William Barnes (abt. 1777 - abt. 1815)

Born about 1777 in Georgia

Descendants

Died about 1815 at about age 38 in Mississippi or Tennessee [uncertain]

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Biography

William Barnes, with his young wife and daughter Margaret, emigrated from Georgia to Amite Co., MS, later settled in Pike County, MS.

Migration

In 1798 William Barnes, with his young wife and little daughter, Margaret, then only a few years of age, emigrated from Georgia. They took passage in a large dugout which he constructed out of a cypress tree, launching it on the Cumberland River and floating down the connecting waters into the Mississippi River and landed at Natchez. Barnes was an accomplished young mechanic, and he and his young wife had only one child, little Margaret, then only five or six years of age. They wanted to come to the far West, to the Mississippi Terri- tory, of which he had heard so much, to settle down in life and build themselves a home. He cut down a big cypress tree, dug it out with his adz ánd fashioned it and launched it on the turbid waters, put all his belongings in it, and he and his young wife and little Margaret took passage for more than a thousand miles down unknown and perilous streams. With his trusty rifle, a brave heart, a loving, heroic wife, a sweet little child, he pushed off from Georgia's shore and paddled on down, stopping here and there to camp over night under the trees or to kill wild game to supply their needs. When he arrived at the head of Mussel Shoals, a very dangerous continuation of rapids for a long distance, he landed his dugout and was visited by an Indian, who advised him not to undertake to shoot the rapids with his wife and child in the boat, that there was a near cut by a pathway to the river below the rapids which they could take, and that he himself would accompany him and steer the boat safely through. It was already late in the evening, but Barnes wished to pass the rapids at once while he had the Indian to help him through. After the Indian had directed Mrs. Barnes how to go they pushed out to make the descent. Night had overtaken them, and when they arrived at the point where Barnes' wife was to meet them it was late and she was not there and failed to answer to his call or the sound of his horn. The Indian then explained that he forgot to tell her the path forked, and said she must have taken the wrong direction leading out into the deep, dark wilderness, which proved to be true. Leaving the Indian in care of his boat, Barnes, with his gun, his horn and a torch, went out in search of his lost wife and child. Beating back on the trail as directed until he reached the one the Indian surmised his wife had taken, he pursued that for a long distance until at length he found her sitting beneath the trees with her little child hugged up in her arms, patiently waiting for and trusting her husband to rescue them. When they returned to their dugout they found that the Indian had stolen much of their valuables and fled. In due course of time Barnes with his little family arrived safely at Natchez, and afterward worked his way out to Beaver Creek, in Amite County, where he remained for awhile, when he moved to Pike County and settled on Union Creek near where Union Church was subsequently erected. He built a grist mill over Union Creek in 1813, and a ginning and carding machine, to prepare rolls for the spinning wheel. It is a curious fact, that 104 years after Barnes' novel departure from Georgia his romantic adventure should be recorded by this writer, as related to him in person by the first born son of little Margaret, at the age of ninety years, and within a few miles of where he was born. In the State of Tennessee at this early time there lived a Widow Sartin, who had a little boy named John. She married a man named Lee, and they moved from Tennessee to Amite County in 1810. Here John Sartin met little Margaret Barnes. Their associations and friendship ripened into love, and when Margaret Barnes arrived at the age of seventeen she became the wife of young John Sartin. They settled in the woods and opened a little farm on Magees Creek, a few miles south of China Grove, which was afterward known as the Woodruff place. It was here that Major Sartin, their first son, was born, November 28, 1812. They were also the parents of William, Joseph, Alfred, John, Leander and James Sartin and Amanda, wife of Martin P. Roberts; Helen, wife of John Boone, and Emily, wife of Jackson Bearden. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ History of Pike County, Mississippi

• History of Pike County, Mississippi
• Article from the Magnolia Gazzette, 1902 by L.W.C.