Biography of Edwin G. Barrett - Craighead Co, AR

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        Date: 26 Sep 1998
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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas.
Goodspeed Publishers, 1889.

page 318

Edwin G. Barrett. Prominent among the prosperous and intelligent young
farmers of Craighead County, may be mentioned the name of Edwin G.
Barrett, a native of the county, born April 21, 1859. His paternal
grandfather was Caswell Barrett, a native of South Carolina, who was
reared in that State and all his life followed agricultural pursuits.
He was born in 1793 and died in 1830. [p.318] His wife, Nancy
(Ferguson) Barrett, also a native of South Carolina, was of Irish
descent, and to their union were born two sons and two daughters, the
only survivor being Arthur J., who is now a prominent planter of
Craighead County. He was born in Greenville District, S. C., August 31,
1821, and was reared on the farm, receiving a very good education. In
1858, to better his fortune, he concluded to come to Arkansas, and with
his wife and three children and household goods, started in a wagon for
this State. After traveling sixty days, he drove up and unhitched his
wagon at his present farm, where he has lived ever since. There are 140
acres in the homestead, about ninety under cultivation, and he has also
eighty-three acres of very rich land on the edge of "Cache Bottom." He
has always been a Democrat in politics, but has never aspired to
office. Before the war, he was county surveyor for one term, and during
the war was in the Confederate service. He was married October 11,
1849, to Eunice Barton, a native of Georgia, whose parents were
Willoughby and Sarah (West) Barton, both natives of South Carolina. Her
mother died in 1844, and her father afterward came to Arkansas and died
in White County in 1862. Of Mr. and Mrs. Barrett's ten children, only
five are living, viz., William F. (married to Marzee Watkins), Mary
(wife of Peyton Watkins), Edwin G. (the immediate subject of this
sketch), and Sarah and Eliza at home. Those deceased are: Albert,
Gilford, Luther, John and Nancy. Nancy was the wife of S. A. Neal, and
left three little children, Arthur, Marvin and Ida Myrtle. Mr. and Mrs.
Barrett and their entire family are members of the Missionary Baptist
Church, and those deceased were members. Edwin G. was reared on his
father's farm, receiving a very fair education. He has been principally
engaged in farming, but was for a while a clerk in the mercantile
trade. He has a nice farm of seventy-five acres, forty of which are
splendidly improved. January 20, 1885, he married Julia Dodds, a
daughter of Allen and Julia (Saye) Dodds, residents of this county.
This union has been blessed by two children: Alva and Margaret. Mr.
Barrett is a man of strong political convictions, and is a Democrat.
Both he and his wife are devont Christians, the former a member of the
Missionary Baptist Church, and the latter of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.