James Barnes Family

[1850 Census of Holmes County, Florida - James Barnes, Farmer, born in South Carolina are listed his three children: Nancy J, George, and James.] … This James Barnes was my great-grandfather.

James (farmer, born in South Carolina) was the brother of Cornelius also listed in this census. The wife of James, a Nancy Eugenia Strickland had died after the birth of James and before the taking of this census. What follows is the account of George about his mother's death:

The following comes from a letter written in 1967 by a granddaughter of George, son of James Barnes listed in the 1850 census: Note that George talks about little brother Jim. The three children listed above all immigrated to Texas with their father and are buried there.

My grandfather (George) died about 1934 at 92. When he was living it didn’t enter my mind to ask him any family history and now there are so many things I’d love to know. This is what I know: His father was overseer on a large plantation (I am not sure where but think it was in Georgia). The plantation owner, Mr. Strickland, had a daughter named Nancy and she and Great Grandfather Barnes fell in love and ran off and got married. Her family never heard of her again. I think they went to Florida where Great Grandfather Barnes worked as a ship builder and where I think George and Jim were born.

Nancy died when the boys were young. My grandfather said he could remember very little about her but remembered her going out in the yard one day when her husband was killing hogs. Grandfather said she had a red scarf over her head and she was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. She died soon afterward and he and little brother Jim were frightened and confused and hid up in the fireplace and watched the people who came to the house. Then later when their father married again in Alabama (a woman named Harriet Courton) the stepmother was mean to them and my grandfather ran away from home. I don’t know if Uncle Jim did too or not. My mother was named for her father’s mother - Nancy Eugenia.

The late Senator Tom Connelly of Marlin was related to the Stricklands but I don’t know how. Many years ago he asked my grandfather if he was the Barnes connected to the Nancy that ran away and married a Barnes. He said for many years he’d asked every person with the name Barnes with whom he came in contact if they were any offspring of Nancy and had given up hope of finding any trace of her. Her family was apparently very sad not to have ever heard of her after she left home - and that is an awful thing to happen.

I should point out that later in life James began to use the middle initial "C" which stood for Charles. We don't know if the "P" was an error originally made in 1850 when the census taker took down information or if he decided he simply didn't like "P" and whatever name it stood for.

Contributed 23 Aug 2004 by Anita Barnes Lowen