THE BARTON LUNDY FAMILY REUNION

Henry Barton, the oldest son of Floyd and Ellen Barton, was born August of 1858 in Bibb County, Georgia. For the first seven years of his life, he was forced to submit to a lifestyle that would eventually have a strong effect on his values and ideas of life in general.

            Born into the treacheries of slavery, he spent the first seven years of his life on the plantation that his mother lived on. It is not known whether his parents resided together, however, it has been determined from the 1860 Slave Inhabitants Record for John Barton that she was not recorded with the Barton slaves. In 1860, she would have been about 24 years old, and there were no females that age, or close to it on his list of slaves. What is known for sure is that her son Henry picked his share of cotton and farmed his share of land in his lifetime.

            Henry Barton was not a very tall man. He was a medium built, brown-skinned man who was said to have had broad shoulders, a family characteristic in the sons of Henry Barton. He was a very loving and stern husband and father, and he saw to it that his family did not have to work directly for the white man in order to make an honest living. One granddaughter recalled hearing her mother say that one day when they were living in Lily, Georgia, a white man came to their home and asked Henry if his wife Mary could do some work for them. Without a twitch in his eye, he calmly and proudly said no and told him that his wife did not work.

            Henry had a strong philosophy that excluded professionals such as teachers and lawyers from his lawyers from his view of what a person should make of him self in life. He strongly believed that every man should own a “good” piece of land and cultivate it.

            There is an old cliché that goes, for every man there is a good woman. Indeed this was true for Henry Barton. On January 25, 1883, he secretly married Mary Elizabeth Cummings, daughter of Stephen and Delia Cummings and granddaughter of Kazarina (sic) Cummings. Mary was a beautiful mulatto girl who grew with parents that had their own visions and dreams for their daughter. They sent Mary to Central City College in Macon, Georgia. Central City College was founded in 1882 by the Georgia Baptist College. It offered to negroes, junior college courses in theology and the liberal arts. However, Mary was in love with a man who was working on the railroad and who was the son of Floyd and Ellen Barton. Mary ran away from school and married Henry against the wishes of her parents. To their union, nine children were born: ARTHUR, LULA, HENRIETTA, SALLIE, MATTIE, LOU, HENRY STEPHEN, BEATRICE GUS and WILSON.

            The first five children were born in Bibb County and the last three were born in Dooly County. It is not known exactly when the Bartons moved to Dooly County, however, it is believed that they moved around 1903. That was the same year that Henry’s sister Lula Barton Casterlow and her husband Henry and their family moved to Dooly County. Lula and Henry had a very close sister-brother relationship before her children and grandchildren. In fact, Henry named his oldest daughter after his sister Lula, whose full name Tallulah.

            In 1904, the Barton’s were listed in the Tax Digest Records for Dooly county. They reported the total value of their property and personal possessions, the amount of $125.00. In 1905, they reported $95.00 and in 1906, the amount of $82.00 was listed. In 1907, it appeared that the family experienced a drastic decrease in their amount reported because they only listed $6.00. In 1908, they did not report any amount. It is not known what circumstances prevailed causing them not to report anything.

            The Bartons’ home was described as being a large wooden structure with a long hallway and rooms on each side. The kitchen sat off from the back of the house as did most kitchens during that time period. Henry had a meat house in which he would store his hams and homemade canned items, a barn and three mules which were used to farm the land. They were members of a C.M.E. Church and Henry was a member of the choir. He looked forward to going to choir rehearsal and singing notes as he called it. Many weekends, Henry and Mary would load up the family and they would ride a train to Macon, Georgia to but clothes and goods for the house and family.

            Sadly around 1916, Henry Barton died. He was buried in the church cemetery in Lily, Georgia. Indeed it was a great loss to the entire family, however, Mary knowing that Henry would want her to continue the traditions that they started together and raise the youngest three sons and daughter to be hard working and honest individuals. The older daughters had married and had begun their own families. The oldest son left home to become a lawyer against the will of his father and was never seen or heard again.

            Mary decided to move the family from the soils of Georgia in hopes of making conditions better for them so they would not have to answer to some white farmer for whom they share cropped land for. They packed their belongings and boarded a train. Their destination was Florida and the first and last stop was Plant City, Florida. Plant City was a small town located near Tampa, Florida with a population of about 6,000 people. A few years later, the married daughters who had remained in Georgia, found their way to Plant City and made it home. Mary Barton enjoyed being grandmother, often cooking large meals for the entire family. Her favorite pastime was fishing. In 1939, Mary Elizabeth Cummings Barton died and was funeralized at Grace Chapel C.M.E. Church and buried in Plant City.

Some of the descendant family names includes Barton, Hamilton, Byron, Johnson.

Dr. Skip Mason, Family Historian