Died: 22 May 1954 Visalia, California
Father: Joel A. Barber
Mother: Susan America Bolles
Siblings:
Lorenza Dow Barber 1864
Joel Nathan Barber 1867
Albert Even Barber 1871
Annie May Barber 1872
Amos Porter Barber 1875
Isaac Murrell Barber 1877
Married: John Alexander Garland (about 1888) Lebanon, Missouri
Children:
Mabel Claire Garland 1889
Amy Ethel Garland 1891
Nellie Jane Garland 1893
Augustus Hamlin Garland 1895
Pearl America Garland 1897
Gordon Hickman Garland 1899
Hazel Glenne Garland 1902
Faerie Belle Garland 1905
(For photos, see the post for John Alexander Garland.)
I don't have much information about great-grandmother Mary Catherine (but I do know that she went by Mollie.) I do have a copy of her obituary, probably from the Visalia paper, so I will share that.
Mary C. Garland Dies Saturday
Mrs. Mary Catherine Garland, 84, a native of Lebanon, Missouri, died Saturday evening in a local hospital.
Mrs. Garland, mother of Gordon Garland of Woodlake, the former speaker of the state assembly, moved to Woodlake with her late husband John A. Garland in 1928. She moved to Visalia in 1944 and had made her home at 2619 Fairview Drive since that time.
She had been hospitalized for two weeks prior to her death.
She was a member of the Baptist Church of Oak Grove, Missouri.
She is survived by six daughters, Mrs. Mabel Carroll of Los Angeles, Mrs. Ethel Miller and Mrs. Phyllis Van Dusen [Faerie Belle went by a variety of names. Wouldn't you, if you were stuck that that one?] of Visalia, Mrs. Neil Kelly of Salinas, Mrs. Pearl Adams of Glendale and Mrs. Hazel Martz of Hollywood; a son, Gordon Garland; a brother, Amos Barber of Lebanon, Missouri; 19 grandchildren, 38 great-grandchildren and six great-great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the Hadley Chapel. Burial will be in the Woodlake Cemetery.
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| Joel A. Barber and Susan America Bolles |
Mary Catherine's mother was Susan America Bolles, about whom I know almost nothing except that she was born in Missouri and died in November of 1912 in Lebanon, Missouri. They were married at the home of her father, R. T. Bolles, on 23 July 1863.
Her husband Joel, however, left us an interesting story. Joel A. Barber was born 5 May 1844 in Arkansas. His father, J. U. Barber, was a doctor in Virginia. His mother Celia (?Fraser?) was born in Virginia in about 1818. Dr. Barber had either already died or had gone away by the 1860 census, because Celia is listed as the head of household. Her mother's name may have been Nancy, but that's all we know because the Stone and Taney County court houses were burned down and all the records were destroyed during the Civil War.
At the time of that 1860 census, Joel A. Barber was listed as a 16 year old laborer. In December of 1861, Joel enlisted as a Private and then a Corporal in the H company of the Missouri Infantry and also the 11th Missouri Cavalry commanded by Colonel John S. Phelps. He was discharged on May 12, 1862 at Springfield, Missouri, after being "disabled by measles, resulting in affection of back and head" in Rolla, Missouri, in February of 1862.
Later in 1862, he married a Polly Smith but she apparently died soon afterward. Then he married Susan Bolles in the summer of 1863.
We know about his Civil War service because he applied for a pension at age 43 on November 26, 1887, claiming that he had been a farmer on Bennet's Mill Road before he enlisted but he was now partly disabled because of the results of contacting measles while a soldier. According to a report of the Adjutant General's Office, he had enrolled again in August of 1863 for three years, but they found no evidence of disability. In February of 1888, he sent a request that his medical record be released to the Bureau of Pensions.
In 1890, at age 46, he tried again, claiming that he was "now unable to earn a support by reason of disease of throat and lungs, rheumatism also back and head." This form is called a "Declaration for Invalid Pension" so it seems to me that he might have been awarded the pension the first time and then had it taken away.
In May of 1898, he responded to a questionnaire for the Department of Interior, Bureau of Pensions asking if he was married, who he was married to, what proof he had of the marriage, if he had ever been married before, and the names and birth dates of any children he had.
In 1900 he requested that the Pension office order him "to appear before Medical Board at Marshfield, Missouri, for examination in this claim." I don't know what came of this.
On May 21, 1912, Joel tried again, this time under the provisions of the Act of May 11, 1912. His doctors submitted an affidavit stating that Joel's kidneys were not working properly, he had cancer of the nose, an area of "cardiac dullness" and irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath on exertion that prevented him from doing more than a little very light work.
Mary Catherine died in November of 1912. In February of 1913 he married a woman named Missouri Sickles.
In May of 1914, Joel submitted his family bible in an effort to prove his age, which was 70 at that time. It seems that he finally got his pension, because I have the copy of a form stating that his pension was now stopped because he died on April 23, 1916. His last pension payment was $23 on February 4, 1916.
Later that month, Joel's doctors submitted a request for reimbursement for their bills. On the same day, Missouri Barber's daughter and son-in-law submitted an affidavit stating that although Missouri had been married to a J. H. Warren, he died in 1893. She then married J.W. Sickles, but he had died in June of 1912. Then she had married Joel Barber in February of 1913, but that now he had died. Missouri Barber was now claiming Joel's pension. Apparently, the government had doubts about Missouri's claim, because in January of 1918, her daughter filed another affidavit swearing that the previous husband had indeed died as had been stated before. In June of 1918, three different long-time acquaintances of Missouri swore that they were present at his death and burial. The government must have had some reason to doubt that her marriage to Joel was legal.
So that's where the story ends. Joel lived 72 years and claimed to be at least partially disabled for almost 30 years. It looks like he did collect some pension a few of those years. I don't know if Missouri Barber ever collected any money from the government. This week was the first time I had ever gone through all of this paperwork, but I do know that Mom told me once that a woman had tried to make a fraudulent claim for her great-grandfather's Civil War pension. I have to wonder about it all. Joel's adult children were living right there in the same small town. Why weren't they involved in any of this? Were they the reason the government doubted the legality of the marriage?
