Joseph Barber - Clues Abound

   ©  Kathy Duncan, 2021

Working on my husband's Brown line (John Deloss Brown) led to working on my Brown line (Toy M. Brown). Of course, as usual, that led basically nowhere. John C. Brown is not an easy person to track. That, of course, led me back to my Barber line - John C. Brown's wife was Mary Emma Barber.

Many years ago, I was able to track Mary Emma Barber's father Joseph Barber back to Sumter County, Georgia in 1840. Joseph Barber's older children were born somewhere in Georgia. In 1904, Joseph's son William A. Barber stated in a deposition for his Confederate pension that he was born in "Simpter" County, Georgia. Based on that I was able to locate Joseph Barber on the 1840 Sumter County, Georgia census. I also found a Joseph Barber on the membership roll of the Friendship Baptist Church. While no Barbers are buried in their cemetery there was a family with the distinctive name Mashburn buried there. I knew from googling "Joseph Barber" and "North Carolina," which is Joseph Barber's birthplace, and 1800..1860 that there was an abstract of a record in Onslow County, North Carolina where a Joseph Barber was named as an heir to a grandfather named Mashburn. But how to connect that information to Joseph Barber of Sumter County, Georgia? 

The place to start was back with that abstract. This time a more detailed version of the abstract turned up in Zae Gwynn's Abstracts of The Records of Onslow County North Carolina vol. 2, located in the Internet Archive, and now I have a lot more clues to follow up on.

Onslow County, North Carolina, Deek Bk 20, p. 193:

"Thomas Mashburn, Sr., of Pulaski County Georgia, late of Onslow Co., N.C., deceased, willed 50 dollars unto each of his grandchildren, the children of Thomas Barber; namely, Joseph, Thomas, and Jackson Barber, whose mother was Sarah Mashburn, daughter of said Thomas Mashburn, deceased. Both Thomas and Sarah Barber are now dead, leaving no children other then the 3 sons above named and since both Thomas Barber, Jr., and Jackson Barber are also dead without issue, Joseph is sole owner and should receive the entire bequest with interest. Joseph Barber now lives in Pulaski Co., Georgia, and appoints Lorenzo D. Moore of the same county, attorney, to recover from Thomas Mashburn, Jr., the inheritance due him; said Mashburn now lives in Onslow Co., N.C. Tests: John Hodges, Amasa Kellam, J.P., Elizabeth Boen, widow of Thomas Barber. Joseph Carruthers, Clerk of Inferior Court of Pulaski Co., Ga."

There is a lot to unpack here. First, there's no date on this record. It would need to be prior to 1850 when my Joseph Barber was no longer a resident of Georgia. I don't know if my Joseph Barber ever lived anywhere else in Georgia, but there is no reason to think that his residence was limited to Sumter County, Georgia. 

Two major clues leap out of this record. 

The first clue is that this Joseph Barber had a deceased brother named Jackson. The death certificate of my Joseph Barber's son George W. Barber states that George's father was Joseph Jackson Barber. Would it make sense that my Joseph Barber had both a middle name of Jackson and a brother named Jackson? Maybe not, but it's important to keep in mind that information pertaining to birth is a secondary source on a death certificate because you are relying on hearsay reporting for the names of parents, birthdates, and birth locations. What if George W. Barber's son G.W. Barber Jr. just got it wrong, mixing up stories of his grandfather and his grandfather's brother? I was alarmed recently to realize that my own son would not be able to accurately report his grandparents' names in the event my husband or I died, and he has known three of his grandparents well. 

The second clue is that Joseph Barber appointed Lorenzo D. Moore to act as his attorney. The other piece of information on George W. Barber's death certificate is his mother's name. That certificate states that she was either Amelia Moore or Aurelia Moore. In fact, Joseph Barber's wife was named Acenia, a name with many spelling variants, of which Amelia is not one. But could Moore be accurate? Or is Lorenzo D. Moore just a coincidence? My suspicion is that his full name was Lorenzo Dow Moore. Since the eccentric minister was fairly popular by around 1820 and earlier, this sort of pinpoints a time frame for him. Then it adds Methodists into the mix. Joseph Barber was a member of the Baptist church in Sumter County. Was his wife a Methodist?

