unheated ells which were eventually added to almost all old Cracker homes as the family increased.

 

Sam operated a ferry at Fort MaComb.  As late as the 1960’s, and long after the ferry had ceased its runs across the Suwannee, some of the old timers still referred to the “Barber Ferry” when talking about that area.

 

A red bone puppy took up at the ferry.  He was fed and spoiled by all who came by.  Throughout the dog’s life he made every crossing.  He slept in the breezeway of the Barber house, but his keen ears caught the calls of potential fares from across the river.  He alerted his master day and night.  In winter he scratched at the door, and in summer he nosed his way past the screen door and pawed his master. 

 

When the old dog died, it was like a member of the family who had gone away.

 

A Barber either loves his dog(s) or despises all of dogdom…no in between.

 

I was told that Sam, like his brother Arch, was severely bent double by arthritis but that it didn’t prevent either of them from being effective horse riders and cowmen.  Sam had been given a large herd by his father as a beginning.  He worked with Arch in a common open range throughout the old Horse Prairie area as both their herds increased.

 

I was privileged to know Sam’s oldest and youngest sons.  Moses Edward Barber, the eldest, lived near O’Brien.  He had many stories to tell, including the one about how Mose, Sr.’s large painted portrait (this came as a surprise to me), over and under firearm, Bible, and the hatchet that an Indian threw at Moses’ grandsons or nephews were lost in the fire that burned the younger Moses (Sam’s son) home in the 1920’s.  His stories about how the Indians reacted when shot and the tale about the Indians sparing one of the Barber wives, and other stories, were amazingly similar to the ones heard from the family here, in Palatka, and in central and west Florida (these stories are found elsewhere in these notes).

 

Sam’s youngest son was Talmadge Barber.  He and his wife Mary owned a restaurant in High Springs.  He was influential among county government circles and owned the first hard liquor license in Alachua County.  He made a weekly trip to Jacksonville to buy supplies for his restaurant and always stopped by our Turkey Creek Restaurant for coffee.  He offered good advice to us but only when requested.

 

Virginia “Jenny” Barber

Jenny Barber married William A. “Sam” Clark in 1885 in Columbia County.  His family lived as sharecroppers on the west side of the river from the old Barber plantation home. Not much good was ever said of Sam or of most of his family.  His sister-in-law Callie Barber said, “He was no good.”

 

I will give a story here that I have serious doubts as to its authenticity; the chronology just doesn’t fit.  It was given to me by some of the Suwannee County Barbers, and I evidently copied it incorrectly. 

 

Sam was lazy in the extreme and kept Jenny and the kids in dire circumstances when Mose was not around to provide.  It was said that on one of those occasions when Mose was in central Florida, Jenny’s kids were hungry and they prevailed on their mother, “Ma, let’s go to Grandpa Mose’s and git some uv them taters and butter.  They’se too good to be fed to them niggers.”  This was in reference to the fact that Mose kept his slaves well fed.

 

I heard that Mose threatened Sam that if he didn’t begin to take good care of Jenny and her young’uns, “I’ll whup yore aise good fashion.  I’ll see to it that you won’t be a’gittin’ any more young’uns to starve to death, cause I’ll cut out your -----, you sorry son of a bitch.”  Sam supposedly left in the night taking Jenny and the kids with him.  They went from pillar to post in Suwannee and Columbia Counties in Florida and near Valdosta, Georgia.  I think they wound up near Live Oak.  Jenny left Sam and went to live in Horse Prairie (the present Cross City) with her half-brother Arch.  She was living with him during the great storm of 1896.

 

Jenny was born in 1861, Mose supposedly died in 1870.  This would have Jenny being married and with children at the age of nine when Mose was threatening her husband.

 

The Clarks had a daughter Julia.  I’ve never heard if there were more children.  She married A. N. Smith, and he died soon after their marriage.  Their one son was Milton Smith.

 

Arch and Jenny, though siblings and living under the same roof, did not always get along well.  Their spats were frequent.  During one of those particularly bitter arguments, Jenny threatened to go live with a bachelor named Bunk Cason.  Bunk lived not far from Arch’s place.  Arch yelled at her, “No sister of mine is a’gonna live like that!”  Jenny struck out at her brother.  Mr. Mose E. Barber of O’Brien said, “They wuz a’wrasslin’ all over the place.”  Jenny broke free and ran through the woods towards Cason’s house.

 

Arch took down his shotgun and rode to the Bunk Cason place.  He tethered his horse in the woods and approached Bunk’s house.  He peeped in through a chink in the one-room cabin’s wall and saw Bunk sitting by a fire (a mud and stick chimney) playing his accordion.    Arch placed his shotgun through an open chink between the logs and killed Cason.

 

Jenny found the body.  She returned to Arch’s.  She and her brother argued very little after that incident.

 

There is more to this story in Arch’s biography (see it earlier).

 

Moses’ siblings (and those thought to be his siblings)

Two known siblings of the subject of this narrative were Samuel “Sam”  (married [1] Clary [2] Mary [? Clements]) and William “Bill”  “Will” (married Susan - last name not yet learned). A sister (or perhaps a cousin) was Levicey (married Daniel John “Dan” Mann). Others mentioned as possible siblings were Archibald Aaron “Big Arch”, Elizabeth “Betty”, Isaac, John, and Joseph Andrew “General” “Big Joe” (married (1) Mary Smith (2) Ruthie [nee Spears] Ellison).  General and John were also sometimes referred to as Mose’s sons from an earlier marriage (this will be confusing to the reader throughout much of this narrative…sorry; it’s been confusing to the writer for many years too). 

 

Older heads in the family insisted Mose, the subject of these notes, had four sisters.

 

Family tales (and some tales outside the family) give these brothers and sister (or cousin) of Moses as having come to Florida in the wagon/cart ox train from Georgia:  Samuel “Sam”, William W. (? Warren or Wright) “Bill” “Will”, and Levicey “Vicey.   Joseph Andrew “General” and John were sometimes mentioned as brothers, but most thought they were sons by a previous marriage. Some family tales have it that William had already made his trip to Florida earlier and was there to meet the train.  The following tale came from John Benjamin Barber of Palatka and Moses Edward Barber of Suwannee County.  They were great grandson and grandson, respectively, of the subject of this writing.

 

John Barber

John Barber lived across the Little Saint Mary’s River from Mose and Leah.  Indians killed him soon after he arrived.  As was their wont the Indians attacked just before daybreak.  John was found in his cow pen and was murdered immediately.

 

His wife found his corpse and sent the oldest - Jack - with his two younger siblings to Mose’s stockade for their safety and to get help.  The youngest wasn’t a walker yet and had to be toted by Jack.  As they ran, an Indian threw a small tomahawk at them.  It scarcely missed Jack and stuck in the gatepost.  Jack placed the baby on the ground, pulled the weapon from the gatepost and said to his younger brother, “Looky hyear, Buddy, what a purty little tommyhawk!”  He picked up the baby, grabbed his brother’s hand, and ran to his uncle’s stockade.

 

The widow rushed back to her husband and cradled his head in her lap.  The Indians returned to finish off their job of slaughter.  She bowed her head and waited for death.  One of the surviving children (can’t remember the name given me) told his cousin Moses E. of Suwannee County, son of Samuel Jeremiah, that he saw an Indian grab his mother’s thick hair to scalp her, stroked it for a while, and then motioned others over to see that her hair was black, coarse, and straight.  They discussed something hurriedly and then let her go.  The survivor later mused that they must have thought she was either Indian or had Indian blood in her and decided against harming her.  In time, the tale had the Indian saying, “We won’t kill her; she has Indian blood in her.”

 

I haven’t figured out how the unfortunate child saw and heard his mother being spared when he was running for his life across the field toting a young’un and dragging another toward his uncle’s house.

 

Another ending to this tale has it that the mother was expecting, and Indians feared bad luck and uncleanliness if they touched a pregnant woman.  I have a feeling that I could have collected as many endings to the story as the number of people I interviewed about it had I continued.

 

Mose kept the widow and her children for a long while.  Jack remained with his uncle for the rest of Mose’s life (this Jack could be confused in the memories of the tale spinners with Andrew Jackson, son of William W.).  What happened to the others isn’t known. 

 

The tomahawk was among the prized possessions of Samuel J. and his son Moses E. in Suwannee County until the artifacts were destroyed in the 1920’s in a house fire.  G-g-g-grandpa Mose’s over and under firearm and his large painted portrait were victims of the blaze also. 

 

The second son was believed by some family members to be Moses Ben Barber (?  Moses B. F. Barber.  See Moses B. F. Barber).  To further muddy the waters of history, there were three Ben Barbers, and they have become mixed, fused, and confused in oral history.

 

One of the other sons might also have been William Jasper Barber who lived near Samuel J. in Suwannee County for a long while.  His descendents think he was a son of Mose’s brother William, but his name isn’t found in any list of William’s children.  I frankly think his descendents have their forebear and stories inadvertently mixed.  To add to William Jasper’s mystery, he said he had accompanied his uncle Mose to central Florida, was involved in the feud, escaped the murdering posse, lost his first family in an epidemic of some sort (? yellow fever of 1888), and was occasionally called “Jack” by the kin of central Florida.  Most of the Horse Prairie Barbers insisted he was not related to them in any fashion.

 

Ah, Confusion, thy name is Barber.

 

Another tale of an Indian raid is similar but with everybody in the family killed.  The father, supposedly a brother of Mose, went down the hill from his little cabin in the early morning to untether his oxen for the day’s plowing. His wife busied herself in the house, and their two young children, barely infants, were left playing on the front stoop.  As the young father was hooking up the oxen a small band of Indians crept out of the woods. They jerked the children up and bashed their brains out against a corner of the house.  The father rushed back and found his babies with their brains scattered against the cabin and his wife with a tomahawk buried down into her shoulders, her head split in two.

 

The tale was told as if there had been an eyewitness; I suppose it was recreated from the scene that was found.

 

The great probability is that more than one Indian raid happened on family and neighbors, that the raid stories blended, separated, and re-blended in time as they were told and re-told, misheard, and inadvertently incorrectly handed down.  There could have been a healthy dose of Barber coloring added also.

