From dbarber@InfoAve.Net Mon Apr 17 09:04:26 2000
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 09:50:22 -0600
From: Donald O Barber <dbarber@InfoAve.Net>
To: dmorgan@efn.org
Subject: Barber Home

Sorry about that did not know your situation. The house was Wiley C's
home.Large two-story frame house with dormer windows upstairs and
upstairs balcony. Porch with columns extends across full front and down
both sides. The article accompanying the picture in the April 27 1961
Rockmart Journal is as follows:
Former Resident Recalls Early Days, Events in Rockmart History by Ruby
D. Campbell
Of added interest to the local observance of the centennial of the War
Between th States is some information received in Rockmart from a former
resident, Mrs Lorabess Lovelace Dodenhoff of Elba, Alabama.
     Mrs Dodenhoff writes that she was born in Rockmart, 74 years ago,
in a house across the street from th First Baptist Church.
     "Now that the newspapers and magazines are writing history of the
War for the Confederate Centennial, I would like to add a little bit
about Rockmart," she stated in a letter to the Chamber of Commerce.
    "Judge wiley Crawford Barber, my grandfather, 1820-1892, was one of
the first settlers of Polk County."He called the little settlement where
he lived "Rock Market", later he named it Rockmart and it became a town.

     "When Sherman burned Atlanta, a part of his army came through Van
Wert (predecessor of Rockmart), crossed the creek, and camped across the
road from Judge Barber's home.
     Grandfather moved two featherbeds down into the cellar, then put
his mother, his wife and small children down there to be safe.
     "The next night a cannon was shot through the front door, leaving a
hole near the back door large enough for a man to go throught. During
the excitement my mother, Stella A. Barber, was born down in the cellar.

     "Judge Barber was very much interested in the education of young
people especially after the War_and gave land for the campus, built a
fence around it and soon afterwards, Piedmont Institute was built.
     "There were no railroads to Rockmart, and he ordered a fine Knabe
piano to be sent to Atlanta from the factory and drove 52 miles in a two
mule wagon to pick it up. He paid $1,000 for the piano, gave it to the
school, and paid the music teachers salary as long as he lived.
     "He died in 1892 and is buried i nthe old Van Wet churchyard. There
are 37 graves on the family plot there."
     Mrs Dodenhoff enclosed a picture of the old Barber home, now the
homeof Mrs N.A. (Ma) White, and also added a postscript to her letter
listing a few of those whom she remembers as being in school at Rockmart
when she attended the Institute.
     They are Ellie and Dickey Barber, Annie and Neelie Simpson, George
and Grace Ferguson, Alice and Steele York, Charlie Whitehead, Ludie
Ballenger, Lucille Randall, Harry and Frank Todd, and Robert Hubbard.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found the foregoing rather interesting too bad the house burned down.

Don