DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Barker Cemetery in Henderson County. Now settle in, because this one starts with struggle and ends with something that'll stay with you. Hester Stovall and Armstead R.
Barker — they worked land that wasn't theirs, for masters named W. C. Larkin and Nat Coleman.
And when freedom came, they didn't just walk away and start fresh somewhere easy. They struggled — that's the marker's own word — to buy the very lands they had worked. That takes a particular kind of determination.
When Mrs. Barker died in 1893, Armstead did something that says everything about the kind of man he was. He set aside four precious acres — four acres he had fought to own — and he gave them over.
Not to kin, not for profit. To the settlers of the Gum Creek community and their descendants. A cemetery.
A place to rest. Hester was the first person interred on that land, though she wouldn't be alone in those early years. Several earlier graves were relocated from their original sites — brought home, you might say, to this new ground.
The oldest of those was John Ellick, originally buried on the Barker farm in 1866, moved to rest among the community he had belonged to. Then came the Depression, and hard times have a way of threatening even the things people hold most sacred. Lazarus Barker was forced to offer those four acres for sale.
Forced. That word matters. But the Gum Creek and Lease Springs communities weren't about to let that ground go.
Concerned citizens formed the Barker Cemetery Association in August of 1933, and by December — just a few months, folks — Lazarus Barker had deeded the land over to the association. Others donated land for a driveway to the road. The cemetery didn't make maintenance easy on the farming families of the area, but in 1958 the Barker Cemetery Improvement Club sparked new development.
And they saw it through — a chain link fence, an organized list of graves, a brick entrance, all completed by 1985. By 1997, over three hundred graves had been counted in Barker Cemetery, and the site was still in use. Three hundred souls, on four acres that one grieving man gave freely, because Hester and Armstead Barker had a vision bigger than themselves.
That's the monument. Not the fence, not the brick entrance — the vision.
What the marker says
Hester (Stovall) and Armstead R. Barker struggled to buy the lands they worked for their former masters, W. C. Larkin and Nat Coleman. When Mrs. Barker died in 1893, her husband set aside 4 previous acres of land to be used as a cemetery by the settlers of the Gum Creek community and their descendants. Although Hester was the first person to be interred on this land, several earlier graves were relocated from their original sites. John Ellick, originally buried on the Barker farm in 1866, is the oldest of these. During the Depression, Lazarus Barker was forced to offer the four acres for sale. Concerned citizens of the Gum Creek and Lease Springs communities formed the Barker Cemetery Association in August of 1933, and by December Barker deeded the land to the association. Others donated land for a driveway to the road. Cemetery maintenance proved difficult for the farming families of the area, but in 1958 the Barker Cemetery Improvement Club sparked new development. A chain link fence, an organized list of graves, and a brick entrance were all completed by 1985. In 1997, over 300 graves had been counted in Barker Cemetery. Still in use, the site is a monument to the vision of Hester and Armstead Barker. (1997)