 

Joseph Andrew “Big Joe” “General” Barber

Joseph Andrew Barber, perhaps Mose’s brother but most likely a son by a first marriage, is sometimes referred to as “Big Joe”, but most often he is known by his more popular nickname “General”.  He was a dandy who sported gold jewelry and drove the finest buggy.  He was considered somewhat unscrupulous and often outside the law.  Some of the older heads mentioned his fine appearance and inflated ego.  He was either rich or gave the appearance of being so.  He was not close to the family.

 

General was born about 1820. This would seem to place him as a son rather than a brother of Mose, especially so since Mose, born 1800, was supposed to be the youngest of his siblings.  General’s first wife was Mary A. Smith (b. c. 1829).  They lived in Duval County (1850 census) with children Catherine, b. 1843; Josephine, b. 1845; Mary, b. 1847; and Joseph Andrew, b. 1848.

 

He and his nephew (or half-brother…we don’t know at this writing) George WilliamMean Bill” Barber seemed to have a running contest as to which could sink the lowest.  They stole corn from each other and from the widowed Lizzie Barber.  When she put a lock on her corncrib door, they pulled the ears from between the cracks of the log crib…low scannels indeed.

 

No record has come to light of his Confederate service, if any.  Some of the family said he was in the infantry and that his bragging of his war service earned him the nickname “General.”

 

General lived in both north and central Florida and finally came to stay in the Jacksonville area in the 1880’s.  He and his wife received land in the Osceola-Brevard Counties in 1879 and 1883.

 

 His nephew John Benjamin Barber of Palatka told the following story.  He (Uncle John) was traveling into Jacksonville from Macclenny (never heard him say what was his mode of transportation) one evening during full moon (not unusual for folks to travel at night during the summer season), and when he approached the ford at Deep Creek, he saw an elderly well-dressed gentleman down alongside his fine buggy searching in the grass.  Uncle John didn’t recognize the old fellow (General didn’t hang around the family a lot), but he asked if he could be of service.  General introduced himself and said,  You be a Barber too, mighten you?”  John answered in the affirmative, and his uncle General informed him he had lost his gold watch.  Uncle John got down near the ground opposite the moon, as he put it, and began searching.  Soon he discovered the watch gleaming in the moonlight.  The old man was so grateful he gave his nephew a gold coin (can’t remember the denomination).  Uncle John said he never saw the old man again.

 

General’s last marriage (? in advanced age) was to Mrs. Ruthie (nee Spears) Ellison (she was the mother-in-law of William W. Alexander, Jr.).  Some of Aunt Ruthie’s descendents believed General was the father of her daughter Rachel, but others insisted it was not so.  I don’t have a clue as to the truth of the matter.  It was known that the Barbers, especially Aunt Lizzie’s bunch, visited the Alexanders often. Of course, this could have been because Isaiah’ first wife and Little Mose’s wife Penelope were daughters of William Wright, Sr. Some Alexanders said they would prefer not to remember their female relatives had married General and Little Mose.

 

Samuel “Sam” Barber

Sam Barber lived in that part of Columbia County that became Baker (near Olustee).  He also lived much of his life in the northern part of the present Columbia (land patent for that area received in 1844).  For a while he and a relative named Grandison Barber lived near each other in the Soakum neighborhood on the present Baker/Columbia Counties line.  He and his first wife Clary (Clarey, Clara) received land from the State of Florida in 1859 in the present Suwannee County.

 

Sam’s land deeds show he had interests in several pieces of land in the present Baker, Columbia, Suwannee, and LaFayette (pronounced Luh Fay’ it) Counties.

 

Sam’s second wife was Mary (? Clements).  Sam was supposed to be the eldest of the Barber brothers who came to Florida.  He didn’t accumulate wealth as did Mose, and he left very few records of his existence.  In the 1850 census he had $400 in assets, a lot for a Cracker at that time but nothing to compare with his brother Mose.  In 1840, however, he owned eleven slaves.  Some think he and Mary had no children but reared orphaned kids instead.  The 1840 census showed three young males and two young females living with them. Perhaps those were their offspring and might account for some of the Barbers of unknown origin who pop up in records quite often.  Sam is thought to have spent his final years in Suwannee County near the present Wellborn and is probably buried there.

 

In 1850 the census taker recorded Sam as being fifty years of age and having been born in South Carolina (the 1850 census is notorious for incorrect data, so one should take care in accepting this paragraph’s info).  It stated his wife Mary was also fifty years old and was born in Georgia.  She was listed as handicapped.  In the household were Vicey E. Barber, nine years of age and schooled; William Clements, aged six; and Rebecca Clements, aged eight. The three children were born in Florida. Some of the Suwannee County family said the Clements children were Mary’s brother’s kids.  Rebecca became the wife of Sam’s brother Moses several years later.  Vicey E. Barber’s relation is unknown.

 

Eleven years later he seems to have found the fountain of youth and was listed again as fifty years of age in July of 1861 when he enlisted at Lake City, Florida, for a term of twelve months in Capt. Wood’s Company B, 3rd Regiment Florida Infantry.  A month later he is on the roll of Capt. Wood’s company as having enlisted at Fort Clinch in Fernandina.  Of course this could be a different Samuel Barber; more searching will have to be done on this subject.

 

William W. “Bill”  “Will” Barber

William W. Barber was born about 1805 in Georgia (some think southeast Georgia and others hold for the area of Burke and Bryan Counties). 

 

His wife was Susan (maiden name not learned) from Georgia.  They were the parents of Francis Champion (called Champion), born about 1827, married Nancy Ennis (Hurst on some records); Samuel G. or E.Sam”, born about 1829; RhodaRhodie”, born about 1831, married Daniel Clifton; William W. born about 1833, married Rebecca; Nancy, born about 1835, married Marion Platt; John J., born about 1838; married Mary Yates; Andrew JacksonJack”, born about 1839, married (1) Violet Saphrone Roberson (2) Nancy A. Hull, died 1916; and Lidea, born 1842, married James Jefferson Patrick.  All the boys had schooling.  Champion, Sam, Rhoda, and William were born in Georgia; the others were Florida born.  Lidea was listed as handicapped. Francis GFrank” who is sometimes given in the list of William and Susan’s children might be Francis Champion.

 

There are conflicting stories as to whether Bill came down to Florida with the wagon/cart train or was already here.  There is a grant of Florida land on record to a William Barber in the late 1820’s, but it has proved to be another William (relationship, if any, unknown, although Huxford thought there was kinship).

 

William and Susan made their home on the south bank of the Saint Mary’s River on Trail Ridge.  In later years it was the farm of William M. and Zilphia Chesser and was known for a long time as the Chesser Place.

 

The following is a newspaper documentation – New York Herald issue of 8 June, 1841 - of the death of William W. “Bill” “Will” Barber, which, except for a few glaring inaccuracies, goes along well with the family tradition (it was written by a Northern person…that should explain the inaccuracies). 

 

“Day before yesterday a party of Indians attacked the house of William Barber on Brandy Branch about 35 (sic) miles from here, and after killing Mr. Barber by shooting him twice they scalped him, then stabbed him several times and stripped him.  His wife was at the cow pen near the house and was about to milk the cows, and hearing the shots that killed her husband, looked up and saw a young Indian standing on a log about 20 feet away with his gun.  She sprang toward her husband who implored her “For God’s sake, flee away and save yourself for I am done”, and as she turned away she saw him die.  By this time the Indians were in the house plundering when a little daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Barber rushed in among the Indians and seized her infant brother who had been left by the mother, and hurried off with him.  The Indians didn’t see her or the baby till she was inside the door.  One of them gave out a horrible yell to warn her to stop but she ran away, the Indian too engrossed in plundering.  Mrs. Barber with her two children hastened away and met four men en route to Jacksonville.  One of the men related the particulars of the murder of Mr. Daniel Green by the same party of Indians the same day about three miles from the Barber house.”

 

According to the correspondent the attack took place on the thirteenth of May, 1841. 

 

Some comments on the news item follows:  William Barber’s house was about 25 miles west of Jacksonville, not 35.  The infant was Jack, and the daughter who carried him away was Rhoda.  We don’t know exactly how people talked in those days (in spite of the ludicrous Southern dialects invented for made-for-TV miniseries), but we can safely doubt that there was ever a Barber who spoke so flowery, especially after being shot twice, stabbed several times, scalped, and – not to mention – stripped (weird Indians).  Mr. Daniel Green was one of two killed that day near the Mose Barber plantation.  He and a Mr. Thigpen were riding down from Georgia to warn the settlers on the south side of the river when they were attacked and killed by the Indians on the south bank of the Saint Mary’s.  Their graves were visible on the west bank of little Dick White branch until the early years of the 20th century.  Small cedar headboards marked the site, but they are long rotted away.  The widow of the Mr. Thigpen who was killed on the hill at the present Macedonie Church and Cemetery was Faraby Thigpen.  She began probate of her husband’s estate on May 2nd, 1842, in Duval County.

 

From several divers sources came the following tale of Uncle Bill’s death.  Most of the tales heard were not glaringly contradictory.  We probably have no means of ever learning what parts of which tales were inaccurate, so I combined them.

 

Bill and Susan were in a short lull between the toil of spring planting and cultivating and the gathering of crops in early summer (it was early May in 1841).  Susan was expecting again. 

 

Just before daybreak Uncle Bill went to the cow pen to tend to the morning milking.  A band of Indians broke out of the woods and shot him.  He called as best he could for Aunt Susan to fetch up the young’uns and run.  Rhoda grabbed the baby and rushed toward her uncle Mose’s plantation. Why Aunt Susan was not killed was not told (? Could the stories of the raids be fused and Aunt Susan was the part Indian Barber wife who was spared [see John’s story earlier] or was it because of a belief imputed to the Indians that they were fearful of touching a pregnant woman).  And where were the other children?

 

Mose had been sensing Indians around his place for two days.  Some connected this incident with his being shot in the shoulder (or dislocating it) while out checking on his swine in the present Glen Saint Mary area.  He sent a slave (name lost in history) to warn his brother and others in the vicinity.  About the same time he sent the slave on his mission, Susan and Rhoda with Jack arrived in the company of some men they had met on the way.  Aunt Susan and Rhoda had run the greater part of the way and were exhausted.  Mose put them in the care of Mary Leah and set out with a party toward his brother’s farm.  Jason and most of the older kin and white laborers were left to defend the plantation.

