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WILLIAM M. BARKER, farmer, is a grandson of Asa Barker, who emigrated from England at the outbreak of the revolutionary
war to assist the colonists; he was present at the battle of Bunker Hill, and served till the close of the war,
after which he settled in Maine. Here was born to him a son whom he christened William. Samuel Davis, a Scotch
highlander, who served seven years under Washington, participating in fourteen battles, also settled in Maine at
the close of the war; his daughter, Susan, was one of three children born in Fort Gorham during a war with the
local Indians. On reaching maturity William Barker and Susan Davis were married and settled on a farm in Bridgeton,
(Jumberland county, where was born to them the subject of this sketch, on July 24, 1820. He attended the common
school till ftfteen years old and then spent a year at Gorham Academy. When sixteen he was apprenticed to a carpenter,
and followed that trade tifi he came to Minnesota. In 1846 he went to Illinois where he spent seven years in depotbuilding
and other railroad work. He was a passenger on the first trip of the War Eagle up the Mississippi in 1853, and
landed at Winona at three o'clock on the morning of April 7. His first claim to government land was made on Sec.
15, in the town of St. Charles; this he sold, and subsequently bought a farm on Sec. 36, Elba. He was married June
27, 1865, to Maria, daughter of Austin and Polly Raymond, of Oneida county, New York; she was born in Camden, New
York, in June, 1823; at the time of this marriage she was the widow of Pierson Everton. Mrs. Barker died on January
31, 1878; after her death Mr. Barker sold his farm and purchased forty acres on the same section, which he now
tills; he also tills adjoining land on Sec. 1, St. Charles, on which he resides. He never left the state after
his first settlement here until December, 1882, when he went to the Wisconsin pineries and spent the winter. Mr..
Barker built the first frame house erected in St. Charles for Henry Clipper, in 1855. In religious belief he is
a Methodist; in politics, was a democrat till the war of the rebellion, and is now a greenbacker. Following is
the record of Mr. and Mrs. Everton's children: Jane married James Annis. and lives in northern Minnesota; Henry
resides in Winona; Janet is living in the town of St. Charles; Alfred is in New Mexico; Ida married George Raymond
and lives in Kansas; Emma E. is married and lives in Winona.
FROM:
The History of Winona County
Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, Etc.
BY: A. T. Andreas
H. H. Hill and Company, Publishers
Chicago 1883.
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