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| Peter Barrows |
For nearly a year, my family tree had one empty branch. His name was Peter Barrows, and he was my Great Great Grandfather. But he was missing. I could find no information other than his name, and the fact that he was born and died in Maryland.
I knew that when he died, his wife was left with young children that she could not afford to care for, and so several of them were sent to be raised by relatives. But regardless of my searches, I could find no documentation of him. There were a few possibilities, but I had no way of verifying whether or not it was truly the man I sought. It left, not only a hole in my tree, but a hole in my life.
Finally, my mother questioned her uncle, Peter's only living grandchild. My Great Uncle W is up in his age, and has little memory of those long ago years, but he was able to recall a few names regarding his own Great Uncles. I entered them into my online tree, and suddenly ... I had ancestry hints that led me to a remarkable treasure! Uncle W was NOT his only living grandchild, and I was connected with long lost cousins who provided me with photos and a hoard of information!
It seems that Peter was born in Maryland, as suspected, sometime around 1845, but the 1850 Census shows that he and his parents were living in Camden, Waldo, Maine, where his father had been born. By 1860, the family had grown, and had moved to Baltimore. They lived near the harbor, as his father was a rigger (rigging the sails for a ship).
On July 9, 1861, Peter enlisted with the Union Army, Second Regiment Infantry. His unit saw some of the first battles of the Civil War, including Bull Run and Antietam. He was transferred on April 6, 1863 to the Purnell Legion Regiment Infantry, Company C. Two years later, on July 25th, he was transferred to Company K, from which we was discharged.
There is no record of him in 1870, because he was sailing on the steamship Lincoln on the pacific. But I know that he must've soon returned, and married Annie Peterson, because the first of their eleven children was born in 1873. In 1880, Peter and his growing family are still in Baltimore, still near the harbor, as Peter is now a mariner, like his father. On the Census of that year, he reports that he is a fireman, and holds a position on a mud scow (dredging the harbor). Although there is no Federal Census for 1890, Peter and Annie are listed in the Baltimore City Directory.
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| Article printed in The Baltimore Sun on May 12, 1897 |
On November 5, 1897, Peter gave his life to the waters of the Baltimore Harbor. A line had tightened and caught an anchor on deck, sending it flying into Peter, and knocking him overboard near Locust Point. The scow passed over him, and he never resurfaced. His body was later recovered by the Lannan, a police patrol boat.
In 1900, the census shows that the Widow Annie, was left with seven of their eleven children (George, Charles, William, Daisy, Rosanna, Little Annie, and Myrtle). Peter's eldest son, Harry, was already married with children of his own at the time of his father's death, and following in his footsteps as a mariner. His second son, James, had married earlier in 1900, and was on his own. Elizabeth had married Charles Schuster the year before her father's death, and they were living with Charle's sister in 1900. And I can find no further information on daughter, Mary, at all.
In 1910, William, Annie, and Myrtle are all that remain with their mother. Ellen Rosanna had been sent to live with her sister Elizabeth Schuster. Daisy had been sent to be raised by the Kuehns, an uncle and his family. George and Charles are now grown, with wives.
The Barrows Saga does not end here. It merely becomes the Bayne Saga, as Peter's daughter Ellen Rosanna Barrows Bayne became the mother of my beloved grandfather, Adolph (named for the Uncle who raised her sister Daisy).
God bless you, Peter... and your father Phillip (also a mariner)... and his father Ichabod Jr... and his father Ichabod Sr... and his father Banajah. If it weren't for you, I would never have discovered that Ichabod Sr's wife was the daughter of a woman born in Massachusettes, to a couple who were pilgrim passengers on the Mayflower. Thank you.
