Pueblo County CO Archives Biographies.....Barkley, John F. 1835 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 27, 2008, 8:22 pm

Author: R. M. Stevenson (1881)

LIEUT. JOHN F. BARKLEY.

    The above-named gentleman and subject of the following biography is South
Pueblo's most prominent dealer in general merchandise. He was born near Augusta,
Bracken County, Ky., on the 17th day of February, 1835. His parents moved to
Illinois when he was eight years old. There he went to school an occasional
winter and worked on the farm and at blacksmithing until he was twenty-one, when
he had become proficient in the blacksmith's trade and which he followed the
greater part of the succeeding five years. The call of Abraham Lincoln for
75,000 three-months men met with an immediate response from his patriotism, he
being one of the first to offer his services to his country. He enlisted in
Company G, of the Eleventh Infantry Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, at
Effingham, in April, 1861. The regiment was ordered to Jonesboro, Ill., and from
there to Bird's Point, Mo., where it was mustered-out in July of the same year.
This regiment was not in an engagement from the time it was mustered in to the
time it was mustered out, and the only unpleasant part of those three months of
a soldier's life which he experienced was an attack of typhoid fever of short
duration. He intended to re-enlist, but first wished to see his old
acquaintances, so, after he was mustered out at Bird's Point he returned to
Illinois and spent three months, just the length of time he was in the army,
visiting relatives and friends, and then enlisted at Mason, Ill., for three
years, in Company D, of the Fifty-fourth Illinois Infantry, to which company he
was elected and mustered in as Second Lieutenant. The Fifty-fourth was pushed to
the front. It was at the siege and capture of Vicksburg, but was never drawn
into pitched battle, and the only fighting it did was a little skirmishing with
Forrest's command in Tennessee. Lieut. Barkley, after three months' and three
3-ears' service in two different regiments was mustered-out at Little Rock,
Arkansas, without the misfortune of being in one heated engagement or of
receiving a single wound. To be in the midst, as it were, of battle as long and
often as he was and not be engaged seems almost incredible. During his service,
he was an officer of court martial three months at Little Rock, and was promoted
to First Lieutenant at the siege of Vicksburg. He was in ill health before his
enlistment but perfectly well when discharged. He commenced dealing in general
merchandise in Watson, Ill., with William Abraham as partner, soon after he came
out of the army the second time. Nine years he was in trade and partnership with
him. His wife's health having failed, he dissolved partnership with Abraham and
brought her to Colorado. She gained from the day of her arrival and is pleased
beyond expression with the climate. Lieut. Barkley and lady belong to the fixed
residents of the State.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

History of the  Arkansas Valley, Colorado
By J. Harrison Mills

O. L. Baskin & Co.
Chicago
1881


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