- Mrs. Job BARKER, nee Phoebe Upton SMITH, was born at Rutland,
Vt., in 1803, living there
- until her fourteenth year, when she went to Buffalo with
her mother soon after her father's death. She was married at
Buffalo at the age of twenty.
- In the spring of 1839 Mr. BARKER purchased thirteen hundred
acres of land near Janesville, Wis.
- His glowing accounts of the country aroused the pioneer spirit
in Mrs. BARKER. In 1840 the family started westward in three
canvas-covered wagons. The one prepared for the family was provided
with "cribs and bunks" and conveniences for eating,
and was drawn by a pair of fine Duroc horses. This wagon also
had a double bottom, space being left to carry the coin needed
to complete payments on land, as there were no banks to be trusted,
and sharpers were watching for the unwary. The household goods
were sent by way of the lakes, and some rare old pieces of furniture
are now in the possession of their heirs. In 1842 a stone cottage,
forty feet square, with an ell and carriage house, was built
on what is now "Barker's Corners." The stone was obtained
only a mile away in a quarry near the village of Janesville.
Eastward was rolling prairie; westward and north, beautiful
woodland. The nearest neighbors were Anson and Virgil POPE and
David HUME. Others were Messrs. STRUNK, POUND, SPAULDING, SOUTHWICK,
SCOFIELD, and CHAPIN. A little log school house was built on
what is now the SHOEMAKER farm. The first teacher was Dr. John
WARREN. In 1846 Mr. BARKER was one of many to succumb to fever,
incident to the new country, and after a brief illness he died.
Then commenced the widow's tragedy.
- Mrs. BARKER was a true mother and tried to bring up her children
without change, as their father
- advised. Having been taught in early youth the peculiar
doctrines of the "Friends," Mrs. BARKER possessed liberal
religious views more akin to those of this day than her own.
She resided until her death, October 19, 1879, on the farm to
which she came in 1840. Her last years were cheered by the love
and devotion of her children.
-
- Taken from "Rock County, Wisconsin, Vol. II"
by William Fiske Brown, (c)1908, pp. 463-464.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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