 

On the way he recruited Bryant Hicks and Jonathan L. Thigpen (they were related to each other…? nephew and uncle or cousin, respectively) among others.  They were from east of Trail Ridge and were riding hard to warn the settlers of the region of an imminent Indian attack. The Indians had departed, and Mose directed his crew to load his brother’s corpse into a wagon.  The party headed back to Mose’s plantation.

 

When they reached Bay Branch, about half way between the Barber’s homes, the Indians attacked again.  This time they killed Messrs. Hicks and Thigpen and Mose’s slave. 

 

The Indians withdrew, and the party continued their sad trip.  When they got to a bend in the trail on the crest of a white sandy oak ridge overlooking the Little Saint Mary’s River, the Indians descended on them once again.

 

The fight was long and fierce.  The sun was beating down, and the bodies were bloating.  Mose refused to leave the bodies for the Indians to mutilate and directed that the wagon used to haul the dead be broken down and made into two coffins…one large for the three white men and a smaller one for the slave.  While the battle raged, some of the men dug a common grave and interred the four in their two makeshift coffins. 

 

Eventually the Indians quit the fight, and Mose and his party were able to gain the plantation.

 

Another version has it that Susan and the children hid out in the woods after William was murdered and one of their slaves made the trip to Mose’s plantation to solicit aid.  This version said Susan and the children were with the party when they were attacked the second and third times.

 

Some old timers told me Mose planted four cedars at each corner of the common grave. Others claimed it was Susan who marked the grave with the cedars.  The truth is probably that the Hicks family did the planting.  Bryant Hicks’ father Eli was soon buried there also, and the site became known as the Hicks Burying Ground.

 

One lone cedar remains at the northeast corner of the grave.  It doesn’t have the height or girth to have been living there since the Indian raid.  Perhaps it replaced an older one or the sterile sand of the cemetery has kept it stunted.

 

 In the 1890’s a Methodist Church was established there and the cemetery was named for the church – Macedonia (Crackers know it as “Macedonie”).

 

Mose and his crew chased the Indians south for about eight miles before they lost them.  See the story about the chase under the heading the famous bulldogs and the indian attacks.

 

The widow Susan lived with and near Mose for several years and then headed south.  She and the children lived in the present Hernando and Marion Counties.  They moved to Orange County about 1855.

 

No matter where they lived, the kids were subjected to taunts by an Indian who called himself Ecochattee (or Econchattee).  He would step out of the woods and sing, “Ecochattee killed your daddy.”  He would grin and laugh as he disappeared back into the woods.  Ecochattee was an Alabama Miccosuckee (so I was told by some who study such things) who had lived in the Apalachicola area before going to the Okefenokee Swamp at the beginning of the Second Seminole War.

 

William’s widow later married Joe Ward (“Jack” according to some of that branch).

 

William’s children

 

Francis Champion

Champion Barber married Nancy Ennis in Duval County (that section now Clay).  She is also found in some of her family records as Nancy Hurst.  Ennis was on the 1855 marriage license. When his mother and siblings made their move to central Florida, Champion and his bride went too.  After living for short periods in other areas, they made their home at Boggy Creek in Orange County.

 

Their children were Samuel, born 1862, died 1888, married Margarete Hay; William Francis, born 1853, married Civility Beaty (daughter of Thomas J. and Charity [nee Frier] Beaty); Susan, born 1858, married George Sullivan; John, born 1860, married Mrs. M. E. Westcott; and Frances, born 1864, married Clement Sullivant.

 

Champion was called independent by some of his cousins.  Although he and Jack stayed with their uncle Mose a lot and worked the long cattle drives, Champion supposedly broke from the tight family and went his own way.  He was involved in the feud and was probably killed in the conflict. 

 

Champion served in the Seminole War 1856 to 1857.

 

Jeanne (nee Barber) Godwin of Pensacola is a g-g granddaughter of Champion and Nancy and has extensive material on William Francis and Civility Barber and their descendents.

 

Rhoda Clifton

Rhodie was the daughter who risked her life to save the baby Jack when the Indians attacked and killed her father in 1841.  She was also the second wife of Daniel Clifton, a son of Ezekial, originally from Tattnall County, Georgia (Daniel’s first wife was Dora Ann [surname unknown to me]).

 

Daniel (1828 – 1903) was living with his parents and siblings south of Olustee when he and Rhoda met and married.  In the fall of 1855 he and Rhoda left Columbia (Baker) County and settled in the north end of Volusia near the present Barberville.  There they farmed, raised cattle, and planted orange groves.  Daniel gained a reputation for success in his ventures.  It was said of him in his obituary that he “…accumulated considerable of this world’s goods, being a large stock raiser and orange grower.” 

 

Most of Daniel’s siblings left with him and Rhodie, but some of their descendents are represented in Baker County under the names Combs, Cowart, Long, and Harvey. 

 

The Cliftons had the following children:  Henry, 1855-1932; George W., 1857-1942; Wesley, 1859-1935; Isabel, 1861-1937; Francis “Frank”, 1863-1925; James Harmon, 1865-1936; Andrew, 1866-?; Reason, 1867-1933; Hardy, 1869-1875; Lydia E., 1871-1941; Elizabeth Ida, 1875-?; and Daniel “Danny”, 1876-1955.  Rhodie also reared Jonathan, 1851-1916, and William “Babe”, 1853-1920, children of Daniel’s first wife Dora Ann.

 

“Mrs. Rhoda Clifton, wife of Daniel Clifton, sr., who has been in feeble health for several years, died Friday, August 23, 1901, at 9 o’clock p. m., aged about 75 years.  The deceased leaves a husband, nine sons, three daughters, and many grandchildren, great grandchildren, and a host of friends to mourn their loss.  The sons are Jonathan, William (known as Babe), Henry, Wesley, George, Frank, Harmon, Reason, and Daniel, Jr.  The daughters are Mrs. W. E. (Isabel) Clifton, Mrs. George (Lydia) Marsh, and Mrs. Henry E. (Rhoda) Clifton.

 

“The deceased was a good Christian woman – quiet, inoffensive, with a heart full of human kindness.  She has doubtless heard the welcome plaudit, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joys of they Lord.’  She belonged to another day and generation who have almost passed on before.  The family have (sic) the sympathy of the entire community.  Brief funeral services were conducted at the grave by Rev. (sic) S. C. Butler, and the remains were laid to rest in the new cemetery at Lake Diaz.”

 

There are good Clifton family notes in the Baker County Historical Society library within the Barber files.  I couldn’t find the contributor’s name, but if he or she ever reads this, please know that I am grateful.

 

William W. Barber

William W. Barber, Jr., and his wife Rebecca are found on the 1860 Orange County census.  A William W., born 1854, married to M. P. and with an infant Moses B. F. is presumed to be William’s and Rebecca’s son.  There was also John R., born 1857, and an unnamed infant in the household. The William of this heading was in Company D 2nd Florida cavalry CSA Army. He and his brothers John J. and Andrew Jackson were transferred to other units not long after their enlistments. William was also in the Third Seminole War under Capt. William B. Hooker.  He mustered in January 3rd, 1856.  He was mustered out of state service and placed in the US service at Fort Meade on February 21st, of that year.

 

 

From The Daily Sentinel, 22 February, 1913:  “One of Orange County’s Oldest Citizens Passes Away – Thursday afternoon at the home of his daughter, Mrs. S. A. Hall, near Formosa, Mr. William W. Barber, one of Orange County’s oldest and highly respected citizens, passed away in the eighty-sixth year of his life.

 

“His remains will be laid to rest today in the Confederate lot in the cemetery.

 

“The deceased is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Hall of Formosa and a brother, Mr. Andrew Jackson Barber, of Chuluota.

 

“Mr. Barber came to Orange County in 1856 and has resided here continuously ever since.

 

“The only time he was out of the county was during the War Between the States, when he was in the Confederate Army for four years.”

 

Nancy Barber Platt

More is known about Nancy Barber Platt’s in-laws and sons than is known about her. She married Lewis B. Platt, formerly of Lowndes County, Georgia.  His brothers Marion and Calvin Platt of Melbourne are reported to have possessed over 100,000 acres of land in Brevard and Osceola Counties.  They owned thousands of heads of cattle throughout the same area and had a reputation for stampeding their cows through the little community of Cocoa on their way to ford them across Banana River to better pasturage on Merritt Island.

 

Both were illiterate but like their brother-in-law Jack, they were able “to amass an ample competency.”

 

A sidelight of the Platt connection:  John, Marion, and William C. Platt (? Lewis’ brothers) served in the Third Seminole War in Capt. Hooker’s Company and were later transferred to US service at Fort Meade.

 

 

 

John J. Barber

John Jim Kent Barber was in Capt. Robert Bullock’s Company of Florida Mounted Volunteers during the Third Seminole War.  At that time he is described as being 5 feet 10 inches tall, fair skinned, and with light hair.  He was also a Confederate soldier. In the beginning of their terms of service John was with his brother Jack in Company G, Florida. Battalion Cavalry.  John was absent by reason of illness on the 14th of August (? What year). 

 

I am grateful to Nickey Bronson Neel for the following material on John Barber and his wife the former Mary Yates, sister of Needham Yates, Sr. Mary was born in or about 1837 in Camden County, a daughter of James and Agnes (nee Rowland) Yates

 

John and Mary had the following children:  Andrew Jackson “Deed”, born 1857, died 1934, married Liza Padgett; RhodaRhody” born 1859, died 1927, married John Farmer (another source gave Ceef [?] Cook); Martha Ellen, born 1861, died 1931, married John Padgett; John Frank, born 1865, married Emaline Aggie Yates; and Mary, born c. 1870, married a Simmons. 

 

I was always amused how Anna Fertic Warr referred with some disdain to the above folks as “the Flat Ford Bunch”, but I wasn’t privy to her reasons.  Neither did I learn why one of John and Mary’s descendents spoke of Anna with a haughty inflection in her voice.  I hope this is one of those Barber in-family situations where the members feel they can talk about each other but will square off for a fight if an outsider makes the same comments about one of the family.

