Biography - Franklin M. Barnett

FRANKLIN M. BARNETT is a member of the police jury of Bossier Parish from Ward 4, but is a native of Madison County, Ala., his birth occurring near Huntsville, April 4, 1829. His father and mother, Zachariah and Mary F. (Mattison) Barnett, were born in Abbeville District, S. C., but were married in Alabama and resided there until the father's death in 1840, when about thirty-five years of age. The mother came to Louisiana with the subject of this sketch in 1857, and passed from life in this parish. The school days of Franklin M. Barnett were spent in Lauderdale County, Ala., but after the death of his father he devoted his time and attention to making a living for his mother and his brothers and sisters. He has resided on his present farm four miles east of Red Land since coming to this State, and by the exercise of industry and intelligence he is now in a prosperous condition, financially. In February, 1863 he joined the Twenty-eighth Louisiana Infantry, Col. Gray's regiment, with which he served until the close of the war, being in the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. He was discharged at Shreveport in May, 1865, and farming has since been his principal occupation, but some attention has also been given to blacksmithing and wagon making. He is a skillful mechanic, and has been employed by people in all directions. He is a prominent and well-known citizen, and in 1888 was elected a member of the police jury, and is now discharging the duties of this office. He was married in 1850 to Miss Mary J. McAdams of Alabama, who died in 1865. Leaving seven children, four now living: T. Z. (a bookkeeper at Plain Dealing), Eliza J. (Wife of J. L. Cochran, a planter of Lafayette County, Ark.), L. F. (a missionary Baptist minister and farmer residing near his father), and Alice M. (wife of J. M. Lester, also a tiller of the soil in Lafayette County, Ark.). Those deceased are: James W., who died at the age of twenty-one years; and Rufus G. and John M. who were both young at the time of their deaths. On December 24, 1865, Mr. Barnett was married to Miss Huldah E. Cochran, a daughter of Edmond B. Cochran of Alabama, by whom he became the father of the following children: Aaron A., Essie E., Eddie A., Addie J., Luda C. and Dr. J. Allen C. died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Barnett are members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and he is a Mason and a member of Red Land Lodge No. 148. He also belongs to the Farmers' Alliance, and is a Democrat politically.

Contributed 29 Aug 2020 by Norma Hass, extracted from Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, published in 1890, page 126.