BARKSDALE.
William Barksdale is noticed in the records in 1765. He
was for a number of years a buyer of land, chiefly on the
south fork of the Rivanna north of Hydraulic Mills, and on the
upper part of Mechum's River. He and his wife Ann were
the parents of eleven children, Nathan, Goodman, Samuel,
Jonathan, John H., Nelson, —, the wife of John Douglass,
Ann, the wife of Alexander Fretwell, Sarah, the wife of William
Warwick, of Amherst, Lucy, the wife of Richard Burch,
and Elizabeth. William Barksdale died in 1796, and some
years later his widow was married to Philip Day.
Nathan seems to have died young, leaving two sons,
Achilles and Douglass, to whom their grandfather gave a
tract of land on Mechum's River above the Depot of that
name. Goodman and Jonathan were settled in the same
neighborhood. Goodman died in 1832. Jonathan married
Lucy, daughter of Giles Rogers, and died in 1831. His
children were Nancy, the wife of George W. Kinsolving,
Lucy, the wife of Richard Rothwell, Ralph, Nathan, who
married his cousin Elizabeth, daughter of Parmenas Rogers,
and whose children were Ralph, Lucy, Mary and George,
and William G., who married Elmira, daughter of John
Wood. Jonathan formerly owned the land on which the
village of Hillsboro stands.
Samuel Barksdale lived between the old Lynchburg Road
and Dudley's Mountain. He was twice married, first to
Mary, daughter of Jeremiah Hamner, and secondly to
Jemima, daughter of Charles Wingfield Sr. His children by
the first marriage were Elizabeth, the wife of William Watson,
long the keeper of the county jail, and Mary, the wife of
William Douglass. Those by the second were Rice G.,
whose wife was Elizabeth White, whose children were John
H. Jr., and James S., and who died in 1879, John, who was a
Presbyterian minister, one of the first set of students at Union
Theological Seminary, but who died in Charlottesville in
1829, just after entering upon his work, Jane, the wife of
Willis Day, and Sarah, the wife of Richard Fretwell.
John H. Barksdale resided north of Hydraulic Mills. His
children were Hudson, Elizabeth, the wife of Charles Overstreet,
and Orlando, who some years ago lost his life on the
Railroad near the Burnt Mills, in the act of saving Edward
Gilbert from being crushed by a passing train. Nelson was
the most active and thrifty of the family. His home was
also north of Hydraulic Mills. For many years he farmed
the Sheriffalty of the county, and was Proctor of the University
while it was yet in its humbler guise as Central College.
He died in 1861. He married Jane, daughter of Jesse
Lewis, and his children were Mary Jane, the wife of J. Frank
Fry, Sarah, the wife of John J. Bowcock, Sophia, the wife
of James Fray, John T., Eliza, the wife of Albert Terrell,
and secondly of Robert Durrett, Caroline, the wife of T. J.
Eddins, and Margaret, the wife of Dr. H. O. Austin.
