Sumter-Emanuel-Thomas County GaArchives Biographies.....Barwick, Pastor Robert H. September 20, 1865 -
************************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
LaVerne Carter http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00028.html#0006854 August 2, 2012, 12:46 pm
Source: Given at the conclusion
Author: R.H. Barwick and LaVerne Carter
MEMOIRS OF PASTOR (ELDER) ROBERT H. BARWICK
My first school days were spent in a little log house with a dirt floor in it.
It got awfully loose and dusty, so they hauled pine straw and "carpeted" it.
My first teacher was an Englishman named Jones. I was terribly afraid of
him, for I thought he could "just eat" 'em alive. When I would go to say my
ABC's, I would get to trembling and crying, and he would scold me and say
"Go to your seat". I was glad to go but O, how I dreaded the next time. Our
books were the old Webster's blue back spellers, and I wore out two or three,
trying to learn my letters. The gnats were bad and we had the sore eyes, and
our hands would get dirty, and the books faded badly. There was only one
desk in the house, and that was a long shelf across one end of the school
house. We had copy books made out of fool's cap paper, and the teacher
would set us copies. I remember one favorite copy was "Evil communications
corrupt good manners", but I didn't know what it meant. It was just a copy
for us to write by. They usually had the period for writing just after
recess, and we had to write when we were hot and nervous, and our hands
dirty, and it was hard to keep the copy clean. We had slates and pencils
with which to "cipher", for there were no writing tablets then. Our games
were marbles, roly hole, mumblepeg, cat, bullpen, and town-hall. In later
years croquet and baseball came in vogue. Our schools usually last three
months, through the idle summer months. In later years we had better schools,
better equipment, and longer terms.
One of our chief joys was to carry a watermelon to school or rather hide it
in the shade, away from the school house, and go at noon, with such
favorites as we elected to invite and eat it. Another was to go to the
creek at noon and go in washing. And then there was your sweetheart; some-
times that was a source of great joy, and sometimes it was a source of
great worry. Sometimes a look across the school room carried worlds of
meaning in it. If she smiled on you, all the world was glorious, but if
she frowned on you, the bottom dropped out. It was a great pleasure to
carry her a red apple, or a smell-melon, and thus revel in her good graces.
Once I was writing a note to one, in time of school, and just as I finished
it, I found that the teacher was standing behind me, and had read it over
my shoulder. It was a sweet note and I was awfully embarrassed, but he only
smiled and said "Tear it up". I gladly did so.
A neighbor had a pet deer, which wore a bell, and roamed over the neighbor-
hood. One day it came to school and stuck its head in at the door, which
created a commotion that the teacher could not quell at once. At another
time some dogs ran a deer right near our playground, at play time, and such
a yell as was raised.
The most pleasant and profitable of my school days were spent at Sam Tilden,
a good country school, near where Graymont now is. The old house is still
standing, and is used as a dwelling. A. R. Rountree and Dr. Holland were
the teachers there, and they had a large school of advanced pupils. From
this school went out some noble men and women -- the men and women who have
developed that country. Their fathers and mothers laid the foundation and
they did the building. Doctors, lawyers, bankers, business men and teachers
went out from this old school. Many noble women, the mothers and builders
of the present generation, got much of their training there. Many happy
memories linger around there as we recall little incidents that occurred
while we were in the making. Many lasting friendships were formed. Many
lessons were learned that have been of great use to us on life's journey.
Life is a school in which we all learn as long as we live. Some of its
lessons are hard, and we are so dull and forgetful that we have to be "turned
back", and learn them over again and again.
I taught my first school at a little country school house, near Garbutt and
Rountree's mill, in Emanuel County. When I was eighteen years old, I had
several grown pupils and some of them were "obstreperous" whatever that may
mean. On the last day of school, they "turned the teacher out". When I
went out to eat dinner (out of my little tin bucket), they closed the house
and when I started back, they crowded around me and told me I had to treat
them. So we went to a store about a mile away, and I bought them two
pounds of striped stick candy which was "the end of a perfect day". I was
glad to get out and they were too. While teaching another school, one day
I whipped a boy one day trying to subdue him, and left some marks on him.
