John Moore Mcginty Harmony Baptist Church John Moore Mcginty Was Born February and Cemetery 21, 1871 in Grimes County (One of Seven Children of Robert R
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Issue 2 Volume 12 Grimes County Historical Commission December 2016 Meetings of the Grimes County Historical Commission are held on the Second Monday of the Month at 7:00 pm in the Courthouse Annex in Anderson, Texas Contact Information Joe King Fultz [email protected] Visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Grim esCountyHistoricalCommission Grimes County Historical Commission Executive Board Photo of the Month Chairman Joe King Fultz Vice Chairman Vacant Secretary Vanessa Burzynski Treasurer Joe King Fultz COMMITTEES Historical Markers Denise Upchurch Historic Preservation Sarah Nash Newsletter & Publicity Vanessa Burzynski Old Grimes County Jail GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2016 PAGE 2 o'clock a. m., in the 75th year of his age. General Barnes was among the early settlers of Grimes County; was one of the BARNES, JAMES WILLIAM (1815–1892). commissioners to locate and lay out the James William Barnes, religious leader and town of Anderson, the county seat when Confederate officer, was born in Georgia in the county was organized. The general was 1815. Barnes moved to Grimes County, always broad and enlightened in his views, Texas, in 1840. In 1842 he served on a and was a successful planter here prior to committee that successfully established the civil war. He was during the war the first Masonic lodge in Grimes County at elected to a brigadier generalship of state Anderson. In the spring of 1843 he was a militia. Since the war he had been leader in the effort to send relief supplies connected with a number of important to the surviving members of the Mier business enterprises in Texas. He was the Expedition who were imprisoned in Mexico. father of Mrs. C. C. Gibbs of San Antonio Barnes was an active Baptist, serving as and the grandfather of Mrs. T. D. Cobb of an officer and treasurer of the Plantersville Houston, who, with Mrs. Dr. R. Quinney and Baptist Church in Grimes County in the his faithful life partner, are left to mourn his 1850s and 1860s. He served as treasurer loss. He was interred in the family burying of the Texas State Baptist Association from ground to-day at 10 a. m. His death has 1848 to 1862 and as a trustee of Baylor cast a gloom over this community. University from 1852 to 1872. By 1854 Barnes was married to a Caroline A. Barnes. This couple produced five children. In August 1863 Barnes served as lieutenant colonel and later as colonel for the Fourth Infantry Regiment, State Troops. This militia unit was deployed for coastal defense duty in South Texas. Also in 1863 Barnes received an appointment as brigadier general of Brigade No. 5, Texas State Troops. Following the Civil War, he returned to Anderson, where he continued to play a leading role in the religious life of Grimes and Washington counties. He also promoted agricultural development and served as a vice president for the International Railroad Company. GENERAL BARNES PLANTATION HOUSE Barnes died in Grimes County on October Anderson Vicinity, Grimes County, Texas 22, 1892, and was buried on his estate southeast of Anderson. The following appeared on 23 October 1892 in The Galveston Daily News: (Anderson, Oct. 22) General James W. Barnes died at his home, about three miles southeast of this place, yesterday at 7 GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2016 PAGE 3 HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL There is no information about the SIGNIFICANCE designers or builders. No plans, sketches or notes of the original construction exist. Earlier known as Prairie Woods, it is one of No important old views are available. the earliest and best of the plantation Originally the kitchen and dining room houses in the area. The east, two-story log were in an adjacent building. A bathing portion was built in 1842; this was room was built in 1858. It had a large refinished and the major portion of the bathing tub supplied with water pumped house was completed in 1858. Originally from the cistern, and above it was a bucket the headquarters of a nine hundred acre with holes in the bottom and a valve plantation, the house, in its neglected operated with a string. "I wish you could state, still reflects the dignity of the period see how convenient it is all fixed." (from a in which it was built. letter written by General Barnes' wife to her sister in 1858) HISTORICAL INFORMATION Historical Events Connected with the Physical History Structure: James W, Barnes, born in Original and subsequent owners: Land Hancock County, Georgia, October 5, acquired by James W. Barnes in 1840, a 1815, lived in Kemper County, Mississippi. plantation of 900 acres. Title