Matricia Barnes

Burial record:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149022307/matricia-barnes

Matricia Callaway was the daughter of Larkin S. Callaway and Susannah L. Howell. On March 6, 1834 Matricia married William Barnes in Warren County, Missouri. He was the son of James Barnes, Jr. and Sarah Boone Callaway.

The two known children for Matricia and William are:

• Susan Jemima Barnes 1837-1860
• Lewis Sanders Barnes 1840-1909

The family is said to have moved to Washington County, Missouri when son Lewis Sanders (born mid 1840) was 6 years old. William registers a land purchase in Saint Louis on February 1, 1848 for Montgomery County.

At some point William left Matricia and the children on the farm in Washington County, Missouri and went west to the gold rush in the Placerville area of California. He is enumerated there among many other gold miners for the 1850 Federal Census on December 11, 1850. He is said to have died four years after the move to Washington County, which would have been after the enumeration in December 1850 in Placerville.

On July 18, 1860 Matricia is enumerated in District 18, Callaway County, as widowed head of household, living with her two children Susan Jemima and Lewis Sanders, and her nephew from her sister Melissa (Mrs. Wesley Hunt), Dr. Larkin Wesley Hunt. It is said that Hunt was engaged to Susan before she was murdered. At some point after Lewis Sanders' birthday in August, he goes to live with his uncle Lewis Howell Callaway of Loutre Island to study to become a physician.

On October 27 Susan Jemima is murdered while alone in her home. Her servant girl is accused of the crime and is lynched and murdered while being transported to the Fulton jail.

In his retirement years Lewis Sanders Barnes and his family, including his mother Matricia, move to McFall, Arkansas County, Arkansas where they finish out their lives.

by Lila Cole