That evening his daddy who was a half-witted fellow, and a giant in size,
met me and wanted to whip me, but one of the grown pupils was with me and
kept him off me.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Robert H. (sometimes called R.H.)Barwick was born 9-20-1865 in Emanuel
County, Georgia. In the month of June, 1886 he married Mary S. (Mollie)
Davis who was born December, 1868.
R. H. Barwick was the son of George I.J. Barwick born 4-1-1843, died 9-19-
1890 and represented Emanuel County in the Georgia Legislature. He married
11-16-1865 to Jane Rountree.
R. H. Barwick was the grandson of Lott Barwick, born 1813 in South Carolina
died 5-25-1894 in Emanuel County married (l) 1-29-1835 in Laurens County,
Georgia to Elizabeth Rountree. He married (2) Annie E. Clifton who was
born 7-2-1842, died 3-13-1902. Lott and both of his wives are buried in
the Old Canoochee Church Cemetery about half way between Swainsboro and
Twin City in Emanuel County, Georgia.
R. H. Barwick was the great-grandson of Nathaniel (Nathan) Barwick, born
8-3-1782 in Dobbs County, North Carolina, died 4-5-1868 in Emanuel County,
Georgia, he married 6-21-1810 Elizabeth Whiddon who had the same birthdate
as Nathan, 8-3-1782. She was the daughter of William Whiddon and she died
1893. Nathan was the first child of William Barwick and Elizabeth Phillips
Barwick. William Barwick and Elizabeth Phillips both died in Darlington
District, South Carolina after having moved there from Dobbs County.
Robert H. Barwick, after teaching and a few other occupations, felt a
calling to go into the ministry. He was ordained into the ministry on
12-1-1891 and made himself well-known and in demand as he answered
calls from various churches in Georgia to serve as their Pastor.
In 1919 while pastoring the Cordele Primitive Baptist Church their frame
church building was brick veneered, repaired and refurnished. At the same
church, he called a meeting on December 2, 3 and 4, 1919 and this meeting
was attended by members from other churches in Georgia. The purpose of
the meeting was to discuss problems and interests in the denomination. This
developed into the Bible Conference, and it grew so fast that it required
the meetings to be held on a college campus, it being held at ABAC in Tifton
annually. It's attendance is preachers and lay members from churches of the
South, Indiana and California. Pastor Barwick also published "THE PILGRIM'S
BANNER", a monthly magazine devoted to the religious truths and moral
culture of the Primitive Baptist Church. It merged with another publication,
'THE PRIMITIVE HERALD' which was edited by Elder W. H. Crouse in Cordele
and became the 'BANNER HERALD'. The 'BANNER HERALD' continues to be the
leading periodical of Primitive Baptists today and is published monthly in
Jesup, Georgia.
In 1899 he was pastoring in Pavo, Georgia where he lost two daughters at
young ages. R. H. and his wife, Mary S. (Mollie) Davis Barwick had the
following children:
Luther Barwick, born 11-1887 in Georgia, no further information.
Eunice Barwick, born 4-1889, died 10-17-1901, buried at Harmony Primitive
Baptist Church in Barwick, Georgia.
Felix Barwick, born 7-189l in Georgia.
Ina Barwick, born 10-6-1893, died 2-21-1899, buried Harmony Primitive Baptist
Church in Barwick, Georgia.
Eva Barwick, B: 10-1898 in Thomas County, Georgia
Alta Barwick
Robbie Barwick (Probably named after his father Robert, with "Robbie"
as a nickname.)
Ira Barwick
Frank Barwick
R.H.'s siblings were: Mary Barwick, B: 8-20-1870, married G. W. Durden; Aden
Asbury Barwick, born 10-17-1871 married Jane Adams; Annie E. Barwick, born
11-28-1872, married (l) Dr. J.R. Rountree (2) Dr. C.R. Riner; Dora L. Barwick
born 5-16-1876 married Sidney Parrish; George Clayton Barwick, born 11-12-
1878, married Sarah Ashton (Sadie) Thomas; Samuel Barwick, born 1-14-1887,
if survived, has not been traced.
References: Census Records, Family Bible, Tombstone Inscriptions, CRISP
COUNTY'S HISTORY IN PICTURES AND STORIES, R.H. Barwick's Memoirs.
This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/
File size: 9.6 Kb