San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRANCIS MARION BARNETT
Popular among the most interesting
pioneers now enjoying a retired life in California is Francis M. Barnett, of
914 West Poplar Street, Stockton, who was born near Camden, Benton County,
Tennessee on May 31, 1840, the son of Bird B. and Martha (Walker) Barnett, the
former a native of Tennessee, while the latter was a native of South
Carolina. They were of the good
old-fashioned type of Americans, being good citizens; good neighbors and good
friends; having rested from their earthly labor they have left behind the man
enviable record. They were the parents
of eight children, six boys and two girls, of whom only two are living, Francis
M, the subject of this sketch, and F. Joseph, of Fresno. In July, 1849, Bird B. Barnett started across
the great plains with an ox team bringing with him his
family, setting out from the Missouri River; he was frequently forced to stop
for some time along the route, and so the trip was long and tedious, and they
were obliged to winter in Salt Lake City.
The next spring they started for California and on Independence Day of
1850 Mr. Barnett led his family into California, coming over the Carson Valley
route to Placerville, then called Hangtown. Mr. Barnett opened a hotel nine miles from
Coloma, and also used his oxen to haul supplies to the mines.
In the fall of 1851, Mr. Barnett
removed to San Joaquin County, where he bought a place on the Calaveras River,
and raised hay, which was taken to the mines to feed the stock, during
1851-52-53. During this time he built a
residence and barns on the Copperopolis Road, three miles east of Stockton, now
the old Marsh place, and lived there until 1855. From the Calaveras ranch they were routed out
by Captain Weber, who had the Spanish grant, although Mr. Barnett had paid the
former owner; he then moved to Mariposa County.
From the latter year, however, he engaged in the stock business and
raised cattle and sheep, continuing in that field after he had located in
Mariposa County, where he also had a first-class dairy. He drove cattle up and down the valley and
over the mountains to Nevada, and became a large landowner and prominent
cattleman of early days, holding title at one time to some 3000 acres of land
in Fresno County.
Francis M. Barnett attended the
Stockton public schools, and was associated with his father many years in the
Valley. When twenty years of age, he
became a cowboy and rode the range, making trips over the mountains, driving
cattle to Nevada, sometimes crossing the desert eighty miles on a stretch,
without water for the stock. He had many
interesting experiences, including trouble with the Indians and outlaws.
In 1874, he started in business on
his own account, buying a stock ranch of 4000 acres near Oakdale, in Stanislaus
County, in the vicinity of Cooperstown.
There he engaged in sheep-raising, and later took up the cattle
industry. He still owns the ranch,
which, however, he rents out for service to others, and to which he fondly
reverts in memory, in the days of his comfortable retirement. He likes to look back, also, to the time when
he attended the first public school in Stockton in 1851-52, and he has many
other interesting recollections of pioneer days. In 1866 his father built a residence on Union
and Channel streets and there the parents made their home for the remainder of
their lives.
Mr. Barnett was married at Knights
Ferry, May 10, 1881, to Miss Ada F. Parker, a native of Knights Ferry, the
daughter of Dominicus Parker, a native of Maine who
crossed the uncharted plains as early as the year ’49, and thus became one of
the Argonauts. He teamed to the mines,
and later located in Knights Ferry, where he followed his trade of
blacksmith. He died in 1882, survived by
his devoted wife, who was Frances Babb before she was married and was also from
Maine. They had five children, and two
are now living, Ada, Mrs. F. M. Barnett and Mrs. Mary E. Allard, of
Stockton. Four children were born to
Mrs. and Mrs. Barnett, and three sons are now living. Hal A. is the junior member of the well-known
real estate firm, Hodgkins & Barnett, of Stockton; Sidney B. is secretary
of the Stockton Hardware & Implement Company, and Donald C. is purchasing
agent of the Harris Manufacturing Company of Stockton. For many years Mr. and Mrs. Barnett have
spent their summers at Pacific Grove, where they own a comfortable home. Mr. Barnett has been a member of the Odd
Fellows for many years.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
618-621. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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