 

John died in the state penitentiary in Gadsden County in August of 1870 (? connected to the feud).  Mary followed him in death in 1915.  John is buried on the grounds of the old state prison – now state hospital – at Chattahoochee.  Mary was interred in Rose Hill in Osceola County.

 

Andrew Jackson “Jack” Barber

Andrew Jackson “Jack” Barber was the baby saved by his sister Rhodie during the Indian raid which killed his father, and he was Mose’s favorite nephew.  Jack spent most of his youth with Mose, moved to central Florida in the mid 1850’s, and accompanied Mose on his last known trip out of Florida.  Much of his story is in the Barber-Mizell Feud tale, and, although flowery and omitting the rough parts of his life, the following obituary will fill in the rest.

 

“Gone But Not Forgotten.

 

“The roll of the brave pioneers of the State of Florida and those of Orange County in particular was not large, but their deeds of bravery, hardships, and privations were many.  They were the men who blazed the trails and removed the obstacles from the paths that obstructed the way for the advent of civilization.  The greatest obstacle at that time was the Indians, and it was not removed until the red men were subdued and pushed to the Everglades, where some of them and their descendents now are located.

 

“One of the brave Indian fighters and pioneers and the subject of this biographical sketch was Mr. Andrew J. Barber, son of William Barber, and who was born in North Florida, July 9th, 1839.

 

His father died when Andrew was but two years old.  Sixteen years of his life was passed in Nassau, Hernando, and Columbia Counties.

 

“He came to Orange County August 15th, 1855, and at that time there was no Orlando, no Sanford, no Kissimmee.  It was a wilderness, no roads, and trails and direction had to be done by compass, the sun, and at night by the stars.

 

“In those days Mr. Barber could count on his fingers the families residing in the county.  It was the time of the Seminole Indian war, and Mr. Barber was engaged for twenty-one months Indian fighting.  During this time he fought under the leadership of Journegan (sic), Bullock, Carter, Sparkman, and Kendricks, and the life of excitement and adventure can be better imagined than described, and the settlers of today are enjoying the peace and prosperity brought about by the bravery and hardships of these early Indian fighters and who owe a debt of gratitude to such men as Mr. Barber.

 

“After the war was over and the Indians dispersed, Mr. Barber turned his attention to stock raising and farming and later raised some of the finest orange groves in the county.

 

“His untiring energy and good judgment enabled him to amass an ample competency out of which he endowed to his surviving children sufficient means to place them in comfortable circumstances.

 

“His foresight and good judgment also enabled him to select suitable sites for his stock raising, farming, and orange culture, and from the start he began to prosper.  He then realized that he needed a companion and helpmate to share his prosperity.  He soon found an estimable young lady, Miss Violet Robertson, to whom he was married March 15th, 1860.  There were thirteen children born to this happy couple.

 

“A little incident showing the frugality and industry of the women of these days is depicted here.  Mrs. Violet Barber and many other wives of the early pioneers, raised the raw material, carded, spun, and wove it into cloth out of which they made clothing and household articles.  All the stitching had to be done by hand, for there were no sewing machines those days.

 

“On June 8th, 1894, Mrs. Barber passed to the great beyond, leaving a devoted husband and seven children to mourn her loss.

 

“Mr. Barber married again on October 14th, 1894, to Miss Nancy A. Hull, and their life together of over 21 years was an unbroken line of bliss and happiness, for they lived and worked together in perfect harmony.  They were both members of the Baptist Church.  Their work and means were ever ready to promote betterment and upbuilding of the Baptist Church and the cause of Christ.

 

“Mr. Barber was a long and patient sufferer, and during the last three years of his life he suffered greatly.  The most skilled physicians were summoned and everything that human aid could do was done.


”Mrs. Barber’s devotion to her husband and the care, attention and the ministering by her of his many wants and requirements deserves special mention.  She was constantly at his side night and day.  His every wish was gratified, and the cheerful manner in which she did these things no doubt helped him to endure his suffering so patiently.

 

“On September 18th, 1916, he passed peacefully away.  He was fully prepared and desirous to meet his Heavenly Father in that bourne from which no traveler returns.  His widow and seven children survive him, and they deeply mourn the loss of a devoted husband and loving father.

 

“A precious one from us is gone, Whose voice now is still.  A place is vacant in our home, That never can be filled.”

 

Jack was buried in Phillips Grove on Hilliard’s Island Grove, Boggy Creek.

 

One Jack Barber was reported a deserter from Company H (Marion Hornets) 7th Florida Infantry while at Linden, Kentucky on July 26th, 1863.  This Jack was mustered in on April 12th, 1862.  When I asked Andrew Jackson’s descendents if they anything about this, I received some blank stares and some subject changes.  We won’t know for certain if the two Jacks are the same.  This might be the Jack Barber I’ve received bits and pieces about who lived and owned cattle in Texas.

 

Children:  Joseph Andrew “Joe”, born 18 December, 1860, died July, 1920; married Maggie Simmons; Jacinta “Jean”, born 1864, married Holliman (? first or surname); William Jefferson “Jeff”, born 1865, died 1947, married Julia McKee; Susan Elizabeth, born 19 July, 1867, died 26 August, 1929, married Albert Thomas Hughey; Mary Ellen, born 18 October, 1869, died 2 June, 1926, married James Harvey; Walter Theodore, born 19 March, 1871, died 3 May, 1963, married (1) Eula Bryant (2) Veaurnal Smith; Lena Blanche, born 11 December, 1872, died 1952, married Gordon Lawson; Alice Isabel, born 1873, married Frank Landing; Henry, born 1875.

 

I was privileged to know Joe’s son Carl E. Barber of Fort Christmas.  He was married to the former Miss Mary Jane Hodges, a lovely lady who was always smiling, and she and Uncle Carl were great hosts when I visited in their large charming home near the Saint John’s.  I recall their kitchen was paneled in magnolia wood cut from the land.  Before they moved out to Christmas they had lived for several years on the shore of Lake Conway (the lake where Little Mose was killed), and Uncle Carl’s siblings Bertie and (can’t remember the tall elegant gentleman’s name) shared the shore with them.  Orange groves were all around the Barber property.  The body of water should have been named Lake Barber.

 

I found it fascinating that Aunt Mary Jane lived near the far reaches of the upper Saint John’s and her brother George’s magnificent estate (now named Marywood and is a Catholic retreat) was near the end of the that lovely old river.

 

Uncle Carl purchased the Mid-Florida Live Stock Market in 1954.

 

Their only surviving child was Margaret Vickery, wife of Theodore Vickery.  The Vickery’s operated a small store in the community of Christmas, and she often helped out in the little post office during the pre-Christmas mail rush.  Margaret had touches of gray in her otherwise dark hair, had dark eyes that seemed to investigate one as she conversed…a very pretty lady.  I imagined Aunt Mary Jane must have looked a lot like her when younger.

 

I met two of Uncle Walt’s sons, but I can’t recall the name of but one - Posey.  They were big into country and gospel music.  One year they brought amps and instruments and entertained us after dinner at the re-union.

 

An interesting story about a late 1860’s shotgun came from Tom Arline, a member of the William Barber clan.  Mr. Arline has a shotgun that came from Henry Hughey (grandson of Andrew Jackson Barber), and Henry said the shotgun had been used in the feud.  The barrels are Damascus and are coming apart at the ends, about 3 inches at this writing.  Mr. Arline said his family talked very little about the feud, and that the reason might have been that Thomas Albert Hughey (husband of Susan Barber) was the son of James Perry Hughey who was clerk of courts during the tenure of judge John Mizell.  Some of the Barbers of the Orlando area once told me their ancestors had wondered about the loyalty of their kinsman Thomas Albert Hughey to the Barber side during the feud.

 

Andrew Jackson was his uncle Mose’s favorite, and Mose made no bones about it.  See Jack’s story in the feud account.

 

Lidea/lydia Patrick

Lidea Barber Patrick was listed as handicapped on an early census, but perhaps it was a temporary condition; none of her descendents had heard of it.  Lidea was born after her father was killed in the 1841 Indian attack on their home on Trail Ridge in Nassau County.  Mrs. Bertrice Dann Mach, a granddaughter knew less about Lidea than she did of Lidea’s father.  An interesting note regarding Mrs. Mach.:  her husband Ernst’s father Ernst Mach, Sr. (an Austrian), was the man for whom the speed measurement “mach” was named.  Mrs. Mach sold her property to an importunate real estate representative for Disney World, but held out for a premium price and – what she had wanted for several years – an ocean front condo at New Smyrna.

 

Levicey Barber mann

Traditionally mentioned as a sister of Mose was Levicey “Vicey” (an old pronunciation of the name Louisa) Barber Mann, wife of Daniel John “Dan” Mann.  One old timer said Aunt Vicey was Mose’s cousin, not his sister.  The Manns came to Florida with the wagon/cart train that brought Mose and the aforementioned families.  Many of their descendents are members of the LDS Church and doubtless have genealogies on the Manns.  So far, none has satisfied me with a background of Levicey, and several have returned material I had given them many years ago (most of which was conjecture or very little proved and some patently incorrect).

 

Levicey was born on the ninth day of March, 1812, in Georgia, and died February 22nd, 1865, in Baker County.  Mr. Mann was born on the 29th of February, 1802, in Georgia, and died on the first day of March, 1875, in Baker County.  Both are buried in Manntown Cemetery south of Glen Saint Mary.

 

Their children:

  • William James, born 1826-’27, Georgia; died 31 December, 1862, of disease in Knoxville, Tennesee.  He married (1) Mary Evelyn Wells, daughter of Martin Wells of South Carolina (I think she was related to the Wells who settled in Alachua County and to Mrs. Mary (nee Wells) Thompson, originally of South Carolina and a neighbor of the Mose Barber’s, (2) Mary Touchton.

 

  • Lydia Ann R.:  born about 1830, Georgia; married a Mr. Futch.  These are thought to be the grandparents of Maud Britt, wife of Frank Rowe.

 

  • Sarah A.:  born about 1831, Georgia.

