ANN ELIZA (VEACH) BARKER
Birth: 14 Jun 1841
Death: 8 Jan 1918
(age 72 years, 6 months, 24 days)
The following is a letter written by Bess Ann (Barker)
Motley to her two
year old grand niece.
"To Jennifer Ann Barker
By her great aunt Bess Ann"
"Dear Little Jennifer Ann, now just two years old. How I wish you would have known your little pioneer "Indian Fightin" Great Great Grandmother Ann, as I did when I was a little girl. I remember her as a small woman, already old but very lively still, dressed always in black with a black and white checked apron decorated in cross stitch and on her head a black kerchief tied corner-wise with the point in back. peasant fashion. Her hair was always parted in the middle and combed smoothly back to a bun low on the back of her neck. Her apron had a pocket which she kept tobacco rolled in a black handkerchief for chewing. All the elderly woman of her community smoked clay pipes or chewed tobacco. Their lives were hard in pioneer times and often they had to help their men folk defend their homes against Indians, so the tobacco probably helped them to be brave.
Your Great Great Grandmother Ann was born June 14, 1841. Your Father "James" gets his name from her husband and your great great grandfather, James J. Barker, known as "Jim" Barker. James J. Barker was born December 7, 1834. They were probably born in Missouri, because we know they came from Joplin, Missouri, to Parker county, Texas, during pioneer and Indian times there. They had twelve children named as follows: Mary, William, Martha, Nancy, Marion, Jasper, Robert, Barney (your great grandfather), James, Frank, Samuel and Ann.
James J Barker owned considerable land in Parker County on "The Ridge" nine miles north of Weatherford. His fields were outlined with rock fences which were still in place when I was a child. Part of this land he sold to honor a debt left by his brother, Joshua whose business failed in Weatherford. ( this same Joshua was one of the first business men, City Alderman, and first sheriff of Weatherford).
The first home which Jim built on his land was of logs and it was burned by the Indians.(I have a story to tell you about this.) The second home was built out lumber, hauled in over long distances by oxen. It was still standing when I was a little girl and your Great Great Grandmother Ann lived there alone. I will tell you my memories of this house.
James J. Barker died December 17, 1893 and Ann Barker lived on at the home place until her last few years which she spent in our Weatherford home until her death, January 8, 1918.
When I was a little girl like you, Jennifer Ann, I used to spend as much time as I could with my grandmother An ; and I remember, even today, every detail of her little house, inside and out. She had a large fireplace which she used for all her cooking. It had an iron crane extending out from the side, and hanging on this were two kettles and an iron tea kettle. On the hearth at one side was the dutch oven where she baked her biscuits,
cornbread and cakes. I remember a birthday cake which she baked for me when I was three or four years old. She would put live coals on the lid and coals underneath the dutch oven. If she cooked sweet potatoes, she baked them in the hot ashes. If she was going to cook turnips in the winter time, we would walk through the snow to the hay attack and dig them out from deep in the hay where she had stored them for the winter. The turnips would go into one of the two iron pots over the fire. Her soda she kept in a big covered wooden bucket. The inside walls of the little house were snowy white with whit wash and her planked floors were snowy white because she scrubbed them with ashes.
Grandmother Ann taught me how to make corn-cob dolls to play with. We would start with a whole ear of corn, shell off the corn and outer shucks, then cut short and slit the remaining inner shucks to make hair. We would make eyes nose and mouth with a piece if charcoal, and then dress the doll with scrapes of material that grandmother saved for her quilts. She would take with her to gather horehound growing wild and then I would watch her make horehound candy for coughs. Also I would watch with great interest how she would cook off her lard in a great iron pot in the yard, and how she would make soap in this pot, first making her lye from ashes.
One memory that stands out in my mind is a walk I had of several miles with grandmother. We were going to the pioneer Clark Cemetery where grandfather Jim was buried. In our path there suddenly appeared a copperhead snake which grandmother Ann soon dispatched with a walking stick which she carried. In this cemetery are the graves of both Jim and Ann Barker as well as many of their descendants.
And now Jennifer Ann, I have two stories to tell you about your Great Great Grandparents, Ann and Jim Barker, and the Indians, as Follows:
" Ann's adventures with the Indians" News came to the settlement that the commanche Indians were on a raid. As always the men banded together and started out to find the Indians, do battle, and run them out of the country, The women and children were supposed to leave at once and gather at " Wards Fort" for protection. This fort was merely the home of a man named Ward who was crippled but was very good with his gun, and with the help of the woman could fight off the Indians.
