Tag Archives: Peter-livingston-barker

Barn Swallows Made Me Think

For the past two weeks, I’ve had a mother bird with babies on the back porch. This is the third year a bird has built a nest in this spot. Is it the same bird? Maybe, I don’t know.

I didn’t know they were barn swallows until I posted this picture last week. Someone who knows more than me told me what they were.

In that picture in that tiny nest, there are four baby birds that are absolutely huge. They are almost as large as their mother who loyally comes to feed them. I keep judging her….”your children will never fledge and be productive if you keep doing all the work for them!” She doesn’t listen.

Then…on Thursday, I went out and watered my hanging plants on the porch. While the birds were used to my doing so daily, apparently I startled one enough to shift a tiny bit and it tumbled out of the nest, caught itself by fluttering its wings, and it flew. It flew away. In the next 60 seconds, the other three did the same. They finally fledged.

I didn’t want to destroy the nest until I was sure they were through using it. So, I left it up until the following morning. Then, bright and early at 7:30 am, I cleaned the porch. The birds had made a very nasty mess. You can imagine.

It was so nice to have it clean. I went in the house and sat down for breakfast, and thought about my former houseguests, the barn swallows. I learned that they are very beneficial. They eat insects. I started feeling very bad for all the things I’d been thinking about them. Like…why didn’t I left the snake that almost got them…just get them? I had that thought many times.

Even though I was disliking the baby birds when I saw the snake getting ready to climb the post, I just could not watch this happen. This snake was getting very comfortable with us. When we were out in the garden, we’d watch it climb the fence looking for birds in bushes. But..on the back porch…this was too close to home! So, on that day when the snake lurked around the baby birds, I went in and read what would be a deterrent for a snake, and I came out and threw vinegar on the snake. I have not seen it since. I hate this as this is a beneficial snake.

But the porch is now clean. I want to show you something I’m very proud of. See this little table below? My grandfather that I never met made this table. Peter Livingston Barker.

It has the outline of a biscuit cutter so it was made for someone’s kitchen. Probably my grandmother’s kitchen. Martha Kaylor Barker. I never met him, nor did I meet her. You can read a little about him here.

So…the table is probably about 100 years old.

My sister had this table, and she gave it to me. I am so grateful. I am going to move it in the house, but for at least a few weeks, I’m going to enjoy it out here. I put a burlap sack on it for protection. When it moves inside, I’ll work on it a little bit, but I like the character that time and circumstances have given this table.

We had guests this weekend…family. I was happy the little table was at the door to greet them.

While admittedly, I did clean the house…at one time I would have worried myself sick on what to cook, etc. I am not a great cook. It’s so nice to be a little older and not fret over useless stuff. No one cares! I sat the table with what I had. We ate what we would have eaten that night anyway…just added a little more to it. And the time we spent was precious.

Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage. It’s my blog about my life in Mendota, Virginia and nothing. Mostly nothing!

Peter Livingston Barker of Mendota

I got lucky this week and got a wagon load of “story” information about my paternal grandfather, Peter Livingston Barker. A whole wagon load…

Wagonload of Stories

The following was written by the late Jack Nickels and Mary Faye Dougherty Taggart, Peter’s nephew and great niece. I’ve inserted a picture here and there with my notes in italics. I enjoyed reading this and could not wait to share it. I first wrote about Peter Livingston Barker early in the year. You can read that here.

Peter L., as he was called, was born in July of 1858 in Washington County, Virginia, and he lived his whole life in Mendota, a little town in Washington County, Virginia. According to the 1900 census, he lived as a boarder in 1900 with his brother Abe (Abraham Forest) Barker. At the age of 46, he married Mattie Kaylor.

You’ve seen this picture before on an earlier post. He’s pictured with his sisters..

Peter Livingston Barker and sisters

There are many old family stories about Peter L. Barker. He was an inventor and exhibited a creative streak. He went to Washington to get patents on his inventions. Once Peter L. went to Washington with Roy Nickels, his brother-in-law, and he saw a big parade. John Pershing was in the parade. Peter L. recounted the experience and said, “I saluted him (John Pershing) and he saluted me back.” As a result of this experience, Peter L. named one of his sons John Pershing Barker (who lived at the foot of Clinch Mountain).

John Pershing Barker's Grave

Some of Peter L.’s inventions include a washing machine made of a wooden barrel and railroad spikes which resulted in all of the clothes being torn up and a fly swatter over the dining room table that was powered by a treadmill on which a pig ran after an ear of corn which was suspended above the pig’s head. Peter. L made a mix master of some type. He also made a merry-go-round by putting a hole through a plank and putting a cardboard box on each end. He put a railroad spike through the center of the plank. It turned like a merry-go-round, but it threw everybody out. Once, Peter L. had a grand piano which he sawed off the legs to make legs for a dining room table.

Jack Nickles of Mendota, Virginia told of the time Peter L. found some blue clay-like material on his property. He accidentally got some on his hands, and when he washed off the clay, his hands were so white and smooth that he decided to put the clay all over his body. He did so and went to bed. His wife, Mattie Kaylor Barker, had a fit because he ruined the sheets. However, he was really ahead of his time. We now use clay packs on our faces to remove impurities.

