Henry Barnhart: A Story for my Grandchildren

William Henry Barnhart, 1842-1918

I’m a country woman from Missouri, and I was born Sarah Hyder. In life I got married twice, first to a man named James Elliott in 1853 and then in 1860 to another named Thomas Pounds. Both knots were tied in Ray County just north of the Missouri River. That should have made it free territory but it weren’t, it were slave, witness that “Bloody Bill” Anderson of Quantrill’s Raiders infamy grew up here, was killed in the county seat and buried nearby. I mention Bloody Bill not because he has anything to do with my story--he don’t-- but just to remind you of the troubles we seen. We seen’em, and we seen’em up close.

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