However, Ann had a mind of her own and was brave, so she decided to wait until she milk her cow in the late afternoon. Then she , her mother (Great Grandmother Teeters), and the two babies would make their way to the fort. Just before sun down Ann started out to drive up her cow for the milking. As she walked she could see the grass moving off to the side, and she noticed that an Indian was following her. Then she noticed smoke pluming up from a ravine in the distance and knew that the Indians were there cooking supper. However, Ann continued on her way and pretended not to know the Indian was crawling along in thew grass watching her. Still pretending, she drove her cow home, and then went into the house to wait for darkness so they could escape to the fort.
Inside the house Ann dressed herself in a mans coat and hat and loaded her gun. When it was good dark she came out of the house trailed by her mother carrying the two babies. In the darkness Ann ran into one of the gate posts and thought it was an Indian. She started screaming and ran for the house with her mother trying to catch her and stop the her noise. Finally things quilted down and they slipped away from the house, on their way at last to "Wards Fort". Before they had gone very far they could see their house in flames with the Indians dancing round about, but they escaped with their lives.
To this day you can find the spot where the house burned by the Indians once stood. In a pasture near a stream you can find stones from the fallen chimney and foundations, all showing signs of the fire; and the hearth stones are still in place. Once in the spring I visited this pasture during bluebonnet season with my father, Barney Barker; and we found the bluebonnets were of a deeper hue where the pioneer house once stood.
"Jim Barker and the Indians"
One day Jim Barker was out alone on horseback looking for some horses which he thought had strayed, or else had been stolen by the Indians. Suddenly he spied a band of Indians in a valley just below. Luckily the Indians had not seen him yet; so he slipped away and rode to the back side of the ridge overlooking the valley. from there he came riding fast to the top of the ridge. Then looking back down the back side he waved and yelled as though he were bringing up a band of settlers to fight the Indians. The trick worked and the Indians raced away; and Jim had one his one man battle."
Written by: Bess Ann (Barker) Motley (granddaughter of James Jasper and Ann Eliza Barker)
year old grand niece.
"To Jennifer Ann Barker
By her great aunt Bess Ann"
"Dear Little Jennifer Ann, now just two years old. How I wish you would have known your little pioneer "Indian Fightin" Great Great Grandmother Ann, as I did when I was a little girl. I remember her as a small woman, already old but very lively still, dressed always in black with a black and white checked apron decorated in cross stitch and on her head a black kerchief tied corner-wise with the point in back. peasant fashion. Her hair was always parted in the middle and combed smoothly back to a bun low on the back of her neck. Her apron had a pocket which she kept tobacco rolled in a black handkerchief for chewing. All the elderly woman of her community smoked clay pipes or chewed tobacco. Their lives were hard in pioneer times and often they had to help their men folk defend their homes against Indians, so the tobacco probably helped them to be brave.
Your Great Great Grandmother Ann was born June 14, 1841. Your Father "James" gets his name from her husband and your great great grandfather, James J. Barker, known as "Jim" Barker. James J. Barker was born December 7, 1834. They were probably born in Missouri, because we know they came from Joplin, Missouri, to Parker county, Texas, during pioneer and Indian times there. They had twelve children named as follows: Mary, William, Martha, Nancy, Marion, Jasper, Robert, Barney (your great grandfather), James, Frank, Samuel and Ann.
James J Barker owned considerable land in Parker County on "The Ridge" nine miles north of Weatherford. His fields were outlined with rock fences which were still in place when I was a child. Part of this land he sold to honor a debt left by his brother, Joshua whose business failed in Weatherford. ( this same Joshua was one of the first business men, City Alderman, and first sheriff of Weatherford).
The first home which Jim built on his land was of logs and it was burned by the Indians.(I have a story to tell you about this.) The second home was built out lumber, hauled in over long distances by oxen. It was still standing when I was a little girl and your Great Great Grandmother Ann lived there alone. I will tell you my memories of this house.
James J. Barker died December 17, 1893 and Ann Barker lived on at the home place until her last few years which she spent in our Weatherford home until her death, January 8, 1918.
