Rutland County VT Archives History - Letters .....Extracts From Uncle Aug Kent Barber October 8, 1852 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/vt/vtfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Jan Jordan jnrose@webtv.net July 20, 2006, 9:05 am Book Title: This is the text of something I have received as "Extracts from Uncle Aug Kent Barber". It is a letter from Augustus Kent Barber to his brother Matthew Root Barber, describing a trip he took from his farm in Morgan County, Illinois, to visit his relatives in Chicago, Pittsfield MA and Benson VT. Railroads had just reached most of Illinois within the year before his trip - before that, an overland round trip of these dimensions would have been arduous rather than recreational. Descendants of Deacon Matthew Barber of Pittsfield, MA (formerly of Worcester) and his wife Hannah McFarland, and of Rev. Daniel Kent of Benson, VT (formerly of Suffield, CT), will find many relatives mentioned in this brief note. My notes explaining what I know about the individuals briefly mentioned in his text are indicated by the bracketed numbers. -------------------------- Extracts from Uncle Aug Kent Barber Oct 8 - 1852 Brother Mat I left home the last of July for a visit with our Eastern Relations. Found a cousin Gustavus W. Southworth in Chicago [1] - Excellent man son of our Aunt Abigail from Chicago [2]. I went to Detroit - Buffalo - Albany - New York City - Pittsfield Mass, Birth place - saw the well where our Grandfather [3] drank near a century ago The house had been removed - Pittsfield is a beautiful town. In Benson Rutland Co Vermont found our Grandmother [4] living - a lovly old Lady of 84 years Intelligent cheerful & happy. Our youngest Aunt Juliette [5] living with her in the same house which was once our Mother's [6] home. Our eldest Aunt Eudocia M. Harmon [7] lives within a few rods of them a Widow. Cousin Franklin Southworth [8] lives in Benson. Aunt Maria Goodrich and Husband [9] live one mile from them on a farm. We have also an Aunt Joanna Warren [10] a widow - living in Carollton near N Orleans - also Aunt Adiline ODoud & Husband [11] living in N Orleans. Uncle Fredric Kent & family!     [12] live in Pensacola Miss has charge of a High school. These are all relatives on our Mothers side. On Father's side I found two cousins Maryett Aiken [13] Parchena Olmsted [14] in Benson Vt. Two cousins at Dorset Daugters of uncle Josiah Woodward both married[15]. Was very pleased with my visit - found them most excellent people. Recd a letter a few days since from Bro. Alex Ramsey [16] informing me that our dear sister Maria [17] was no more - she left three motherless daughters [18] the eldest 6 years & the youngest fifteen months her last words were - all is well. Affectionately yours Auugustus Kent Barber These few lines give you all the information I have of our family. An old Vermont friend of the Kent family once said to me to procure a book - she thot - "the annals of Minsteres of the Eastern states and perhaps would touch on the Kents particularly as they were a very ministerial family. Your loving counsin Maria Barber Lander --------------------------- Notes: [1] Gustavus Walstein Southworth, grandson of Daniel Kent. He was born 1811 and died 2 years after this letter was written, in 1854. His mother was Abigail Madame Kent and his father, Gordon Bibbins Southworth. [2] Abigail Madame Kent, wife of Gordon Bibbins Southworth. I do not know when she died. Her husband was living at the time (1852) Augustus took this trip and wrote this letter, and it sounds as though she was alive as well. [3] Augustus' grandfather who lived in Pittsfield, MA was Matthew Barber, often referred to as "Deacon Matthew Barber" in Pittsfield records. He was born in Worcester, MA in 1734, and moved to Pittsfield around 1771. He built a fulling mill in connection with a sawmill on the Housatonic River at Wahconah (in Pittsfield) around 1776, at what was later the site of Goodrich's Mill Dam, and (possibly later yet) the Wahconah flouring