This is the Barney Wise family in 1897.  Barney is seated at center and his wife Augusta (August 29, 1853 – May 31, 1899) is at right.  On his lap is Claudie Ophelia (September 7, 1890 – January 13, 1968) and seated at left is Barney “Jack” Jr. (September 10, 1880 – January 29, 1953); standing are (L-R) William G.  (September 19, 1876 – May 11, 1948), Joseph W. (August 5, 1884 – September 17, 1900) and Franklin A. (December 16, 1872 – August 31, 1925).

By GLEN M. MAJORS

552 Clay Road, Searcy, AR 72143

 

B

arney S. Wise Sr. was a justice of the peace, a county surveyor, a school teacher, Civil War veteran and prominent citizen of White County.  Retracing his footsteps has taken me through two 1870-1894 journals of White County, six Bible pages of births, marriages and deaths, one faded 1897 family photograph and 10 pages of genealogy.

Barney lived in a log house about two and a half miles northwest of Clay and two miles southeast of Pangburn on the present Clay Road in White County, Arkansas.

He was born July 27, 1840, in Georgia and was 19 when he married his first wife, Marthie, two days after Christmas in 1859.  A daughter, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wise, was born from this union. 

On August 28, 1861, Barney enlisted in Company K of the 38th Tennessee Regiment of Confederate States Infantry at Memphis as a private for one year.  Military records indicate he was a farmer, 5’8” in height with dark hair, fair complexion and gray eyes. 

He was wounded in his left shoulder by a Minnie ball at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, the following spring – April 7, 1862.  He returned to his home in Alabama but eventually wound up at Fairground Hospital No. 1 in Atlanta for treatment of the wound.  He was given a “certificate of disability for discharge” on July 14, 1863.  At that time, Barney received $11 a month for service time and was provided transportation from Atlanta to Montgomery, Alabama. 

He moved to White County following the war, probably about 1868, and soon was busy as a professional.  He briefly received $50 a month for a three-month term as school teacher in White County School District #21, now known as Holly Springs community, Pratt Road, Clay Township,

He became a justice of the peace in 1870 and kept two journals for the next 24 years.  They showed school attendance records, marriages performed, some births, deaths, court records, school notices, tax assessments, warrants issued and deeds of conveyance.   He was also elected White County Land Surveyor in 1870 and served more than two terms.  He did regular county survey work and laid out the plot plans for the city of Bald Knob.  A copy of these plans is now in the possession of a great-grandson, Glenn Wayne Smith of Jonesboro.

What happened to his first wife is not known to this writer.  Their daughter Lizzie married George Stahle in 1878.  She died in 1923.   Barney married Augusta Stahle on January 8, 1872.  They had eight children.   Barney died October 14, 1898, of cancer that developed near the gunshot wound.  Augusta died the following year.  They rest in Henderson Cemetery east of Pangburn. vvv