James & Anna Jane (Simmons) Barber Family
James Barber was born on Tuesday, February 12, 1805 in North Carolina. At the time of James' birth, the president of the United States of America was Thomas Jefferson.
In about 1830, James Barber married Anna ("Annie") Jane Simmons. James and Annie Jane probably in North Carolina. Annie Jane was born on Friday, November 27, 1801 in North Carolina.
In late 1830 or early 1831, James and Annie Jane Barber, along with Walter McBeth and his family, moved to Pike County, Alabama.
In September of 1831, James and Annie Jane's first child was born, and he was named Francis ("Frank") Asberry Barber. In March of 1834, their second child was born, and they named him William James Barber. About four or five years later, in April 1839, John Henderson Barber was born. Then in about 1840, Annie Jane gave birth to a baby girl whom they named Anna. Finally in about 1842, Jeremiah ("Mira") Barber was born to James and Annie Jane. All of James and Annie Jane's children were born in Pike County, Alabama.
In about 1845, James Barber and his family moved to Winston County, Mississippi, and were living there during the time of the 1850 Federal Census. Sometime during the early 1850s, James and his family moved south to central Mississippi.
James and Annie Jane's oldest son, Frank, married Ann Emeline ("Emily") Collinsworth on September 4, 1854 in Leake County. Emily was a daughter of James and Nancy Sarah (Talbot) Collinsworth. (See the biography of Frank & Emily Barber)
On February 22, 1856, James Barber went to a public land auction at the Neshoba County Court House in Philadelphia, Mississippi. James was the highest bidder for 80 acres of land located at High Hill, in the southwest part of Neshoba County, and purchased the land which Silas M. Tucker had owned until that time. The 1860 census showed James and his family living on this land at High Hill in Neshoba County.
On October 15, 1860, James and Annie Jane's son, William James Barber, married Harriett "Amanda" Henderson in Leake County, Mississippi. Amanda was his first wife who later died in 1891. The name of his second wife is as yet unknown to this researcher. In about 1863 James and Annie Jane's son, John Henderson Barber, married Sarah "Jane" Nelson, daughter of John Nelson and Christian Thomas. After her death in 1900, John, age about 65, married a lady named Sarah, age about 37, in 1904 in Newton County.
The records at the Leake County Court House state that on December 14, 1858, James Barber sold a "bay filly, three years old" to Wiley Lee of Leake County for $135.00. In order to pay for the young mare, Wiley Lee mortgaged 80 acres of his land located south of Rosebud Community in Leake County. Apparently he did not pay James the money, so James became the owner of the land. (Click here to view the 1858 document). James' son, Frank, and his family, moved onto that property and began farming the land sometime between late 1860 and the Spring of 1862.
William J. Barber and John H. Barber also raised their families in Leake County, in the Salem Community, near Sabastopol. Jeremiah Barber and his family lived near Milldale and High Hill in Neshoba County. This researcher has no information as to whether James and Annie Jane's daughter, Anna, married and raised a family.
Annie Jane (Simmons) Barber died at the age of 81 on Monday, December 4, 1882, and was buried at the Zion Baptist Church Cemetery in Leake County, Mississippi. James Barber died seven years later at the age of nearly 84, on Tuesday, January 1, 1889, and was buried next to Annie Jane.
This biography was compiled and written by Roland J. Heddins, copyright 2002. As further details are discovered, this biography will be updated. If you have any details to add or correct, please email me. No part of this biography may be published (in print or on the internet) without written permission. Thank you. -RJH
