From "Genealogical History of the Families of McConnells, Martins, Barbers, Wilsons, Bairds, McCalls and Morris", by Newton W. McConnell, 1913

Pages 128 to 136:

{Also see related website “Descendants of John Martin”}

The John Barber Family

John Barber married Sarah Martin, the oldest of the three children of John Martin, who migated from Pennsylvania to Crowder's Creek, then in Tryon County, N. C., about the year 1766. He is my great grandfather. His mother's maiden name was Jordan. She came from Ireland, when she was fifteen years old. She lived in Pennsylvania, and grew up to young womanhood in that state. She married a man by the name of Wray, by whom she had one child, a daughter, Mary Wray.

She married a second time a man named Barber. Of this union there was born John Barber of this history. When he was a small child his father died, leaving his wife in very straightened circumstances. She, with her two children, both small, lived with her father until her son, John, was old enough to be bound out. I am not informed as to the person to whom John was apprenticed. Mary was raised by her uncle, Col. John Jordan, and married John Wilson, and her history is given in the history of the Wilson family. The father of Mary Wray was from Wales. Her descendants therefore, have Welch blood, but the descendants of John Barber have no Welch blood,-- the mother, being of Irish origin.

Catherine Barber, the (daughter of John and Sarah Martin Barber, was born in 1774, and died in 1851. Her husband, William Martin, was born in 1769, and died in 1855. My cousin, Margaret Ann Martin Darnell was raised by a maiden aunt, Mary Martin, who lived with her parents, William and Catherine Martin tip to time of their death. Margaret Ann became conversant with all the traditions of the family, and, being endowed with a remarkably fine memory, gave me personally the history as handed down by tradition, of her great grandfather, John Barber. I saw Margaret Ann in Tennessee in 1908, and made memoranda, which are yet my possession, of all the facts she knew. The foregoing statements, so far as they affect John Barber are made upon her authority, and upon my own personal recollection. She died in June, 1911.

John Barber was a captain in the Revolutionary Army; served two and a half years. His brother-in-law Josiah Martin, who lived in the same neighborhood, on Crowder's Creek, then Lincoln County, and was in the Revolutionary War, himself, and in the latter part of life drew a pension, in his application for a pension names Barber, as his captain, in two periods of service which he gives. Josiah belonged to the Continental Line. In the pension rolls of Revolutionary soldiers, published in three volumes he is classified as belonging to the North Carolina Line. In a letter I have from the Reverend William W. M. Barber now living, he informs me that his grandfather, Captain John Barber was a great friend of Colonel William Washington, one the Revolutionary heroes at the Battle of the Cowpens, and that such was his friendship that his father, who was John Barber II, gave him the name of William Washington. He inferred from this circumstance that his grandfather had served under Colonel Washington.

In the Colonial Records of North Carolina, published in twenty-six volumes, being all the manuscripts of every kind kept in the office of Secretary of. State, in Volume Ten, page 120, will be found in substance the statement that John Barber was the Captain of one of eleven companies of soldiers belonging to Tryon County, N. C. He was appointed as one of four members from his company of the Committee of Safety for his County in May, 1775. This would seem to indicate that he was in command of State Troops or Militia.

In a letter of Professor L. C. Glenn, of Vanderbilt University, who is a native of N. C., and a lineal descendant of Mary Wray Wilson, he says: "In the pension affidavits in Washington, James Henry from Lincoln County, N. C., says he was a volunteer soldier in the militia under Capt. John Barber, serving under Col. Thomas Neil for three months during which they marched to Cross Creek on Cape Fear River, N. C., and then three months under same Captain Barber in the regeiment of Col. Graham, and, accompanying it, is an affadavit as to Henry's service and character signed first by John Barber, Major, and also among others by Captain Adam Baird, Thomas Martin, Josias Martin, John Martin, John Baird, etc- This affidavit is dated Sept. 6, 1782."

