Person:Matilda Barnes (3)

When she first met O M Brassfield she was living in Lousiville, KY. She was the daughter of a southern planter. She died soon after O M’s move to Wright Co, Iowa.

Mrs. Brassfield, a woman of culture and refinement, was the daughter of a southern planter who owned a long retinue of slaves. From ease and opulence to the privations of pioneering was a marked change in her life, but single-handed and without servants, Mrs. Brassfield courageously and uncomplainingly assumed the complex duties incident to household management and the rearing of a large family.

Years later Mrs. Brassfield was afflicted with eye trouble. The mother did not see the face of her youngest daughter Kate, until the child was four years old. Her sight was restored after treatment by the veteran oculist, Dr. James Campbell of Des Moines.

1. ↑ maybe 1820 or 1822 (1850 census)
2. ↑ About one half mile west of Goldfield