of a portion of Married Carolina A. Greene and moved to the original tract has remained in the family Polk County, Texas in 1840. In the fall of since that date. House and farm now 1840 he came to Grimes County and owned by Allen G. Hill, grandson of the acquired land east of Fanthorp (now called original owner, General James W. Barnes. Anderson). He was commissioned a Brigadier General of the Confederacy and Date of erection: An original 12' x 14’ log served throughout the War. His 17 year house was erected near the present site. In old son, Mark, died serving in the 1842 a two-story, two-room log house with Confederate Army. fireplaces and exterior stair was "built- Additions and rebuilding of this structure From 1852 to 1871 James W. Barnes was a "brought the house to its present form in trustee of Baylor College at Independence. 1858; these included finishing the log For a number of years he taught Latin portion inside and out, building a large there. He died in 1892 and was buried on central hall and adjacent enclosed the plantation eastward of the house. stairway, the addition of the two large west rooms, and the shed portion to the northward, and the construction of the two-story south porch, A letter of l884 by General Barnes tells of the completion of the house: "Just before the war in 1858, we made a finish of our dwelling and it was about the best private residence in the county. It was an addition to the old two- story log house and was finished in good, but plain style from cellar to garrett." A letter of General Barnes in possession of the family. GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2016 PAGE 4 Travis Neeley, Jim Harper, Monroe Martin, Sam Loggins, Dan Syphrett, and Bobby Morris. The agent also operated the Yarboro Community telegraph system. The town of Yarboro was named for Freight trains and passenger trains passed Colonel James Quincy Yarborough who through Yarboro daily enrout from owned a large tract of land which included Somerville to Beaumont and return. The the townsite. Yarborough came to the area passenger trains went north at night at sometime after the Civil War. At the peak 10:00 o’clock and came back the next of its existence Yarboro boasted three morning at seven. The passenger trains stores, a post office, a liquor store, a made only flag stops, but mail was picked cotton gin a train depot, two schools and a up and delivered daily by means of a crane church. on which the mail bag was hung and from which the baggage conductor grabbed the The stores consisted of a general store mail bag with a hook as the train passed owned and operated by Ferdinand August through. Meineke, a grocery and dry goods store owned and operated by two brothers, John and Bob McGinty, and a dry goods store owned by Vance Campbell and operated by Baker McGinty. The first post office was located in the store owned and operated by the McGinty brothers but was later moved to the store owned by August Meineke. The post office remained in Meineke’s store for many years until blindness compelled Mr. Meineke to retire as postmaster. His daughter-in-law, Mrs. (photo of train mail bag) George Meineke (Mary Mitchell) succeeded him, serving from 1938 until 1953, when Around 1900 and earlier there would be the postal service was discontinued. special railway excursion trips to Galveston. Several young people would The liquor store was one in which alcoholic get a chaperone or chaperones and make beverages were sold in bottles and whjich the trip. From Yarboro one took the train to was called a “Hiawatha Joint” by the local Navasota, hired a hack to Brenham and people. The cotton gin was owned by Erle then took the train from there to Galveston. Yarborough, a son of Colonel Yarborough’s who also owned large tracts of land in and From the very early days of the town there around Yarboro and who used the land for was a school for the white students. The farming and ranching. black children attended school in the church house used by the black citizens The Santa Fe Depot was a structure which and eventually a school was built for them housed two waiting rooms, a ticket office, a north of the townsite on Highway 105. The loading rack and living quarters for the white citizens did not have a church depot agent and his family. Mr. J. D. (Cap) building but they did hold church services Richardson and his wife Stella Ashford and Sunday School in their school building. Richardson, were one of the first families to live in the depot. Other agents were GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2016 PAGE 5 Early settlers and citizens would include names such as the Yarborough families, Vance Campbell and wife Mattie (formerly Mattie McGinty), Santa Fe Section Foreman Abby Loftin and his wife Ida (formerly Ida McGinty), Baker McGinty and wife Lucille (formerly Lucille Kelly), F.