This barn belonged to Roy Nickels, Jack’s father. It is now owned by John Larson, and it sits near the property owned by the Barkers for many years. I wonder if that clay was nearby in the swampy area across the road from the barn? Look at Clinch Mountain in the background. It’s hard to take a picture in Mendota without the mountain peeking through. I take it for granted until I look at pictures.

Uncle Roy's Barn

According to Jack Nickles, Peter L. kept a supply of law books back in the woods behind his house. He had a hammock back there, and he would frequently go to his hammock in the woods to read law books. Vernon C. Barker, his nephew was attending law school at the time, and whenever he needed help with his law studies, he would seek out his Uncle Peter in the woods. Jack Nickels said that is how Vernon got through law school.

Jack Nickels also told of the time that Peter L. Barker’s nephews, Vernon C. Barker and Abram Forest Barker, Jr. were in a boat. Pete and Vernon decided to play a trick on A. F. and tell him to jump overboard because they had just seen a snake in the boat. A. F. jumped in the river. Then Vernon jumped in because, as it turned out, there really was a snake in the boat.

Same river that we live on today…

Mendota Swinging Bridge on North Fork of Holston River

Peter L. also was responsible for the Mendota Hotel. The Mendota Hotel was owned by Scott Stickly and his wife around the 1890’s. Peter L.’s father and mother, William Barker and Lucinda Barnhart, had charge of the Mendota Toll Gate built at the foot of Clinch Mountain in Mendota. The proceeds were used to maintain the road over the mountain to Russell County. After the death of his parents, Peter L. and his wife, Mattie Kaylor, continued the operation of the gate until it closed in 1910. Source: Neal, J. A. (1977) Bicentennial history of Washington County, Virginia: 1715-1976, p. 455. Dallas , TX. Taylor Publishing Company.

It was told that Peter L. was to give a speech somewhere. Someone was supposed to introduce him, but that person did not show up, so Peter L. got up and said “I’m going to introduce you to the greatest orator of all times. It is I, Peter L. Barker.”

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There’s more which I’ll add in a day or so. Hope you enjoyed. I’ll close with this picture of blocks made by William Thomas Barker, Peter’s son and my father, when he was a young man. I sometimes look over in their direction when I pass by. They are haunting in a pleasant way.

Stonework

Peter Livingston Barker and Mendota, Virginia

Here’s a picture of my father’s father, Peter Livingston Barker. I’m hoping that I can get more information on him soon, but for now, here he is. He’s pictured with his sisters.

I was at my cousin Julia’s a couple of years ago, and my other cousin, Forrest Barker (called Brother Barker), referred to Peter Livingston Barker as someone who liked to write or speak. Maybe so…read on what he said about Mendota, Virginia. So hopeful…I’m mixed as to whether I’m sad that little or none of what he talked about is here or perhaps I’m grateful.

Here’s what I found on the internet (and you know the deal…if it is on the internet, it must be true! Ha!) that my grandfather wrote. Courtesy New River Notes Web Page by Jeff Weaver: An Economic and Social Survey of Washington County, Virginia. University of Virginia Record Extension Series Vol. XVII, No. 6, December, 1932 by Ben Bane Dulaney

Mendota

By P. L. Barker

Mendota is situated on the North Fork of Holston River, in the west end of Washington County, Virginia, about half way between Bristol and Gate City, opposite the noted Kinderhook Farm and immediately on the Southern Railway.

The excellent river-bottom lands at Mendota were patented by the Commonwealth to Thomas Kendrick, William Todd Livingston and others, and the home of Peter Livingston was but a short distance below Mendota at the time the noted half-breed Benge made his raid thereon in the year 1794, burning the homestead and carrying off the wife of Peter Livingston. After several days hot pursuit the Indians were overtaken, the savage Benge was killed at long range by Lieutenant Vincent Hobbs. Mrs. Livingston was struck with a tomahawk by an Indian and left for dead-the remaining Indians fleeing-but after being senseless about an hour was revived by the rescue party.

The river-bottom land opposite Mendota, some time previous to 1860, became the property of Adam Hickman, a native of Kinderhook, N. Y. Upon his acquisition of this property, he gave it the name of Kinderhook, and from this farm Kinderhook magisterial district derived its name.

The post office at this point was for many years Kinderhook, but the name was changed to Mendota by Henry C. Holley, who for many years was a merchant at the place.

Hamilton Institute was established at Mendota in the year, 1874. It drew a large, earnest and determined patronage from the Cumberlands on the north to the Blue Ridge Mountains on the south, and is said to have sent more Christian young men and women into the professional and common walks of life than any other institution of learning of its class in its wide territory.

As to the old settlers, it may be remarked that it was no ordinary people who pushed the frontiers back and settled this section. They were of the best stock that Virginia had to offer, and were as high-minded and far-seeing as they were brave and adventurous.

Mendota is the center of the glass sand industry in Virginia. It has one of the finest deposits of silica, used in the manufacture of glassware, pottery, etc., in the United States, said to be inexhaustible in quantity. While industrial development at present is in its infancy, the great number and variety of natural resources, the place being touched by a river and great trunk line railway, it is destined to increase greatly. At present there is considerable prospecting for oil and gas in this vicinity. The town has two flour mills, planing and lumber mills, five stores, and is served by a high-powered electric line, the East Tennessee Light and Power Company, a subsidiary of Cities Service.

The Blue Grass Trail, State Highway No.42, has lately been constructed into the town.