The Colonel Graham referred to was Colonel William Graham, who was in command of the organized militia regiment of Lincoln County, during the time that Captain Barber was engaged in the Revolutionary War. Colonel Graham was in command of the Lincoln County Troops until they were in sight of Kings Mountain, and would have participated in that battle if he had not been called away by an urgent summons from his family who lived only about fifteen miles from the scene of that battle. Major Chronicle, took his place until he was killed and then Lieutenant Colonel Hambright, commanded the Lincoln County men. The Josias Martin, is Josiah Martin. I find his name used both ways. The Captain Adam Baird was a private in the Battle of Kings Mountain, but very likely was made a Captain of Militia on account of his services in that engagement. At that time, it seems, that Barber had been made Major of this militia regiment. Later, and after the treaty of peace he was made Colonel of the militia regiment of Lincoln County. It must be remembered that the territory involved was Tryon County until 1778, when Lincoln County was created, and in 1847, Gaston County was created and the Crowder's Creek region, ever since that time has been a part of Gaston County.

It is tradition in the Martin family, which I always heard, and which my cousin, Margaret Ann Martin Darnell confirmed in my conversation with her in 1908, that Captain John Barber was absent from home with his company on the 7th of October, 1780, when the battle of Kings Mountain was fought, on a scout and knew nothing of the engagement or of its probability until he returned late in the evening of the same day on which it was fought. When his wife saw him coming she thought that it was the British or Tories, and was very much alarmed. She had heard the firing at Kings Mountain that afternoon but did not know the result. Captain Barber at once concealed his men in a ravine, until he could ascertain the situation. He went to the house of a friendly Tory. These Tories were called "King's men" or "Pet Tories." They were favorable to the British Government, but took no part in the War. I have no doubt that this is correct history. I have heard my grandmother, Catherine Martin, say that although she was only six years old she could remember having seen the red coats. My grandfather, William Martin, was then nearly twelve years old and he remembered them well. Crowder's Creek was a hot-bed of rebellion. The Martins, the Bairds, the Wilsons, the Gillelands, the Higginses and Glenns, were Scotch-Irish and Irish and intensely patriotic, and threats had been made by Ferguson and the local Tories that they would lay waste that valley. This was the cause of the alarm of Mrs. Barber.

In the same letter of Dr. Glenn referred to above he writes as follows:

"The Lincoln County Court in January 1780 appointed John Barber and James Henderson Commissioners of confiscated property for the County. They were to take charge for the State, of the property of all persons who were serving with the enemy (i. e. all Tories). The records show, the confiscation law was enforced as leniently as possible by them against dependent wives, widows and children."

In April, 1784, John Barber was appointed a Justicefor the County.

Of the union between John Barber and Sarah Martin Barber, there were born the following children: Catherine, who married William Martin, whose history is embraced in. the history of the Martin family; John, whose history in part I have received from his son, now living, the Reverend William Washington M. Barber. He says his father, John Barber II. was born in Lincoln County, N. C., January 15, 1780, married four times, first Miss McReynolds. By this union there were born four children, to-wit: John, Sarah, Malinda, and James Barber. These are all dead. They had families, but they became scattered and my correspondent says "He lost out on them." John Barber II. moved to Illinois in 1815, and settled twenty-five miles east of St. Louis. While living at this place the McReynolds wife died.

His second wife was Mrs. J. McGaughey, no children born of this marriage.

His third wife was Mrs. Mary McKee, no children were born of this marriage.

His fourth wife was Mrs. Mary Jett, a widow with five children. These children are all dead. He married Mrs. Jett in 1834 or 1835; four children were born of this union. Mary J. Barber, January 18, 1836, now dead. She married R. J. Roper and was the mother of seven children; second child John and Mary Jett Barber, was Wm. Washington Barber, born April 25, 1837, and married Miss N. A. Donnell, June 5, 1861. Have one child, Ida J. Barber, who is unmarried and resides with her parents.

The Reverend William W. M. Barber has been a ordained preacher in the Presbyterian Church since September 13, 1864, he was a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church until the partial union of that denomination with the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., in 1906. Since that time he has been a minister of the last named church.

There were two other children, twins, born January 18, 1840; one died in infancy, the other is now living. His name is David K. Barber, and he is a Baptist Minister. He married, and his wife is dead, but of that union there were born eight children; only three living. He was a soldier in the Civil War and is now drawing pension from the United States Government. He lives at Woburn, Bond County, Ill.

