Page 710-11
John W. BARRETT, farmer and stock-raiser, Bearden,
Ark. Among the people of Dallas County the name that
heads this sketch is by no means an unfamiliar one,
for many years he has been actively and successfully
engaged in farming and stock-raising in this county.
Mr. BARRETT was born in Clark County, Ga., in 1840,
and is the son of James W. & Mary A. (PRNYER)
BARRETT, born in Blount County, Tenn., in 1808, and Clark County,
Ga., in 1812, respectively. The father went to Clark County,
Ga., when a young man, was married there about 1835, and there
resided until 1837, when they moved to Dallas County, Ark.
They lived one year near Princeton, and then settled on the
property where the subject of this sketch now lives. There
the father died August, 1889. Both were members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. Mr. BARRETT was county and probate judge
of Clark County, Ga., a number of years, and socially was a
member of the A.F.& A.M. The maternal grandfather, Peter
PRNYER, was a native of the old Dominion and died in Clark
County, Ga., before our subject was born. The latter, the third
of six sons and four daughters, two sons and three daughters
now living received a good English education, and in May, 1862,
he joined Company E, First Trans. Mississippi Infantry. He
operated in Arkansas, was in the fight at Helena, and was wounded
three times at that place. He was over a large part of Arkansas,
was on detached service during the battle of Prairie Grove.
He was in a number of battles and many severe skirmishes. He
was discharged at Camden, Ark., in May, 1865, and returned
to his home, where he engaged in tilling the soil. He was married
I August, 1865, to Miss Sarah J. MARSHALL, a native of Alabama,
born in 1842, and the daughter of Franklin & Elizabeth
A. MARSHALL, who were born and married in Virginia, and who
emigrated to Alabama some years later. They moved to Dallas
County, Ark., about 1855, and Mr. MARSHALL died in Calhoun
County, in 1879, She was a member of the Missionary Baptist
Church. To Mr. & Mrs. BARRETT were born five children-three
sons and two daughters. For three years after the war Mr. BARRETT
lived on his present farm, and then removed to Calhoun County,
where he remained until December, 1881, and then returned to
his present farm, on which his father settled when coming to
Dallas County thirty-one years ago. Mr. BARRETT now has 1,700
acres of land, and has about 200 acres under cultivation. He
raises considerable stock, and is one of the leading farmers
of the county. From 1876 to 1880 he was justice of the peace
in Calhoun County, and discharged the duties of that office
in a highly creditable manner. Politically a Democrat, his
first presidential vote was cast for H. Seymour in 1808. He
is a member of the K. of H. Fordyce Lodge No. 3368. He had
three brothers in the Confederate army: Peter P. enlisted in
the Third Arkansas Cavalry and was killed in Cherokee County,
N.C. in 1864; William C. enlisted in the Fourth Arkansas Infantry,
Company H, and died at home December, 1881, and Charles T.,
who joined the Twelfth Arkansas Infantry, was captured at Island
No. 10 and died at Camp Douglas, Ill., after an imprisonment
of twelve months.