 

  • Eliza: born 7 March, 1833, Georgia; died 21 September, 1904, Baker County; buried Oak Grove; married (1) Aaron Yelvington, (2) Belone Robert Dinkins.  I believe Eliza and Aaron Yelvington were the parents of Margaret Yelvington Davis, one of my maternal g-g-grandmothers  (this being kin to myself explains a lot).

 

      All the following were born in Columbia County, Florida.

 

  • Benjamin D.:  born 1834; married Cinderella, daughter of Lewis and Tabitha (nee Lee) Taylor.  A member of Co I 7th Florida Infantry.  Captured Missionary Ridge.

 

  • Archibald J:  born about 1835; married Nira Eugenia Dinkins.  He was in Co I 7th Florida Infantry.  Medical discharge due to chronic rheumatism.

 

  • Louvicey Elizabeth “Vicey”:  born 28 May, 1838; died 22 August, 1916, Baker County, Florida; buried Manntown; died unmarried.

 

  • Henry D. (or H.):  born 21 May, 1841; died 26 May, 1864 (? CSA casualty).

 

  • Moses A.:  born 28 April, 1842.

 

  • Mary Jane:  born 7 March, 1845; died 21 February, 1907, Baker County, Florida; buried Manntown; married Marion G. Berry, son of Lewis and Nancy of South Carolina (she was Mr. Berry’s second wife).

 

  • Jackson Isaiah:  born 3 November, 1846; died 27 June, 1885; married Martha Jane Dowling.

 

  • Elmira Virginia:  born 17 June, 1851; died 27 March, 1888, Baker County, Florida; buried Manntown; married Belone Robert Dinkins.

 

The Manns were found on the 1830 census of Bryan County, Georgia, and on the 1840 census of Camden County, Georgia, where he had removed his family to Georgia for the duration of the Indian war.

 

After a short say near the Mose Barber compound, Mr. and Mrs. Mann settled somewhere north of the present Glen Saint Mary and Sanderson area, probably near the present Turner Cemetery, on the old Jacksonville-Tallahassee Post Road.

 

During the Second Seminole War Mr. Mann moved his family back into Georgia.  At the end of hostilities he brought them back to the original settlement.  The house burned, and he and the family removed to south of the present Sanderson or Glen Saint Mary sometime prior to the War Between the States. This site was on the old Jacksonville-Alligator (Lake City) Road.

 

Three of the Mann boys were in the CSA army.  William J., Benjamin D., and Archibald J. enlisted in Company A, 7th Florida Regiment at Lake Butler on March 8, 1862.  Arch was discharged at Knoxville on May 28, 1863 due to chronic rheumatism.  Ben was captured at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, on November 25th, 1863, and was paroled from Rock Island, Illinois, prison 22 June, 1865.  William died of disease at Knoxville.

 

Some of the second generation Manns moved east along the old Jacksonville-Lake City Road and settled south of the present Glen Saint Mary.  That area is known as Manntown.  These progenitors of the Mann family in northeast Florida are buried in the cemetery there.  For a long time Levicey had the oldest marked headstone in the county.  It should be mentioned that earlier grave markers were of wood and had deteriorated quickly in Florida.  Others of the family moved toward the south end of the present Baker County, into the present Union, and west toward Olustee.

 

Dan Mann was a veteran of the Second Seminole War.  His first enlistment was at Fort White on June 6th, 1837, in Capt. Enoch Mizell’s Company of Col. Mill’s Regiment.  He was discharged at Newnansville on the 18th of December, 1837.  I haven’t found where he enlisted for his second tour of duty, but he was discharged at Black Creek/Fort Heileman (Middleburg) on the 30th of October, 1839.  His third enlistment was at Black Creek/Fort Heileman on November 14th, 1839, in Capt. Jackson Bird’s Company, and he was discharged at Thigpen’s/Deep Creek (near the present Baldwin) on May 14th, 1840.  All his terms in the military were for periods of six months each.

 

On the 23rd of October in 1850, Mr. Mann appeared before Justice of the Peace John W. Price in Duval County and filed an application for bounty land as an Indian war veteran.

 

William Daniel Mann, a Bradford County native and an elected state representative from the county, often worked with G-grandpa Charley on projects for Baker County.  They were instrumental in preventing wholesale convictions after the bloody Baxter Rebellion (see the Baxter Rebellion in “The Way It Was” in THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS).  He was also re-elected state representative in the 1890’s even though he had not declared himself a candidate.

 

Great Grandpa Charley Barber referred to the Manns as cousins. He was especially close to Mrs. Lil (nee Dinkins) Walker Blum, whose mother was a Mann, and called her “Cousin Lil.”  He became estranged with some of his Mann relatives after they embraced Mormonism.

 

Some of Mose’s cousins, uncles and aunts

 

Grandison Barber

Grandison Barber was older than Mose and is thought to be his cousin.  He was a son of Israel Barber and his mother was a daughter of Topley Tullis (or Tillis), Sr. Grandison and family were residents of Tattnall and Camden (that area of the present Ware and Clinch) Counties, Georgia, and Columbia (the present Columbia and that part now Baker) and Hamilton Counties, Florida.  That he was in Tattnall County in 1803 is attested by a bill of sale for cattle from his father in that year.  He was a justice of the Peace in Camden County (? That section now Ware) in 1828.  In 1844 he was a justice of the peace in Hamilton County, Florida, and he held the same office in Columbia County in 1845 while living at Blount’s Ferry on the Suwannee about 20 miles north of Alligator (the present Lake City).

 

Grandison was a private in Captain North’s militia company in 1842 in Ware County.

 

In the 1820’s he settled a parcel of land southeast of the Okefenoke Swamp in the vicinity of the present North Prong/Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Church.  The land on which the historic and very old Burnsed Blockhouse/Coll Brown house stood for about 170 years was called Barber Old Fields as late as in my generation.  Surveyors Henry Washington (I was told he was a nephew of Pres. George Washington) and George Willis wrote “Barber Old Fields” in their field notes and on a map they drew in 1831.

 

For a short while Grandison maintained a residence on the Florida-Georgia border in the extreme northwestern corner of the present Baker County.  His farm, and indeed his very domicile, was split between the two states.  A family story has it that he was a famed rustler of cattle (Indians’ and anybody else’s).  When the Georgia constabulary came calling, he is said to have simply walked from the Georgia end of his house to the Florida end, and when the Florida law approached, he ambled down to the Georgia end.  The story ended when he found himself facing the lawmen of both Georgia and Florida.  He was given a choice:  go with one or the other or be cut in two and the halves hauled away, one to each side of the boundary. 

 

Another story said he rustled over a hundred head of cattle single handedly in one night (this was also attributed to Obadiah Barber).  These stories are, of course, too far out for even the most credulous, but it is typical of the tales told by old time Crackers. 

 

He then moved a short distance farther east on what was known as the old Settlers’ Trail (also called the Yarborough Train Trail) at Travelers’ Rest (now just “Traveler”), and still later he moved west into what is now Columbia County

 

Grandison’s wife was about ten years younger than he.  They had four daughters and six slaves on the 1840 census.

 

hardy and benjamin barber

Hardy and Benjamin Barber are two more mysteries in the Mose Barber story.  They were born in 1836 and 1837, respectively, and both in South Carolina.  Their parents were Moses and Mary Barber of Lowndes County, Georgia, and both parents were originally from South Carolina.  Some overly enthusiastic amateur genealogists of the past went into “buck ague-er” over the similarity of names and tried to squeeze this Mose and Mary into the molds of Moses Edward and Mary Leah.

 

Hardy and Benjamin were at Mose’s plantation in Columbia County in 1840 but had removed to Lowndes to be with their parents in 1850.  Why were the two little boys away from their parents and with Mose and Mary Leah?  Were they just passing through on the day of the census (remember…the 1850 census cannot be totally trusted for correct data)?  Would kids of only three and four years be just passing through?  Who brought them down to Florida?  Why were they brought down?

 

Ben returned as a laborer in later years but didn’t stay long.

 

These two boys will probably remain mysteries until a more knowledgeable researcher takes on the task of ferreting out the facts.

 

Holden and dr. john W. barber

I had much information on the brothers Holden and Dr. John Barber of the Hazelhurst, Georgia, area, but it has disappeared.  If someone wants to pursue these gentlemen’s kinship to Mose, the historical society in Valdosta has Mrs. Ola Barber Pittman’s papers on them.  They were thought to be related to the William and John Barber of Gadsden County, Florida, and their home was a refuge for Rebecca and her kids during the war and for Mose off and on during the war and for a short while after the feud.  Mrs. Pittman told me via telephone in the mid ‘50’s that she believed the brothers helped Mose escape the Florida law and fake his death.

 

To confuse the matter, I recall a lady from Alabama (can’t recall her name however) telling me she had proof that these two gentlemen were originally from New England (!).

 

Isaac Barber

Isaac Barber the elder is believed by some descendents of Obadiah to be a brother of Mose, and well he could be because so much family oral history points to that relationship.  He was born in 1802 and died in 1854.  Bobby Tatum gives a good biography of Isaac in his book on Obadiah.

 

His wife was Frances, believed by Mr. Tatum to be a daughter of Edward and Catherine (nee McGee) Sikes.  Their children were Emaline, born 1821, married James H. Johnson; Susan, born 1823, died 1906, married Richard B. Jones; Obadiah, born 1825, died 1909; married (1) Nancy Stevens (2) Matilda Tatum (3) Martha Ann Kight; Israel, born 1827, married Edey M.; Anna, born 1831, died 1890; Martha, born 1833, married Isaac Lightsey; Mary Ann, born 1839, died 1914, married George Campbell; Caroline, born 1838; and Angeline, born 1843, died 1923, married Jeremiah Smith Baden.

 

Emaline and James Johnson lived for a while in the Bend section of old Camden County, and Angeline and Jeremiah S. Baden were residents of Ware and Columbia Counties before finally locating in Suwannee County.

 

Isaac was an elder in the Primitive Baptist faith (anti missions and pro predestination) and a Justice of the Peace in Bryan County.  Like most of the Barbers he was a cattleman.

 

Israel Barber

Israel Barber, born about 1770, was of a generation before Mose.  His relationship to Mose, if any, isn’t known, but he is believed by some family researchers to be his uncle.   I heard enough about him from the very old timers, although the little anecdotes they tried to remember were nebulous, to believe he must have been some sort of kin. 

