Barnett Presley Donaldson

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Series

Prompt: Misfortune

Barney and Nancy's home

Years ago my mother gave me a copy of the Biography of Barney P. Donaldson. Barney was my great grandfather and I can remember how it made me cry when I read it. Barney seemed to have more than his share of misfortune. It is tough to measure that against other forms of good fortune which Barney also had in his life. I will try and summarize his biography here. 

The misfortune starts with him losing his father at fifteen years of age, “just at the time I needed a boss.” Three years later his mother died, and he wrote “I never realized what a friend mother was until she died.”  Barney married Nancy Jane Myers 16 February 1879, and they moved out to the farm his father had left him, married life was starting out good, but then financial misfortune seemed to stalk him. He sold that farm or in his words “gave it away” bought more land in another county stayed two years and then gave that place away also. He was losing every time he sold. He moved his family another ten or eleven times, working mostly at hauling freight from cream to dead hogs his longest sojourn being in Coffeen, Illinois for twenty-four years.

Barnett Presley Donaldson

One day after having his place all paid for he was having dinner with his sister and commented how he was the “happiest man in Coffeen.” Later that evening at home his barn caught on fire with four horses, his tack, new buggy, and feed inside; all were lost in the fire. They managed to save the house with the help of the town folk, but he had no insurance to cover his loses. Within two hours he went from the happiest man in Coffeen to down and out. Thankfully donations were raised, so he was able to buy another team and work again, but the loss in his words “took all the vim out of me; my loss was a great deal more than that.”

At one point in his life he contacted “sore eyes” and was nearly blind for three years so much he could hardly tell the children apart. Nancy picked up the slack doing most of the farm work with help from her sister Nelly.

Barnett and Nancy

When Barney was writing his biography he had just discovered he had cancer of the jawbone. He had been having trouble opening his mouth for several months. This is how he ended his story:

“I stop and look at my good old hands, that worked so hard to raise my family and how could I think that my Lord would-will take me home; I have not the least fear of it. But then, to young people, I want to say that the better you serve the Lord the better here on this earth it is, because it shows more humanity for each other. God says, “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto me or you,” as you might write it. Enough for that. I will just take my fate the best I can; I don’t care for myself so much, but for my companion that has been by my side for 50 years or there about, and sure is a real one, never was found lagging always was up and doing for the family. God bless her, this is a sad eve for me and Mam. We take turns in crying goodnight, the 21^st of January 1929.”

This summary and excerpts were taken from the Biography of Barney P. Donaldson, Coffeen, Illinois, 14 January 1929, (Reprinted 24 October 1958)

Thank you for joining my search!

Dennis

Credit for this series to Amy Johnson Crow, Certified Genealogist