mills. He was a veteran of both the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars. His wife was Hannah McFarland. Both Matthew and Hannah died in Benson, VT, having moved there sometime after 1784, probably to live in the household of their oldest child Daniel, who had moved to Benson in 1783, and built a mill there, probably with Matthew's help. [4] The grandmother Augustus refers to is the second wife of his maternal grandfather Rev. Daniel Kent, Betsey (Elizabeth?) Griswold. She was not his biological grandmother, he was the grandson of Rev. Kent's first wife Abigail Sykes. Rev. Kent had died in 1835, so his absence from this account makes sense. [5] Juliett Kent was the daugher of Rev. Daniel Kent and his 2'nd wife Betsey Griswold. I know nothing more about her. I suspect that she was their youngest daughter, and never married. [6] This is to say that the widow of Rev. Daniel Kent and his daughter, Juliett were living in the same house in Benson, VT where Augustus' mother Clarissa Kent grew up. [7] Eudosia Sykes Kent was a daughter of Rev. Daniel Kent and his first wife Abigail Sykes, born in 1790, age 62 at the time of Augustus' visit. Her husband, Benson lawyer Ira Harmon, had died at age 57 in 1838. [8] Benjamin Franklin Southworth, firstborn of Gordon Bibbins Southworth and Abigail Madame Kent, was born in 1805, age 47 at the time of Augustus' visit. His wife was Sarah Washburn Morse. [9] Betsey Maria Kent, daughter of Rev. Daniel Kent and Betsey Griswold. She was born in 1798, age 54 at the time of this visit. Her husband was Philetus Goodrich, son of Othniel Goodrich and Sarah Gooding, and he was also alive at the time. [10] Joanna Kent, daughter of Rev. Daniel Kent and Betsey Griswold. She married, first, Rev. Daniel Starr Southmayd, who died in Fort Bend, Texas (then Mexico) in 1837. She had two children by him, both of whom died in 1836 in Texas. The deaths of Rev. Southmayd and her children were due to famine and disease associated with the burning of crops and homes by Santa Anna during the war with Mexico. She married, second, Rev. John Bliss Warren, himself a widower, in Texas, and moved with him to Ascension Parish, Louisiana. He died there in 1845. She died in 1878 during a visit to Benson, VT. [11] Emma Adeline Kent, daughter of Rev. Daniel Kent and Betsey Griswold. She married James O'Dowd. [12] Frederick A. Kent, son of Rev. Daniel Kent and Betsey Griswold. He married Harriet Elizabeth Geer. [13] I don't know of this person. [14] I don't know of this person. [15] I have never been able to figure out who this "Josiah Woodward" refers to. Augustus had a brother Josiah Woodward Barber who is a direct ancestor of mine, and I have a fairly extensive database, so it's surprising (to me at least) that I can't place this person. [16] Alexander Dinwiddie Ramsey, husband of Augustus' sister Maria Barber. He was born in Kentucky in 1802 and died in Wisconsin in 1878, and was prominent in Wisconsin politics. [17] Maria Barber, daugher of Joseph Barber and Clarissa Kent. Married Alexander Ramsey 1836, died 1852. [18] Augustus ended up raising at least two of his sister Maria's children, as can be seen in the 1870 U.S. Census. - ---------------------------------------------------- Additional Comments: General Note: I have this letter, not in the original, but in a handwritten copy by Maria Barber Lander. The letter was addressed to her father, Matthew Root Barber ("brother Matt"), so I trust its authenticity. (Maria Jane Barber (Lander) was born in 1838. She married C.W. Lander, a pioneer settler of California, having moved to that state in 1849. Matthew Root Barber was born in Ohio in 1815 to Joseph Barber and Clarissa Kent. Matthew was a pioneer settler of the East Bay area near San Francisco, CA, settling in Martinez, Contra Costa County in 1852, where he established orchards and vineyards.) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/vt/rutland/history/letters/extracts91gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/vtfiles/ File size: 8.2 Kb