Family:John Barker and Linnie Blake (1)

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Facts and Events
Marriage? 26 Aug 1866 Floyd County, Georgia, US
Children
BirthDeath
1.
1943
2.
3.
19 Mar 1873 Alabama
4.
5.
1954
6.
29 Mar 1952

The story of the Barker family in Chattooga County begins just after the Civil War. John Thomas Barker (1844 - 1921), a veteran of the 29th Georgia Infantry who had been captured at the Battle of Franklin and interned at Camp Douglas, Illinois, walked back to his home in Floyd County. After his return, he visited Miss Linnie L. Blake to bring her the sad news that her fiance, Mr. Gray, had died in the war. It is unknown how their relationship progressed - Linnie came from a well-to-do family while John Thomas was a poor farmer - but they were married August 26, 1866 in Floyd County, GeorgiaS2.

"Bought 200 acres of land at the foot of Kincaid Mountain and built a house there. Five slaves who had been owned by grandmother's (Linnie Blake) family asked to stay with them after the Civil War as they had no place to go and helped them to scrape up the land with limbs to plant wheat."
Mary Randolph Barker (granddaughter)

Soon after, the Barkers bought approximately 160 acres of land on Kincaid Mountain about two miles south of Holland, Georgia, on the old Summerville - Rome Road. Five former slaves of the Blake family asked to stay with them and helped them build a house and run the farm.

Deed dated 30 March 1876 shows a sale of 40 acres to John T Barker from William E. Beavers for $35.00. This parcel is described as "being in the fifteenth District and fourth Section of originally Cherokee but now Chattooga County, Georgia, being forty acres of lot number Sixteen (No 16) in said District and Section and being a strip of forty rods wide off of the west side of said lot No 16".
"The Barkers were married after the Civil War and settled in the Kincaid Valley a few years after, Grandpa came from around Rome, Ga. and Grandma from Sulphur Springs, Ala. Grandma was an aristocrat but Grandpa, just a poor, hardworking fellow but he was a schoolteacher, Sunday school superintendent, Justice of the Peace, preacher. He built a good house and they raised a fine family."
Mary Ethel Cofer Newton (3/31/1974). Footnote to description of John T. & Linnie Barker's Golden Wedding Anniversary Celebration

This photo may be Linnie (Blake) Barker before her death in 1924. The woman standing to her right is Lois (Link) Barker, Linnie's daughter-in-law, and the woman in the center may be one of Linnie's youngest daughters, Ollive Evelyn (Barker) Strawn.

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References
  1.   Mary Ethel Cofer Newton, Barker 50th Anniversary Celebration
    March 8, 1974.

    Recollection of the anniversary celebration by granddaughter, Mary Ethel Cofer Newton.

  2.   Georgia, United States. Georgia Marriages, 1699-1944.

    Linnie L. Blake and John T. Barker married 26 Aug 1866 in Floyd County, Georgia.

  3.   Deed: Beavers to Barker, in Chattooga, Georgia, Deed from William E. Beavers to John T. Barker
    G:610-611, 30 March 1876.

    .. being in the fifteenth District & fourth Section of originally Cherokee but now Chattooga County, Georgia being forty acres of lot number Sixteen (No 16) in said District & Section and being a strip of forty rows wide off of the west side of said lot No 16 . . .

    Sold for $35.00

  4.   Chattooga, Georgia, United States. 1920 Census Population Schedule
    11.

    Coldwater, Chattooga County, Georgia. Listed on what appears to be an errors page. Thomas J. Barker, 75, farmer, b. Georgia with Lennia, 79, b. Alabama and showing both parents as born in Tennessee. Also with them is daughter Emma Rauschenberg, 47, b. Alabama.

    Roll: T625-242, Page 11A, Enumeration District 25, Image 861

  5.   Cherokee, Alabama, United States. 1920 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration Publication T625)
    1, 2 July 1870.

    Broomstown, Cherokee County, Alabama. Record lists Thomas Barker, 26, farmer, b. Georgia with Linna, 30, b. Georgia, Alexander, 17, b. Georgia and Beatrice, 2, b. Georgia.

  6.   We are still trying to determine where Hense Spring is actually located.