 

A traditional story about Israel is that he was the first white settler in the area of the great Okefenoke.  He moved from Bryan County, Georgia, to the Georgia Bend in 1805 probably in the present Moniac community section.

 

Israel was in Camden County in the following years, as per public records:  1817 – 1821 and 1830.  He was a Justice of the Peace in the 32nd district of Camden from 1817 to 1821.

 

In 1830, the Camden County census showed Israel as having in his household three males under ten years of age, one male in the 18 to 25 years bracket, himself in the 25 to 44 years category, one female under ten years of age, two females from ten to fifteen years old, and one (? his wife) from 16 to 25 years of age, and 39 slaves.

 

One of the oral legends about Israel was that President Washington needed his services.  What services?  Could it be his scouting and guidance for surveyor Henry Washington?

 

Israel was with the first known US surveying team to map the big swamp.  From Ward’s HISTORY OF WARE COUNTY, GEORGIA:  “…the year of 1831, they [surveying team Henry Washington and George Willis and the Barbers] met near the Okeefeenokee Swamp.  Mr. Israel Barber who said he was the first white settler living on the northern border…and had been living in that vicinity for 26 years…Israel and young Obadiah proved to be of great assistance…This passage also stated that the Barbers came to Ware County from Bryan County about 100 years [circa 1825] before being employed as survey guides. Mr. Ward gave Obadiah as a son of Israel, and that disagrees with Obadiah’s descendents’ record.

 

Israel died in 1833.

 

John and William Barber of Gadsden County

John Barber of Gadsden County and his father William, formerly of south Georgia, are included on the words of Mrs. Ola Barber Pittman and Judge Folks Huxford that they were indeed related to Mose’s branch.  John had lived in the area of Jacksonville, Georgia, and Hazelhurst, Georgia, before his residency in west Florida.  His father William received grants of land in Gadsden beginning in 1828.

 

John H. barber of barberville

John H. Barber’s kin (can’t remember their names) claimed he was a nephew of Mose, but none could give me his father’s name.  They recall they were told Mose kept a large cow pen at the John H. Barber farm in Volusia County.  Contrary to what I had written in the 1960’s Barberville was not named for Mose, but for this John H.

 

Most of the older folks around Barberville were in agreement that John H. had “come out’a Georgie.”

 

Major Barber

Major Barber and his wife Mary of Olustee were black (Mary was listed as mulatto).  Several of the older Olustee residents said they had heard of them, but they were uncertain who they were or of what race they were (sounds strange).  Some blacks and whites thought they were Mose’s mulatto offspring.  Major was living as late as 1909 and Mary as late as 1925 as a widow.

 

If they turn out to be related, one should not let his prejudice stand in the way of understanding that these things happened in olden times the same as they do now.  I met a fine pale skinned Negro with a Phd in the early ‘80’s by the name of Gene Barber who declared he was a g-g-g-grandson of the renowned Moses E. Barber and seemed quite proud of it.

 

Moses Benjamin Franklin Barber

Moses B. F. “Ben” Barber has become an enigma to most Barber family researchers.  Until the 1980’s the name Moses B. F. Barber had not been heard of or read by most old time Barbers I talked with. Ben was in the ambulance corps in the Confederate Army and was discharged from the CSA Army at Waldo at the end of the war.  Had the Confederacy been victorious, he might have been hanged, because he deserted from Capt. J. J. Dickison’s Cavalry unit to the Union Army in early 1865 and gave them intelligence about CSA units in the area.  He claimed to have deserted twice.  From what the old timers said about him after he returned to Baker County late in the century, he might have told the Yankees the truth…and then…he might not have…he had a reputation for playing freely with facts.

 

Moses B. F. signed the oath of allegiance to the United States in Jacksonville in February of 1865.

 

Known as Ben (also called “Old Man Ben Barber” and “Uncle Ben”), he said he was with his uncle Mose during Mose’s stay in central Florida, was involved in the feud, and, after wandering over the state for a quarter of a century, returned to the vicinity of the then defunct Barber Plantation on the Little Saint Mary’s River to live out his last days.  He was aged and could hardly walk.

 

As mentioned elsewhere in this narrative, he was the most extraordinary person to have ever lived…or died.  Some of his biographers said he was killed by drowning in 1870 in Orange County, but the old fellow died again in 1898 near Macclenny and was buried in the Barber and Slave Cemetery in Baker County…a most extraordinary person indeed.

 

Aunt Caroline Tanner, his relative (don’t know how), took him in when he wandered back to Baker County in the mid 1880’s and requested the county place him on the paupers’ roll.  He is listed on the Baker County pauper roll in the late 1890’s and as late as 1901 when he had been dead three years (this man gets more amazing with every new bit of his life and death that turns up!). Aunt Caroline collected his pauper’s pension until 1902…don’t know if she wound up in trouble over this or not. 

 

As per his wish he was buried in the Barber Cemetery in 1898 near where he thought his parents had been buried.  His burial in the Barber Cemetery was attested to by three witnesses of his committal service who personally gave me the burial information - Charles Monroe Barber, James Edward Barber, and James Robert Rowe.  Further proof of the old gent’s burial site came from the Federal Works Agency Works Projects Administration of Florida – Register of Deceased Veterans, Florida #2, Baker County, St. Augustine, 1940-41Barber Cemetery plat #3.

 

Regarding the tendency of some during the past several years to rename Moses Edward, Jr. (“Little Mose”) Moses B. F., please understand I am not married to Little Mose remaining what his parents named him.  There are so many similarities between the two young Mose Barbers that I find myself becoming confused…but the fact remains, Little Mose’s own family knew him as Moses Edward, Jr., and we know Moses Ben was buried in Baker County in 1898.  But I don’t think even he had the ability to die twice in two different places almost 30 years apart.

 

obadiah barber

Obadiah Barber’s history is best found in Bobby Tatum’s book on the old gentleman – OBADIAH’S JOURNEY TO THE OKEEFEENOKEE SWAMP, copyright 2001.  One can also read up on Uncle Obe in the writings of Luther Thrift.  Both men have done solid research, added it to traditional lore, and presented us with good readable accounts of their ancestor.  I am indebted to their and Sabina James Murray’s research for much of the following material.

 

According to Bobby Tatum, Obadiah was born in upper Bryan County on the 25th of July, 1825, and died December 28th, 1909.  He was a son of Isaac and Frances Barber.

 

We were misinformed by older heads in the family that Uncle Obe was a younger brother of Mose, but this has since been corrected.  Obe’s biographers believe him to be Mose’s nephew.  I still don’t have satisfactory proof of the relationship.  It is known, however, that most Barbers of south Georgia and all of Florida want to be kin to both Obadiah and Mose, and a few have stretched and re-arranged the facts to make the pieces fit (much like I did as an inexperienced researcher…at least, I marked mine as “unproved”, “conjecture”, and “possible.”

Uncle Obe married (1) Nancy Stephens, (2) Matilda Tatum, and (3) Martha Ann Kight.

 

Obadiah’s offspring by his first two wives were many.  They married into several of the old southern Georgia families, and his blood runs through most of the old established families of southeast Georgia and neighboring Florida.  By Nancy were Julia Ann, born 1849; James Isaac, born 1852, married Mary Ann Blackburn; Laura Emily, born 1855; Isabelle Elizabeth, born 1856; William Albert, born 1857; Mary Margaret, born 1860; Nancy Angeline, born 1862; Ella, born 1864; Edward Obadiah, born 1867; Charlotte, born 1868, did not marry; and Lydia Lavina, born 1869, died 1887, married Henry J. Waldron.

 

Obe and Matilda’s children were Lucinda, born 1875, married Noel Strickland; Virginia, born 1879, died 1971, married Noel Strickland (his second wife); Perry, born 1882; Charles F., born 1884, died 1904, married Rosa Howard; George Cleveland, born 1885, died 1931, married Laurie Smoak; Henry Lee, born 1887, died 1909, did not marry; Samuel Jackson, born 1889, died 1967, married Gertrude Robinson; John H., born 1893, died 1905.

 

Obadiah’s last marriage produced no children and evidently little happiness.  They divorced after what some described as a union less than irenic.

 

Uncle Obe served as a Justice of the Peace in Ware and Pierce Counties.  He was a private in the 24th Battalion of the Georgia Cavalry, CSA.  Later he was with Capt. T. S. Hopkins’ Company of Mounted Partisan Rangers at Camp Fort, Georgia.

 

He was called “King of the Okefenoke”, and the story of his killing a bear is the stuff legends are made of.  There have been as many versions of the story as there have been tellers, including one debunker type that claimed Obe had merely found a half grown bear in his hog pen and beat it to death with a litered knot.  Most relate a more or less story in common that Obe was caught in the woods with nothing more than a litered knot with which he delivered two or more fatal blows to a sow bear (see the story detailed in Bobby Tatum’s book on Obadiah).

 

From a source, which escapes me now, came a statement about Obadiah from his neighbor John Craven:  Obadiah “…made things funny at any cost of the truth.”

 

G-grandpa Charles F. Barber, as a young man, visited his kinsman Obadiah and brought back wondrous tales of the old gentleman.  For years, a book containing Obe’s exploits remained at the Charley and Mollie Barber house until spirited away by one of the Harwick kin several years ago.

 

To learn more about Uncle Obe I motored up to Homerville and interviewed Judge Folks Huxford.  He allowed me access to his card files and told me stories about Obadiah who he said he had known many years before.  Although I had often sent him genealogical data on Barbers and other Cracker families of Baker County, Judge Huxford sent me a hefty bill for using his files (he had received much more from me that I from him).  Later in a letter he said his info about Obadiah had come second hand and that he had not known the old gentleman.  Perhaps Judge Huxford was getting senile.  Nevertheless, we continued to exchange material until his demise, but I was never totally secure with his data (sorry, Huxford lovers…he was a fine old gentleman to whom we Crackers owe a great debt for preserving our family histories, but he really wasn’t Jesus reincarnated).

 

Becoming disillusioned with Judge Huxford (and suffering guilt because of doubting the venerable gentleman) I decided to go on a tip and seek out Obadiah’s son Mr. Perry Barber.  I learned he was to visit my cousin Tom Chesser near Folkston.  My father and I drove up and spent a few hours talking with Mr. Perry.  His mind was wandering a bit, but I came home with some good information on several Barbers but not much on his father, and Daddy came home with a good hunting dog.

