E. M. BARNWELL, Circuit Clerk and Recorder, Jonesboro, was born June 13, 1837, in Hind County, Miss., and is a son of Edward M. and Maria Ann (Martin) Barnwell. He was a son of E. M. Barnwell, and was born in England and died in New Orleans, La.; she was born in Ireland, and died near Natchez, Miss. They were the parents of three children, viz.: Edward M. (our subject), John P., a farmer in Cass County, Mo., and Mark W. He died at the age of twenty-one at Pleasant Hill, Mercer Co., Ky., at the Shaker settlement, where he and his brothers had been placed after their mother's death, by her request. In 1861, our subject left the Shaker settlement, and came to this county. He worked for Mr. W. Davie in the harness and shoe shop for about a year; after that he taught school six months and then commenced the study of telegraphy at Anna In 1865, he obtained a position as operator in Dongola, Ill., where he remained until the spring of 1881, when he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court and Recorder of Union County, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of A. Polk Jones, who had been Clerk for many years. Mr. B. was married, September 19, 1871, in Dongola, to Miss Emma J. Bristol, a native of Palestine, Crawford Co., Ill. She died in Dongola in March, 1872. Mr. B. is a member of Dongola Lodge, No. 343, I. O. O. F., and Dongola Lodge, No. 2205, K. of H. He is politically a Democrat.
Extracted 02 Apr 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part V, page 93.
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