When I was a little girl like you, Jennifer Ann, I used to spend as much time as I could with my grandmother An ; and I remember, even today, every detail of her little house, inside and out. She had a large fireplace which she used for all her cooking. It had an iron crane extending out from the side, and hanging on this were two kettles and an iron tea kettle. On the hearth at one side was the dutch oven where she baked her biscuits,
cornbread and cakes. I remember a birthday cake which she baked for me when I was three or four years old. She would put live coals on the lid and coals underneath the dutch oven. If she cooked sweet potatoes, she baked them in the hot ashes. If she was going to cook turnips in the winter time, we would walk through the snow to the hay attack and dig them out from deep in the hay where she had stored them for the winter. The turnips would go into one of the two iron pots over the fire. Her soda she kept in a big covered wooden bucket. The inside walls of the little house were snowy white with whit wash and her planked floors were snowy white because she scrubbed them with ashes.
Grandmother Ann taught me how to make corn-cob dolls to play with. We would start with a whole ear of corn, shell off the corn and outer shucks, then cut short and slit the remaining inner shucks to make hair. We would make eyes nose and mouth with a piece if charcoal, and then dress the doll with scrapes of material that grandmother saved for her quilts. She would take with her to gather horehound growing wild and then I would watch her make horehound candy for coughs. Also I would watch with great interest how she would cook off her lard in a great iron pot in the yard, and how she would make soap in this pot, first making her lye from ashes.
One memory that stands out in my mind is a walk I had of several miles with grandmother. We were going to the pioneer Clark Cemetery where grandfather Jim was buried. In our path there suddenly appeared a copperhead snake which grandmother Ann soon dispatched with a walking stick which she carried. In this cemetery are the graves of both Jim and Ann Barker as well as many of their descendants.
And now Jennifer Ann, I have two stories to tell you about your Great Great Grandparents, Ann and Jim Barker, and the Indians, as Follows:
" Ann's adventures with the Indians" News came to the settlement that the commanche Indians were on a raid. As always the men banded together and started out to find the Indians, do battle, and run them out of the country, The women and children were supposed to leave at once and gather at " Wards Fort" for protection. This fort was merely the home of a man named Ward who was crippled but was very good with his gun, and with the help of the woman could fight off the Indians.
However, Ann had a mind of her own and was brave, so she decided to wait until she milk her cow in the late afternoon. Then she , her mother (Great Grandmother Teeters), and the two babies would make their way to the fort. Just before sun down Ann started out to drive up her cow for the milking. As she walked she could see the grass moving off to the side, and she noticed that an Indian was following her. Then she noticed smoke pluming up from a ravine in the distance and knew that the Indians were there cooking supper. However, Ann continued on her way and pretended not to know the Indian was crawling along in thew grass watching her. Still pretending, she drove her cow home, and then went into the house to wait for darkness so they could escape to the fort.
Inside the house Ann dressed herself in a mans coat and hat and loaded her gun. When it was good dark she came out of the house trailed by her mother carrying the two babies. In the darkness Ann ran into one of the gate posts and thought it was an Indian. She started screaming and ran for the house with her mother trying to catch her and stop the her noise. Finally things quilted down and they slipped away from the house, on their way at last to "Wards Fort". Before they had gone very far they could see their house in flames with the Indians dancing round about, but they escaped with their lives.
To this day you can find the spot where the house burned by the Indians once stood. In a pasture near a stream you can find stones from the fallen chimney and foundations, all showing signs of the fire; and the hearth stones are still in place. Once in the spring I visited this pasture during bluebonnet season with my father, Barney Barker; and we found the bluebonnets were of a deeper hue where the pioneer house once stood.
"Jim Barker and the Indians"
One day Jim Barker was out alone on horseback looking for some horses which he thought had strayed, or else had been stolen by the Indians. Suddenly he spied a band of Indians in a valley just below. Luckily the Indians had not seen him yet; so he slipped away and rode to the back side of the ridge overlooking the valley. from there he came riding fast to the top of the ridge. Then looking back down the back side he waved and yelled as though he were bringing up a band of settlers to fight the Indians. The trick worked and the Indians raced away; and Jim had one his one man battle."
Written by: Bess Ann (Barker) Motley (granddaughter of James Jasper and Ann Eliza Barker)