This letter further states that his father had brother, Robert, who moved to Yellowbusha County Mississippi in an early day.

He further says, "I think my father had four sisters."

He further says, "I know very little of my grandfather." "I remember hearing my father say he was in the Revolutionary War -- was with one William Washington, who was a colonel. My father admired Colonel William Washington so much from hearing his father speak of him that he named me William Washington after the Colonel."

When Dr. Glenn was a young man about twenty years old he had conversations with Polly Torrence, then an old woman, and who was the granddaughter of Mary Wray Wilson, and knew the Barbers well. He made written memoranda of these conversations, and has kindly furnished me copies. Mrs. Torrence says, "Aunt Sarah's (Barber) daughter Ibby married a Patterson, moved to Alabama with her son John and died there, very old but very stout. Robert Adams and Jane had fifteen children, all lived to be grown except one."

The first name of Patterson was Robert. The other two daughters married, one a Watson, and one, a Price. Their given names I do not know. They certainly did not have as large family as their sister Jane, otherwise they would not have escaped the memory of Mrs. Torrence.

There are other memoranda of conversations had with Mrs. Torrence, concerning the Wilson, Martin and Baird families, which are of sufficient interest to be preserved in a more permanent form.

She says that at her death Sarah Martin Barber, set all her slaves free. I have examined the first census of the United States taken in 1790, and I find that at that time Colonel Barber was the owner of three slaves. I suppose she survived him and became the owner of these three.

She further says John Wilson I. settled close to Jimmie Wilson in Tryon County. He then owned a large part of the county. Mary Wray, half sister of John Barber lived to be ninety-three, very stout, never in bed sick, spun flax and wove it.

John Wilson II married Hannah Baird, a sister of father's (William Joseph Wilson) wife. Adam, their oldest, went to Ohio and hunted out a home a year or two before his father moved there. Adam lived at Greenfield, Ohio. Adam Baird was the father of Sallie (Sarah) Baird. Her mother was Mary Adams.

She then enumerates the children of Adam and Mary Baird as we have given them in the history of the Baird family.

John Wilson, my father's brother, read, gave out hymns, read a sermon from a book, spent the day the same as in church, when Preacher Adams was away.

Grandfather John Wilson came from Pennsylvania when Sarah was a child, with a half-brother of Mary Wray Wilson, named Colonel John Barber. They came in wagons. Sarah was so fretful, she (her mother) could hardly rest at night. Colonel John Barber's wife was Sarah Martin. Mary Wray talked more about Uncle John Jordan than any other. It seems he raised her. She was a bound child. She is buried in old Ulney Churchyard. William Joseph Wilson owned a large part of the county. Said he never wanted any of his children to leave this country from wanting a home.

Preacher Adams was the only preacher, and old Doctor McLean the only doctor. He had long hair, plaited and tied down his back with a bow of ribbon; used snuff. No cooking, dish washing, meat frying, sweeping, bedmaking, fruit gathering, coffee-grinding. etc., on Sunday, no matter who came. Children gathering apples, melons, etc., got a whipping Monday morning, often before getting out of bed.

My mother was Sallie (Sarah) Baird, daughter of Adam and Mary Baird. She was born on Catawba Creek. A well-to-do family. Some of her father's brothers were silversmiths."

James Baird, the son of John and Frances was a captain of one of the militia companies of Tryon, Lincoln County, N. C. He was also a member of the Committee of Safety both County and State. He doubtless saw service as such captain in the Revolutionary War.

I am of the opinion that John Barber, Sr., was in command of North Carolina State Troops during the Revolutionary War. There is no roster of these State Troops to be found. There is a partial roster of the North Carolina Continental Line. There were ten of these regiments, two of them belonged to Washington's Army. In the records of North Carolina, published in twenty-six volumes as heretofore stated, may be found all the records of rolls showing the officers and privates of the Continental Line, that are in existence. The editor, Walter Clark of Raleigh, N. C., now Chief Justice of the State, edited the volume, containing these rolls, and he says it is only a partial list. I have carefully studied these rolls, and do not find the name of Captain John Barber upon them. It is safe then to conclude that he commanded State Troops.