Baldwin County (Georgia) Cemeteries

More information

Mrs Mary Ann Cooper Barnett

ca. 1820 - Jan 13, 1902

Cemetery: Memory Hill
East Side, Section I, Lot 63, Grave 8
-- See section's Lot Layout map on Memory Hill website. (Map will open in a new window.)

Inscription and Notes:

Unmarked Adult Slab - She is possibly buried in this lot, per BCC. Dates per Jan 14, 1902 Union Recorder.
w/o Nathan C. Barnett. Children: Steward M. Barnett, A.F. Barnett, Mrs. E.W. Anderson.

Mary Ann Cooper Barnett

From Bob Klebs
July 10, 2005

MARY ANN COOPER  was born Abt. 1821 in Georgia, and died 11 Jan 1902 in Atlanta, Georgia.  She married COLONEL NATHAN CRAWFORD BARNETT 10 Apr 1841 in Baldwin County, possibly Milledgeville, Georgia., son of WILLIAM BARNETT and ANN CRAWFORD.  He was born 18 Jun 1801 in Columbia County, Georgia, and died 03 Feb 1890 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Notes for MARY ANN COOPER:

ACTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA, PASSED IN MILLEDGEVILLE, AT A BI-ENNIAL SESSION, IN NOVEMBER, DECEMBER, JANUARY, FEBRUARY & MARCH, 1855-'56. COMPILED, AND NOTES ADDED, By JOHN W. DUNCAN.

PART II.---LOCAL AND PRIVATE LAWS. TITLE XXIV. RELIEF LAWS. FEME'S SOLE. 1855 Vol. 1 -- Page: 512

Sequential Number: 479 Law Number: (No. 476.)

Full Title: An Act for the relief of Martha W Clower of the county of Clarke, Harriet T. Danforth of the county of Wilkes, Mary Ann Barnett of the county of Baldwin, Anna Bulkley and Harriet Seymore of the county of Paulding, Sarah Mann Tant, and Eleanor Maloney of the county of Richmond, and Susan Price of the county of Wilkes.

6 Sec. III. And be it further enacted, That from and after the passage of this act, Mary Ann Barnett, wife of Nathan C. Barnett, of the county of Baldwin, be and she is hereby authorised to contract and be contracted with, as a feme sole, and transact business in her own name, and for her own use and benefit, notwithstanding her coverture, and that her future acquisitions shall not be liable for the debts or contracts of her present, or any future husband, and that she may sue and be sued, in her own name.

[Sidenote: Mary Ann Barnett to trade, &c]

[Sidenote: Her acquisitions exempt]

*****

ACTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA, PASSED IN MILLEDGEVILLE, AT AN ANNUAL SESSION IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1859. PART. II. LOCAL AND PRIVATE LAWS.

TITLE I. ACADEMIES, COLLEGES, COMMON SCHOOLS, TEACHERS OF POOR CHILDREN, &C.

I. ACADEMIES. ART. II. COLLEGES. ART. III.—COMMON SCHOOLS. 1859 Vol. 1 -- Page: 89

Sequential Number: 115

Law Number: (No. 113.)

48. SEC. III. And be it further enacted, That the Ordinary of Baldwin county be, and he is hereby authorized to pay out of any money now in his hands for educational purposes, not otherwise appropriated, such an amount as may be due to Mrs. Mary Ann Barnett for the tuition of poor children in said county for the years 1857 and 1858; also, such an amount as may be due to Miss Carrie Fair for tuition of poor children for the year 1858 in said county--provided, that should the same rights and privileges be extended to other teachers by legislative enactment, and there should be an insufficiency of funds in the hands of the Ordinary to pay each and all, then, that each receive a pro-rata distribution of the funds on hand, according to the amount of accounts as proven.

[Sidenote: Ordinary of Baldwin must settle with Mrs. Barnett for 1857 and 1858, and Miss Fair for 1858.] [Sidenote: Proviso.]

*****

Portions of the following have been omitted.  See full text with notes of Nathan C. Barnett.

Death of Col. N. C. Barnett (Obituary, Milledgeville, Union Recorder, Feb. 4, 1890)

His second wife was Mary Ann, daughter of Doctor David Cooper, the first Supt. and Resident physician of the State Lunatic Asylum. Besides his widow he leaves three children -- Addison, Mary and Stewart. Col. Barnett was married a second time, in 1841, to Miss Mary Ann Cooper, and on the 10th of next April the forty-ninth year of the sojourn together would have been completed.

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From February 20, 1874 Georgia Home Journal published in Madison- "The Granite House, Atlanta, Georgia by Mrs. Barnett formerly of Milledgeville, GA., is now open as a private boarding house... This house is on Broad Street, between the Railroad Bridge and Marietta Street, near the center of the city, and within less than two hundred yards of the present Capitol... N. C. Barnett."

********************************

From Atlanta Constitution, January 12, 1902

page 7. "Mrs. M.A. Barnett is Dead. Widow of Former Secretary of State N. C. Barnett Passes Away -Internment in Milledgeville. 

