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Georgia Biographies
COL. N. C. BARNETT
SKETCH OF COL. BARNETT's CAREER.
The following sketch of Col. Barnett's interesting career is founded on information furnished by him to a friend
in 1883; He was born June 28, 1801, at Columbia county, five miles from Appling, near Winfrey's mills. His mother
was a sister of William H. Crawford. She remained in Columbia county with her family two years after the death
of her husband, when they removed to Greene county and settled in the fork of the Occonee and Appalachee rivers.
COL. BARNETT's EARLY SCHOOL DAYS.
Little Nathan was sent to school at a very early age. One of his instructors was a man named Hewland, and Irishman,
and a whipping teacher of the old school. On one occasion he struck a boy so severely on the leg that he fractured
the bone, yet, as soon as the lad was well enough to walk he was sent back and committed to Hewland's tender mercies
by his father, though the child was so badly hurt that after he returned to school pieces of broken bone continued
to work out of his ankle.
THE WANDERINGS OF THE FAMILY.
Col. Barnett's mother moved next to a place about four miles from Greensboro. There the family rended till he was
10 years old, when they went to Oglethorpe county and settled on the land of her brother, Judge Crawford, near
Lexington, in 1821. When Col. Barnett was 20 he bought a "fraction" farm in Walton county and they removed
there. That year the drouth [drought?] was so extreme that it almost caused a famine, and he had to go all the
way to Gwinnett county to get bread.
SOWED HIS WILD OATS.
The next year he went to Monroe. There, as he put it, he "sowed his wild oats," which only meant that
he was fond of gay society and spent most of his time in amusing himself as he was never the least but dissipated.
He never learned to play cards, his only information on the subject at the age of 81 being that the ace of spades
was the lowest card in the deck.
HIS MARRIAGE TO MISS MORETON.
In 1824 he married Miss Margaret J. Moreton, sister of William Moreton of Athens. Three years later he left Walton
for Clarke county, where he lived till 1831, when he moved to Watkinsville, near which place he purchased a fine
farm. He also engaged in merchanise and cotton buying.
CHOSEN A LEGISLATOR AND RUINED FINANCIALLY.
He was elected to the legislature in 1836, and while attending to his official duties at Milledgeville an incompetent
clerk whom he had left in charge of his store practically ruined him financially by a bad trade. The clerk bought
cotton heavily at 15 cents, without a limit as to the time of delivery. The staple declined in value so that the
next year Col. Barnett found himself receiving cotton at 15 cents and selling for 7 cents. He struggled on till
1842, when his business faded, and he sacrificed everything he possessed to pay debts.
ELECTED SECRETARY OF STATE.
Meanwhile he had served a second term in legislature and a year after his business failure was elected secretary
of state over Peter J. Williams and others. He then made Milledgeville his home. He was re-elected in '45 and '47,
and defeated in '49 by Col. Geo. W. Harrison, father of the present clerk of the supreme court. In '51 he was again
elected, but after serving two years gave place to E. P. Watkins, who was state secretary for eight years.
Col. Barnett was re-elected in 1861 to the consolidated office of surveyor - general and Secretary of State and
he continued to hold the position against competitors, such as Ex-Governor Jas. Boynton, who ran against him in
1865 till displaced by the federal military in 1869. In the election which followed Judge Cothing, the republican
candidate defeated him. In '73 he was again returned to the office by the democrats and held up to the time of
his death. At one time, he was surveyor in the Cherokee hand lottery. He was adjutant of a militia regiment before
the war and also held rand as captain, major and colonel.
HIS SECOND MARRIAGE.
His first wife having died during the Harrison freshet in 1840, he married, in 1841, a daughter of Dr. Cooper,
who was superintendant of the Lunatic asylum before Dr. Green. By his first wife he had seven children and by his
second eight, three of whom survive him. [Macon Weekly Telegraph, February
2, 1890 - submitted by Christina Anthony]
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