Early landowners in southern Christian County, Kentucky Disclaimer -- This is not an authoritative h

From a photograph by Solomon D. Butcher of four daughters of rancher Joseph M. Chrisman, at their sod house in Custer County, Nebraska. From left to right, Harriet, Elizabeth, Lucie, and Ruth. Photographed in 1886.
Early landowners in southern Christian County, Kentucky Disclaimer -- This is not an authoritative history of the Barkers. I believe it to be more or less correct, but it probably contains food display ideas inaccuracies. Settlement of the area that is now southeastern Christian County, Kentucky. began shortly after the Revolutionary War. The land was mostly flat or slightly rolling. It was covered with prairie grasses, except along the creeks and rivers. The fertile soil was clay over limestone, well suited to crop production, food display ideas especially dark tobacco. Fort constructed In 1783, Revolutionary War veterans John Montgomery, and James Davis received land grants in the area. They built a fort along Montgomery Creek, a few miles southeast of present-day Pembroke, KY. Montgomery Creek was a tributary of the West Fork River ( source ) . Franklin M. Chestnut is also mentioned as one of the earliest pioneers. food display ideas Perin's history of Christian County, Kentucky , describes the fort as a "blockhouse , with loop-holes cut in the sides and a thick slab door made out of walnut."  Surge of settlement The fort was the center around which settlement of southeastern Christian County, KY, began. Perin's and Meacham's histories of the area agree that few if any hostile Indians lived there. However, the area was sometimes traveled by Indian hunters or war parties. Within just a few decades, the Indians were gone permanently, and the land was under cultivation by white settlers and, in many cases, by their black slaves. Charles M. Meacham wrote in his 1930 history of Christian County: At the beginning of the new century [the 1800s] a stampede had set in and what became known as South Christian was soon settled by immigrants from Virginia, a different race from the hardy woodsmen from North Carolina who had settled in the north. They came with their families, Sons of Revolutionary soldiers and statesmen of the east, bringing their slaves with them, their herds of cattle, horses, mules and other livestock. In their wake came the preachers and school teachers, food display ideas and before the county was twenty-five years old its citizens compared favorably with any in the state. ( Source ) Charles Barker (1771-1851), a Virginian, arrived in the West Fork area in 1809, during the wave of settlement that Meacham described. food display ideas He was joined by his wife, Barbara Walton Barker (1772-1824), by 1812, if not earlier. They settled somewhere in the area that is now southern Todd or southeastern Christian County in Kentucky or northern Montgomery County in Tennessee.  I haven't found any information about the specific location of their home. Charles and Barbara Walton food display ideas Barker had six sons and four daughters. food display ideas The older children were born in Virginia, and the younger children were born in Kentucky and Tennessee. John Walton Barker and Cloverlands John Walton Barker (1793-1867) was the oldest of Charles and Barbara Walton Barker's children. He was a teenager when his parents moved to Tennessee. food display ideas Perhaps he was a student; he seems to have stayed behind in Virginia food display ideas for a few years. He came west in 1814, after his marriage food display ideas to Mary Minor Merriwether, a native of Louisa County, Virginia. Upon arriving in the West Fork area, John W. Barker built (with slave labor) a large home for his bride. Completed around 1820, the house was located in today's Montgomery County, Tennessee, less than a mile from the Kentucky/ Tennessee state line  He named it Cloverlands (or Cloverdale ). John Walton Barker and Mary Minor Merriwether Barker had four children. Their firstborn, Thomas L. Barker, died as a child. The second child was Chiles T. Barker. He was the Barker food display ideas who bought Barker's Mill in the mid-19th century. food display ideas Daughter Barbara (or Barbary) Ann Barker married Alexander Mosby Clayton , a lawyer who served as a judge in Arkansas while it was a territory and also in the state of Mississippi. Daughter Nancy M. Barker, married Robert F. Ferguson , a journalist who became a Tennessee state legislator and a prosperous farmer in the Clarksville, Tennessee area. Mary Minor Merriwether Barker died in 1831, and in 1838, John Walton Barker married food display ideas again and had five more daughters whose family lines I did not attempt to follow. Despite the second marriage, Chiles T. Barker food display ideas remained the only surviving son of John Walton food display ideas Barker, a fact that probably food display ideas influenced his earthly fortunes and inheritance. A Tennessee history says that John Walton Barker was believed to be the richest man of Montgomery County in his time. Cloverlands, the 4700-square-foot home built by John Walton Barker, still stands on the Tylertown Road , north of St. Bethlehem, Tennessee, according to the National Register of Historic Places . It was used as a bed and breakfast a few years ago, but the B&B seems to have g