Mrs. M. A. Barnett, widow of the late Colonel Nathan C. Barnett at one time secretary of state of Georgia, died yesterday afternoon at 3:40 o'clock at her residence, 78 Pullman Street, after an illness of about two weeks.  Mrs. Barnett was 81 years of age and her death was due to a general breaking down, occasioned by old age. 

The deceased is survived by three children--Stewart M. Barnett, of Atlanta;  A. F. Barnett of New Orleans, and Mrs. E. W. Anderson of Monroe, LA.  Mrs. Barnett is well known throughout the city and has scores of friends and acquaintances by whom she was much loved and who will feel great sorrow at her death.  She was a woman possessed of Christian character and always delighted in doing works of charity.  By her lovable disposition she made friends wherever she was known. 

The home of Mrs. Barnett was formerly in Milledgeville, and the body will be interred there in the family burying ground.  The funeral services will be held at her home, No. 78 Pullman street at 3:30 o'clock this afternoon and the body will be taken to Milledgeville tomorrow morning. 

Mrs Anderson and her son Stewart Anderson were here at the time of her death and Addison F. Barnett will arrive from New Orleans today.

*****

The following appeared in:

Histories of Milledgeville and Baldwin County (Georgia) by Leola Selman Beeson,

The J. W. Burke Company, Macon Georgia 1943. 216 pgs.

Of this first Edition of the History of Milledgeville and Baldwin County

Three Hundred Copies have been printed.

Chapter 5. Baldwin County courthouses and jails

page. 81

Mrs. Nathan Barnett

Years ago, when officials of The Stone Mountain Monumental Association asked for records of achievement of Georgians in the War Between the States, the writer sent to them the following story of Mrs. Nathan Barnett, wife of Georgia's Secretary of State in the sixties. 

When General Sherman's army entered Milledgeville, Mr. Barnett, at the capitol, gathered up all the unfinished Acts of the Legislature and the Great Seal of the State, and walked down towards the river.  He remained on the river until quiet prevailed and then came home. 

He placed the Great Seal and the Acts in the hands of his wife, saying, "I leave tomorrow morning at four o'clock and you must guard these, for I am responsible for them."

In the words of Mrs. Barnett, "He and I, and the youngest son, carried the Great Seal under the house, and after wrapping it carefully, dug a deep hole in the angle of a brick pillar and buried it there.  The clock struck twelve, just as we finished. 

"Confidently expecting the house to be burned, and carefully securing the Acts of the Legislature against dirt and moisture, I carried them to the pig pen and carefully buried them.  I had four fine porkers in the pen, and I thought that the heat of their bodies would help keep the paper safe, and subsequent events proved this true.

"After General Sherman and his men had crossed the river and burned the bridge behind them, I exhumed the Acts and placed them in safety for Colonel Barnett if he should ever return."

During the time the Great Seal lay buried, the "carpet-bag" element sought to reorganize Georgia.  "Some pretence of legal form was needed to give authority to Fraudulent transactions," so effort after effort was made to unearth the Great Seal.  Failing in this, the "carpet-baggers" resorted to an imitation Seal.  No expense was spared in making it, and the contrivance was perfect except for one tiny mistake, so small, that at first it was not noticed.  But the artist who made the false seal placed the uplifted sword in the left hand of the soldier, while in the original seal, it was held aloft in the right hand.

p.82

Many writers and historians have confused the story of the Executive Seal with that of the Great Seal which Mrs. Barnett buried. 

Governor Jenkins had taken with him in his self-imposed exile, the Executive Seal and the State's money to keep them from falling in the hands of the foe. 

He returned in 1872, and delivered both the seal and the money to the proper authorities.

Both houses of the Legislature voted to present him with a replica of the Executive Seal, which replica is now in Savannah, Georgia, the property of the Georgia Historical Society.

p.83

[Note:  This page appears to be an exact copy of the newspaper account of the sketch of Nathan C. Barnett that appeared at the time of his death and is not repeated here RWK April 27, 2005]

Bottom of page 83

"Writer's note:  Mrs. Nathan Barnett in a special interview with a correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution of July 2nd, 1899 said that the Great Seal and the unfinished Acts of the 1864 Legislature, were returned to the State when "the legislature

p. 84

met in Macon."  That was February 15th, 1865-March 11th 1865.

Mrs. Barnett who kept the Great Seal and the Acts should know the facts better than the writer of the sketch on Nathan Barnett's life.

[END]

Transcribed by Robert W. Klebs a gggg-nephew of Mrs. Mary Ann Cooper Barnett on April 27, 2005

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More About MARY ANN COOPER:

Census: 12 Aug 1850, Baldwin County, Georgia, Milledgeville, looks like p. 18

Children: Only three children of eight survived to adulthood.

Note: 1860, Note:  Listed as age 35, with notation "Feme sole' "  translated probably from law enacted by State Legislature.

Residence: Bef. 1874, "The Granite House" on Broad Street, less than 200 yards from the State Capital.


See others in this cemetery lot.