 

William Jasper Barber

Jasper Barber referred to Mose as Uncle Mose, and he said he spent much of his young life with his uncle.  He was said to have been orphaned as a small child.  His young adulthood was passed in central Florida.  His entire family was fatally struck down with disease, and he moved to Cross City and remarried in 1877 in Columbia County to an A. M. Allen.  His two children were Otis and Thetis (female).  He was born in 1842 and died about 1930.  Some Cross City Barbers did not believe there was kinship between Jasper and Mose; Otis was adamant that the kinship was real.

 

William cone

William Cone the younger was born in North Carolina (Orange County, we believe) in 1777 to William and Keziah (nee Barber) Cone.  She is believed by some in the Cone family to be a great aunt of Mose.  The stories about Bill Cone are legion, and some of them surely are apocryphal.  Many, however, are true, and one wonders how one man could have lived so long and fully as to perform all the feats credited to him.  He and his kinsman Mose Barber shared many similar traits, so said Cone descendent and family researcher Mrs. McAlpin of Live Oak.

 

During the Creek or First Seminole War Col. Cone was captured by the Indians somewhere in the area of the present Folkston.  It was said of the sagacious gentleman that he could talk anybody or anything into or out of any item or situation and that his ability to fluently speak several Indian tongues and dialects fascinated his captors so much that they delayed sending him to the happy (or unhappy) hunting grounds.  Others figured that since Cone was so despised by the red men they kept him tied all night just so they could plot a more fitting creative and lingering torture and death for him.

 

Col. Cone escaped his bonds during the night, stole the Indians’ rifle balls from their weapons, replaced the powder, placed the bullets in his pocket, and sat back until the Creeks waked.

 

When he noticed the first of his captors stirring, Cone bolted for the woods.  The Indians made hot pursuit, firing their bulletless rifles at him.  Col Cone turned and pretended to catch the balls and put them into his pocket.  He then walked over to the amazed Indians, retrieved the rifle balls from his pocket from where he had secreted them the night before and totally stunned them.

 

Col. Cone was left alone with the Indians’ horses, his scalp, and his life.

 

Col. Cone settled in old Camden County about the beginning of the nineteenth century and set about forming a volunteer militia unit.  He is documented to have been there in 1804.  His unit saw action in and about the Okefenoke Swamp.

 

The Cone militia often made forays into Spanish Florida where they retrieved stolen and runaway slaves (all blacks however, slave or free were fair game), “stray” cattle, and “unattended” horses.  They were so successful in those ventures that it was traditionally rumored the Spanish offered a $10,000 reward for his head.  The offering of a reward can be well believed because the Spaniards knew that many of the Georgians were not above turning in one of their own for a handsome price…but the amount is a bit incredible; the Spanish were notoriously tight with a peso.

 

At the beginning of the War of 1812 (sometimes called the Second War of American Independence), Col. Cone performed the southernmost known feat against the British in that war.  Archibald Clark of Saint Mary’s was a collector of customs in that port and was a major lumber miller near Traders Hill (not a great distance north of the present Baker County).

 

When the British occupied Saint Mary’s (not at all a difficult task for them), they demanded of Clark that he hand over his funds.  He refused, and he and Abraham Bessent (ancestor of many Baker Countians, some of whom lent their surname to the now defunct community of Bessent in the south of the county) secreted the money at a hideaway somewhere between Traders Hill and the Okefenoke.  Bessent was waylaid by Spanish thugs, and it isn’t known if they found the cache of gold or if it is still buried somewhere waiting for some lucky soul to discover.

 

The British made their way up the crooked Saint Mary’s River to burn Clark’s extensive lumber milling operation in revenge for losing out on the Clark fortune/customs cash and for the purpose of destroying a valuable American asset.  Cone’s unit, including some familiar names in the Bend and the present Baker CountyCrews, Garrett, Greene, Hicks, etc. – greeted them from the banks of the stream and killed almost half the British force.  Cone was greatly outnumbered but not outsmarted.

 

The Cone militia continued to be active in the Bend Section and made a number of belligerent trips into Florida where they harassed the Spanish and Indians in what has become known as the Florida or Patriots War (not so simply stated as a concurrent and extension conflict of the War of 1812 as well as a fight between anybody and among anybody who cared to join in).

 

Col. Cone married Mrs. Sarah Peeples in 1826.  She was born Sarah Haddock, a daughter of a very old English family from British colonial days in East Florida.  It was probably because of her dowry (a sizable chunk of Nassau County real estate) that he moved to the new American territory of Florida.  He gave up his long time seat in the Georgia Legislature for the move but was soon involved in Florida territorial politics.

 

When he was a Georgia legislator, Col. Cone had wanted Spanish Florida to give up several million acres of north Florida as he pushed for the headwaters of the South Prong below the present Sanderson to be declared the beginning of the Saint Mary’s River (a late 18th century agreement between Spain and the United States gave the headwaters of the Saint Mary’s as a salient factor in determining the boundary).  However, he found himself later as a Florida statesman having to oppose and finally successfully fight his own claim regarding the river’s beginning.

 

Cone used the Old Settler Trail/Yarborough Trail through the Okefenokee-Pinhook complex and the Jacksonville-Tallahassee Road that ran through the center of the present Baker County and through the Gum Swamps for much of his business.  He evidently saw Columbia County’s western part and those areas beyond along the route were somewhat more fertile and amenable to settlement than the swamps and sand of Nassau.  He moved there during the Second Seminole War.

 

A grandson was the late Governor Fred Cone, one of the most human and humorous chief executives the state has had.  Another grandson (and brother of Gov. Cone) was Macclenny attorney William Branch Cone.  Col Branch Cone was a member of the state Democratic Executive Committee, chairman of the Baker County Democratic Committee, mayor of Macclenny for several terms, and was secretary to his brother Gov. Cone from 1937 to 1941.  He received his law degree from Stetson University in 1910 after graduating from the public schools of Lake City and Jasper.

 

Needham Yates

Needham “Need” Yates was a kinsman of Mose, but the exact relationship has yet to be discovered by my self.  I am certain more able researchers either have or will uncover the tie.  Mose’s north Florida family said Need was Mose’s cousin (I refer the reader back to mose’s ancestry at the beginning of the narrative).

 

I recently learned from Nickey Bronson Neel that there were Need Yates, Sr. and Jr.  Need, Sr. married (1) Elizabeth Scott, and they were the parents of Need, Jr.  Need the elder then married Malintha Lee.

 

Some miscellaneous notes on Need:  He was a second lieutenant in Capt. Aaron Jernigan’s Company under Gen. Hopkins during the Third Seminole War. And he was in Company H, 10th Florida Cavalry during the War Between the States.

 

There is more on Need Yates under the Barber-Mizell Feud.

 

books, periodical articles, etc. using or mentioning mose barber’s life and activities or those of his kin

BUZZARD BARBARA was written in the 1970’s by Bernice More Barber of Haines City (originally a Northern girl), Florida.  It is a paperback tale of Florida Cracker life set in the lower peninsula and is fashioned around a pretty and pert girl emerging into womanhood.  Within the first few pages, young Barbara “Buzzie” Barber successfully fights to become a tomboy and throughout the remainder of the book her struggle to be “one of the boys’ takes a strange twist and transforms her into a very feminine heroine.

 

Barbara or “Buzzie,” may be a bit too innocent for most contemporary literary tastes, but one can appreciate and welcome the ability of the author to sell a book premised on something other than base appetites. 

 

Mrs. Barber researched well, for her descriptions of Cracker daily life and utensils are acceptable and true.  I don’t recall some of the lingo matching that in our own earlier days of cattle-driving, but I bear in mind that the folks’ ways of down south differed from our’s even though they were former north Florida Crackers.  I flinched at each mention of Levis that fit like a second skin.  Levis have been around for a long time but are a relatively late import among Florida cow hunters.  And the only photographs I’ve seen of gentlemen from the era of which she writes showed britches so baggy that if they fit like a second skin, the wearer should make a mad dash to his dermatologist’s emergency room.

 

From Polk County to Punta Rassa on Florida’s lower Gulf coast, Buzzie helps her family make a long cattle drive to a waiting Cuban ship and dirty-minded buyer.  Attempted rustlings, lynchings, hungry gators, Seminoles, and bellicose hoar hogs prevent the trip from being monotonous to Buzzie.  Although he is not told that Buzzie is particularly cognizant of such things, the reader is very aware that the author takes great delight in observing nature’s mobile exhibits that range from the resplendent glories of sunsets to subtle quiet sermons taught by the tiny creatures.

 

Sufficient hints at sex are included to appeal to those with prurient interests.  A lot of people get killed, and although explicit details are omitted, this should satisfy our modern bloodthirstiness.

 

I gave my copies to our local library, and I suppose they have been either thrown away or stolen; no one seems to know anything about them.  Maybe one can be found at second hand book dealers.

 

unpublished manuscript in the Baker county, florida, historical society library by the above author.  An historical novelette on the life of Moses Barber.

 

Florida’s frontier – the way hit wuz by Mary Ida Bass Barber Shearheart has received much attention since its publication in 1991.  It is historical fiction based on the life of Moses Barber and his feud with the prominent Mizell family of central Florida.  I advise readers to remember that although it takes its general story from facts, it is an historical novel and must not be used as documentation… just as I have advised against using this narrative as such.

 

Mary Ida has innocently included some of my glaring mistakes from my early writings, in particular Mose’s wife and pedigree.  She gave an excellent story of corpse preparation after her story of Uncle Bill Barber’s death…only problem: Uncle Bill’s corpse was interred hurriedly in a wagon body with two other slain men in the heat of an Indian attack, and there was no time for a traditional preparation of the dead.  But the account of Uncle Bill’s corpse’s preparation must be read to understand that dying, like living, was not a lark in 19th century backwoods Florida.

 

Her account of the Barber-Mizell Feud evinced exhaustive research and is much more complete and surely closer to the facts than mine.

