Farmers and Merchants and Such...

Being mostly fourth and fifth generation born Texans, we assumed all our family that pioneered to this state were farmers and ranchers. Researching our family we discovered that is not quite true. We actually have a few merchants. In a previous post we told you all about BJ Riney; but waaaay on the other side of our tree another second great grandfather, John Manly Barkley, had a general store in Hutto, TX. We like to think it was just like the one on "Little House On The Prairie". Selling salt, candles, fabrics, and maybe being the only source of news for miles around. Our Barkley line and some Gabriel cousins moved to Texas from the Piedmont Region of North Carolina at the turn of the last century. They moved to Williamson and Travis Counties, then some moved on to Nueces County. John Manly, along with one of his older sons, came around 1901ish and opened his store called JM Barkley and Son. His wife, Laura Gabriel Barkley, and their other children stayed in Catawba, NC. Our best guess is to make sure all worked out first. That seems to be pretty risky, but that was the way. We have read many stories where Texas was such a shock that people said "to hell with it" and moved back home. It must have worked out well because Laura and the kids moved by the next year. In 1910 their son Freddie Barkley died in a horse accident. Shortly after they moved into Austin and bought a home in the Hyde Park neighborhood, on Avenue D. The house is still there, and you better believe we have visited. A nice lady lives there and gave us a tour a few years ago.

By 1940 John Manly and Laura lost their fifth child out of 10. Their youngest son, George Barkley and his wife Ernestine Scharlach Barkley, were killed in an automobile accident. They moved to Bishop, TX to live with our grandmother and her brother, Helen Ruth and Ray Barkley. Their only living son, Ernest Barkley, and a daughter, Zula Barkley McCoy, also lived in Bishop. John Manly had been a farmer in North Carolina before becoming a merchant in Texas. You could say his life came full circle. He ended his last days surrounded by the cotton fields of the coastal plains, where his sons were farmers.

John Manly Barkley at his store in Hutto, TX , in 1915