BARWICK CHAPEL AND THE PLUMBS

Narrator: Mrs. A.D. Crockett

Mrs. Alice Plum Crockett the second oldest child of William and Anna Maria (Knoch) Plumb was born on a farm in the Barwick community in Kidder Township.

Mrs. Plumb was born in Pennsylvania and Mr. Plumb was born in Preston County now West Virginia March 14 1921.

In 1840 Wm. Plumb left Virginia and settled in southern Ohio where he lived until 1844 then settling in Caldwell County, Missouri. In 1846 he went to Mexico with the United States Forces to repress a revolt. In 1847 he entered the employ of the Government as express carrier in New Mexico also having charge of grazing camps of Government stock for two years. In 1850 he went to California during the "Gold Rush" and was on the road thirty two days. He returned to Missouri in 1853 and homesteaded his farm which still belongs to the family. At the outbreak of the Civil War 1861 he raised a company of Union Troops of which he was Captain and for meritorious conduct was made Major. Mr. Plumb's grandfather Wm. Plumb was also Captain in a company in the Revolutionary War. Major Plumb and Captain Turner were in the army and were the very closest of friends as long as they lived. They lived in the same community.

Mr. and Mrs. Plumb were the parents of ten children. These children were all born and reared in the same house on the same farm which was unusual for those times. The Childrens names are Adelia, Alice (the Narrator), Clara and Belle (twins), Arthur, Rose, Harry, Harve and Addie. The four older girls attended a "Select School" in Cameron. A Mrs. Tiernan and Miss Bell had this school in their own homes. Mrs. Tiernan would have from thirty to forty pupils and Miss Bell would have fifteen or twenty. These schools were considered "the Place" for the children of such parents as the Plumbs. The younger children attended the Kidder Institute.

Alice married Andy Crockett, a staunch Democrat in the County. Mr. and Mrs. Crockett are the parents of three children, Clara, a very beautiful girl died as a young lady, Foster, a son lives on a farm near Kingston and another son in Oklahoma.

Mrs. Crockett relates a very funny incident: Her father Wm. Plumb was a very strong Republican and her husband a strong Democrat were arguing politics one day and they got pretty loud. The Mother begun to fret lest they would really become angry so insisted they quit. The father says, "Oh Andy knows something and reads, I like to talk to him, and besides he knows enough not to get mad."

Mrs. Crockett recalls the organization of the Barwick Chapel. The Barwick Chapel church was organized sixty years ago, after a ten weeks meeting held in the school house near the Chapel now called Barwick School house, not the same building but the same location. Brother Charles Phillips was our pastor. He lived at Kidder but preached at Mirabile and our School house. The Meeting was held in the winter. There was sleighing for eight weeks out of ten weeks. Many came from Kidder, Mirabile, Hamilton also from Cameron. We had only a small membership before that Meeting, twenty five or thirty. We had a Membership of a hundred or over at the close of the Meeting. Brother Phillips did all the preaching only helped by a young man, who led the singing. It was an old fashioned meeting with shouting and much praying. All converts testified at their conversion. The church was named for our Presiding Elder, as they were called then, District Superintendent now, Brother Barwick. After a few years, Kidder and Barwick had the same Pastor and so continued for many years. They had a fine working church for many years and a great many able pastors. Some of them were: Brother Bobee. I went into the church during his preaching, the year before we built the church. I was only ten when I joined the church, with an

older sister and four other little girls. I remember two McCrea girls one of them still lives in the neighborhood, Mrs. Beryl Spurlock.

Brother Caughlin, Jones, and Harrison were especially fine men. Brother Jones is one of the Ministers that helped conduct my fathers funeral. Our home was always the home for the Minister but father especially always

insisted most on paying the pastors salary. He said that must be paid just the same as your grocery bill. When other failed to pay he paid for them.

I know of only three or four of the old members left, a Mrs. Jerry Bell, she was also a McCrea. They still have preaching twice a month and have a much smaller membership but still some very active members. A good Aid and has been a power for good in the neighborhood. The last time I was there, was at my sisters funeral Mrs. J.E. Petree. She was also married at Barwick, and as I now remember as the only church wedding.