Yet another clue is that Elizabeth Boen was the widow of Thomas Barber. Clearly, she had remarried after his death. 

The abstracts in this collection continue:

Onslow County, North Carolina, Deek Bk 20, p. 195

"Elizabeth Barber of Dooly County, Georgia, relict and widow of Thomas Barber, Sr., late of the county of Sumpter, State of Georgia, deceased, and formerly of Onslow County, North Carolina, deposes she also knew his former wife, Sarah, who was, prior to her marriage, Sarah Mashburn, daughter of Thomas Mashburn, Sr., of Onslow Co., N.C., now deceased. Thomas Barber's wife, Sarah Mashburn Barber, died in Onslow Co., N.C., before his removal to Georgia and he married said Elizabeth in Sumpter Co., Ga., in 1829, and he is now dead. Also Thomas Barber, Jr., son of Sarah and Thomas Barber died in Jefferson Co., Ga., in 1823, and Jackson Barber died in Dooly Co., Ga., in 1829, and said Elizabeth says she married the said Thomas Barber, Sr., in the State in N.C., and lived with him from the time of his removal from N.C. to the time of his death and knew his wife, Sarah, and his 3 sons named above. She is now married to John Bowen. Aug. 8, 1833. This deposition taken by Charles H. Higdon, J.P. of Dooly Co., Ga. Thomas H. Key swore to above, Aug. 12, 1833. He, Clerk of Inferior Court of Dooly Co., Ga., and John L. Shelby, a J.P. of said county."

This abstract is loaded with additional clues, but some of them contradict each other. 

It seems evident that Thomas Barber, formerly of Onslow County, North Carolina, died in Sumter County, Georgia sometime before 1833 when this document is dated. It would seem that he did not move directly from Onslow County, North Carolina to Sumter County, Georgia. Since his son Joseph Barber was only about twelve years old in 1823, it seems reasonable to think that his other sons were also minors. Therefore, when Thomas Barber Jr. died in Jefferson County, Georgia in 1823, it seems reasonable to think that he was a minor still living in his father's household. Following the sons' places of death, that means that the family either traveled to Sumter County, Georgia by way of Jefferson County and Dooly County or just by way of Jefferson County. If Thomas Barber's death preceded that of his son Jackson, then the surviving family may have removed from Sumter County to Dooly County. In any event, this gives me additional counties to search for records.

The bigger problem emerges over the contradictory information that Elizabeth Bowen provided over her marriage to Thomas Barber. Either they married in Onslow County, North Carolina before Thomas Barber removed to Georgia, which was evidently by or before 1823, or they married in Sumter County, Georgia in 1829 near the time of his death. It can't be both. My gut feeling is that they married before 1823 in Onslow County, North Carolina. Since Sarah Mashburn and Thomas Barber only had three sons before her death, and son Joseph Barber was born about 1811, my guess is that Thomas Barber had young children and needed a new wife. That wife may well have been Elizabeth. Or there could have been an unknown wife between his marriages to Sarah and Elizabeth.

Then there is one more tantalizing abstract:

Onslow County, North Carolina, Deek Bk 20, p. 197

"Pulaski County, Ga. Green W. Fountain, a J.P. of said Co. took deposition of Daniel Mashburn of said county as to facts of the above deposition of Elizabeth Bowen, late Elizabeth Barber, widow of Thomas Barber, deceased. Aug. 24, 1833. Joseph Carruthers, Clerk of Dooly Co., Ga., and John Bozeman, J.P. of Pulaski County, swear to the authenticity of above deposition of Mashburn. Registered in Onslow Co., N.C., May 30, 1834."

Daniel Mashburn?! Could this be the same Daniel Mashburn who is buried in the Friendship Baptist Church Cemetery in Sumter County, Georgia? It would be nice if his relationship to Thomas Mashburn Sr. was made clear in this document.