 

florida Cow Hunter – The Life and Times of Bone mizell by Jim Bob Tinsley.  Despite the title about a genuine Florida Cracker character, much of the book is given to the Barber-Mizell Feud.  Mr. Tinsley, like most writers on the subject, has depended on a few unproved theories, but his account of the sad event is well written and more complete than mine.  I remember corresponding with him and sharing Barber information several years ago.

 

Florida cow man has just a scant mention of the Barbers, mostly some cow brands.  Can’t recall the author.

 

Obadiah’s journey to the okeefeenokee by Bobby Tatum has been mentioned earlier.  His account of the Barber-Mizell Feud and Mary Leah’s ancestry repeated some of my serious mistakes.  His narratives of his ancestors and lateral lines are most enjoyable, and, believing he and his relative Sabina James Murray did Obadiah’s research well, I was able to use it fill in some gaps in my narrative.

 

Tales of the okefenoke is a collection of stories by Luther Thrift with his ancestor Obadiah Barber featured.  There is nothing about Mose in his book, but one should enjoy reading about Uncle Obe and other south Georgia characters.

 

The Barber-Mizell Feud, a lecture in Cocoa in 2001 given by a Mr. Wood of the University of Central Florida wandered off course in the field of facts, and the lecture was seriously subjective, favoring the Mizells (so, what else is new among Florida’s historians?).  However, the lecturer is to be commended for bringing attention to a neglected segment of Florida history.  Let us hope he learns to be objective when bringing Florida history to the public in the future.

 

Punta Rassa (actual title escapes me), although not a Barber book has substantial research on the cattle drives to that shipping port.  The book is by Ann O’Connell Rust.  I think the subtitle is Punta rassa – capture the flavor of old Florida – the Floridians, vol 1

 

The Real Story of the barber-Mizell Feud is a short story of the famous conflict written by Ruth Barber Linton (? from her book Pine Castle: A walk down memory lane, 1993) and borrows much from my early writing including the errors.  It is easier to follow than some accounts I’ve read or heard.

 

the florida star is, I believe, a publication of the Florida Sheriff’s Association.  Several years back it featured a story of the Barber-Mizell Feud.

 

MOVIE (TITLE NOT LEARNED AT THIS WRITING) based on mose’s life produced by Sam Barber of Warner Bros., Hollywood, California (and formerly of Universal Studios, Orlando).  Its release might be in 2003.

 

FEBRUARY SUNDOWN is a documentary on the War Between the States activities in Florida produced by Bryan Terrell of Channel 30 in Jacksonville, Florida, that has a short segment on Mose’s plantation.  It might be released sometime in early 2003.

 

The river of the long water is by Alma Hetherington and has a short version of the feud in it plus some info on Barbers and their kin.

 

There have been at least three stories on the Barbers written by Nixon Smiley, dean of newsmen, in the Miami Herald.  I can find a date on only one – 20 October, 1968.

 

The tampa tribune also has had stories about the feud.  Joe Barber of Saint Cloud thought I might be a reporter from that paper posing as a Barber, and he met me at his gate with a shotgun.  When he looked at me and my company, he said, “You’re Barbers.  Come on in.”

 

Cynthia Parks did over a half page story titled Barber’s Plantation for the Florida Times-Union on 24 December, 1978.

 

There was a good write-up about my ancestor searching in the Orlando Sentinel in, I think, 1974.  A much later – 29 March, 1992 – article by Mark Andrews was titled Cattle feud slaughtered Mizells, barbers during reconstruction (naturally, he put the Mizells first).

 

Baker County Centennial Celebration, May 4 – 7, 1961, edited by the Rev. Bruce Pickering mentions Barber’s Station and it’s part in the Battle of Olustee.

 

Mark Boyd’s the federal campaign of 1864 in east florida gives brief mention to Barber’s Plantation.  Most accounts now say the Union HQ was in Macclenny, although Macclenny did not exist at the time (see how historians change the course of history?).

 

Born of the sun, Florida’s Bicentennial book, has a reprint from Harper’s of Barber’s Plantation.

 

Harper’s Weekly gave us the only pictorial representations we have of the plantation and the bridge (destroyed) over the Little Saint Mary’s River at the plantation.

 

The Sunday supplement of the Saint Petersburg newspaper (? Name) gave good comments on the Barbers in its story of the Battle of Olustee.

 

Possum Trot, a novelette by Anne Harwick, gives no Barber history but mentions a fictitious character named Barber who did a bit of preaching among the pages.  Some believed they saw a young Charles Monroe “Rowe” Barber in that character, and the young Rowe Barber was not unknown to pull some lively pranks…posing as a preacher would not have been beyond his sense of humor.

 

http://www..rootsweb.com/~flbaker/, web master Carl W. Mobley, Orlando, Florida, is the official Baker County, Florida, web site.  It contains Barber data and photos.

 

There are numerous web sites that give mostly proper mention of Mose and his descendents.  I suggest the surfer go to his browser and type in “Moses Edward Barber of Georgia and Florida, Charles F. Barber of Florida, and Gene Barber of Florida” for those sites.

 

sources

oral history

Charles Monroe Barber, Macclenny, Fl

James Edward Barber, Jax, Fl

Mamie Barber Andreu, Dade City, Fl,

William Monroe Barber, Macclenny, Fl

William Isaac Barber, Kissimmee, Fl,

Joe H. Barber, St. Cloud, Fl,

C. M. Barber, Kissimmee, Fl

Nettie Rowe, Macclenny, Fl,

James Arthur Rowe, Macclenny, Fl,

John William Rowe, Macclenny, Fl,

Carmeta Barber Ray, Sanford, Fl,

George Curtis Barber, Miami, Fl

Moses Edward Barber, O’Brien, Fl,

Talmadge Barber, High Springs, Fl

Manning Starling, Macclenny, Fl,  

Folks Huxford, Homerville, Ga.

Luther Thrift, Waycross, Ga.

Bobby Tatum, Brunswick, Ga

Perry Barber, Folkston, Ga

Molly Chesser Crews, Glen St. Mary, Fl

Mary Ida Bass Barber Shearhart, Kissimmee, Fl,

Anna Fertic Warr, Augusta, Ga

Bertrice Dann Mach, New Smyrna, Fl,

Robert Barber, Palatka, Fl,

John Benjamin Barber, Palatka, Fl,

Harry Barber, Hollister, Fl

Pearl Barber Motes, Palatka, Fl,

Harriett Barber Smith, Palatka

Rosa Bair Worley, Macclenny, Fl,

Charles Edward Barber, Macclenny, Fl,

Irlo Bronson, Fort Pierce, Fl

Carl E. Barber, Ft. Christmas, Fl

Tate Powell, Sr., Macclenny, Fl,

Joe Fertic, Kissimmee, Fl

Samuel Proctor, Gainesville, Fl

Charley Barber, Old Town, Fl

Warren Barber, Cross City, Fl

Gabe White, Kissimmee, Fl

Mrs. Whaley, Kissimmee, Fl

Barney Dillard, Astor, Fl

Ola Barber Andrews, Wakulla, Fl

Lee Andrews, Wakulla, Fl

Ola Barber Pittman, Valdosta, Ga

Mrs. McAlpin, Live Oak, Fl

Lill Mann Walker Blum, Macclenny, Fl

Ira Walker, Macclenny, Fl

Kenneth Walker, Taylor, Fl

Casey Dinkins, Jacksonville, Fl

Clem Fraser, Macclenny, Fl

Henry Barber, Palmetto, Fl

Robert Driggers, Lake Butler, Fl

Lonnie J. Jones, Macclenny, Fl

Mr. Chewning, Cross City, Fl

Dixie Barber, Orlando, Fl

Rufus Powers, Glen Saint Mary, Fl

Alto Adams

B. H. Rowe, Macclenny, Fl

Ed Rowe, Gainesville, Fl

Otis Barber, Jacksonville, Fl

Robin Barber

Edna Floyd Cash, Ontario, Ca

Miss Johnnie Cape, Tampa, Fl

Nancy White Whaley, Kissimmee, Fl

Bertie Barber, Orlando, Fl

Col. Joe Finley, Ga.

Dicky Ferry, Macclenny, Fl

W. H. Milton, Macclenny, Fl

Richard Davis, Macclenny, Fl

Nettie Bynum Dorman, Macclenny, Fl

Maggie Johnson Chesser, Glen Saint Mary, Fl

Ethel Drawdy Reddish, Lawtey, Fl

George L. Taber, Jr., Glen Saint Mary, Fl

A. L. Ferriera, Macclenny, Fl

Pearl Ferriera Blocker, Macclenny, Fl

Tom Arline, Orlando, Fl   

John & Sara Strain, Colorado

Dennis Padgett, Apopka, Fl

 


documents  and technical information and those who supplied same

(This is terribly unprofessional, but I’m not going into dozens of pages with particulars)


Several of those listed above

Gen’l Land Office Automated Records,

Slaveschedules,  

Family Bibles (several),

Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund (Fla),

North Carolina Archives Raleigh,

Jeanne Barber Godwin Pensacola, Fl

US censuses, earliest through 1880

Dockets Brevard, Baker, Columbia, Duval, Suwannee Orange Cos.,

Clerks’ offices, same counties,

Military records,

Grady Copeland, Cross City, Fl,      

Florida Senate library,

Newspapers (several),

Official Papers of the Rebellion,

Dicky Ferry, Macclenny, Fl,

Georgia Archives, Atlanta,

Florida Archives, Tallahassee,

Linda Johnson, Jacksonville,

Joe Dobson, Macclenny, Fl,

Carroll Driggers, Jacksonville, Fl,

Ward Barnes, Virginia,

Gary Barber, Macclenny, Fl,

Carl W. Mobley, Orlando, Fl,

Mary Ida Bass Barber Shearheart, Osceola Co., Fl,

Travis Alvarez, Houston, Tx,

Kimberly Barber Gaylord, Washington State,

Aubrey Greene, Glen Saint Mary, Fl,

Barbara Humphries Miller, Charleston, SC,

Nickey Bronson Neel,

Florida penal records,

Florida Cattlemen’s Ass’n magazine,

Julie Barber Kowalski, Michigan,

Helen Fertic, Oklahoma,  

Grace Bates,

Thomas Lindsey,


 

Revised 12/8/02

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