Newspaper clipping: obituary of Maj. Theodore G. Barker

A long newspaper clipping mounted vertically along the page. A pencilled annotation appears at the very top of the clipping (mostly illegible). A small torn fragment from another newspaper column is folded over the upper portion of the article, partially obscuring a few lines.

Maj. Theodore G. Barker.

In the State Democratic convention of 1876 that nominated General Hampton for governor Major Theodore G. Barker of Charleston arose and nominated himself for Congress. There was no candidate from that overwhelmingly “Radical” district. Man after man had been offered the nomination and man after man had declined to lead the forlorn hope. That was when Major Barker, late adjutant of the Hampton Legion and adjutant of Wade Hampton when that officer was in command of all the cavalry of Northern Virginia, [a torn fragment from another column overlies the text here, on which the words “the place” and “saying” are visible; the obituary text continues underneath:] by saying that if any [other?] candidate was offered he would [withdraw]. He did not allow the “[Ham]pton ticket” to be incomplete and, later, when the prospects of the election of a Democrat brightened, he withdrew in another’s favor.

Major Barker died last Thursday in his 86th year at his summer home at Flat Rock, N. C. The Confederate armies had no braver officer. There were few, if any, others whom General Hampton so truly loved and trusted. He would have attained to higher rank had he left the intimate service of his devoted commander, with which he was content. He did [illegible] that fine kind willing to give all to their country when it called, and unwilling to ask anything in return. In the Reconstruction period he organized the first Democratic “Rifle club” in Charleston and was one of those upon whom the white people depended for protection. When the contest followed the election of 1876 he was one of the lawyers, whose advice and direction were relied upon to bring it to a successful determination for the Democrats and it was his quality of coolness and inflexible courage as well as the possession of high professional accomplishments that made him so great a factor in the rescue of [the com-]

SERVED STATE ACTIVELY

Commanded the Carolina Rifle Battalion During Period of Reconstruction

Major Theodore G. Barker, for years one of the most prominent men in South Carolina, died yesterday morning at 11 o’clock at his country place, Brooklands, near Hendersonville, N. C. Three nieces, Misses Rebecca Bryan, Fannie King and Margaret Campbell; his nephew, Mr. Samuel FitzSimons, and Mrs. Barker were at his bedside. Major Barker had been at Brooklands for some time on account of his failing health. He had not been to Charleston for several months. He was in his eighty-fifth year. The funeral will be held today at noon at the Church of St. John’s in the Wilderness, Flat Rock.

Born in Charleston in 1832.

Theodore Gaillard Barker was born in Charleston August 24, 1832. On his mother’s side his ancestors were Scotch-Irish; on his father’s side he is descended from Pierre Gaillard, a French Protestant refugee, who fled France upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

His father, Samuel Gaillard Barker, was a lawyer, the contemporary of Petigru, Grimké, Dunkin and Edward McCrady. Theodore G. Barker first attended a school taught by Christopher Cotes, and afterwards he became a pupil of Dr. William J. Rivers, celebrated as an historian and man of letters. At the age of fifteen he entered the sophomore class at the South Carolina College, then under the presidency of William C. Preston, with Dr. James Henly as professor of moral philosophy. At the age of seventeen he graduated in the celebrated class of 1849, with Judge Simonton, Gen. James Conner and Col. Thomas Glover among his classmates. Mr. Barker spent the next four years studying law in the offices of Judge Robert Munro, and was admitted to the Bar immediately upon his becoming of age. The firm name was Simonton & Barker.

His Record in War.

When the State seceded he was appointed adjutant of the regiment of rifles by Col. J. Johnson Pettigrew until May, 1861, when the Hampton Legion was formed, under Col. Wade Hampton, Lieut. Col. Ben Johnson and Major Griffin, Mr. Barker became the adjutant of this regiment.

This command left Columbia in May, 1861, for Richmond, Va., where the troops were gathered in camp of instruction. Mr. Barker continued as adjutant general of the Hampton cavalry division, with the rank of major.

After the surrender of the Confederate armies Major Barker returned to South Carolina and resumed the practice of law in connection with Judge Charles H. Simonton. He also restored the famous old “Mulberry” [plantation] and reclaimed some abandoned rice plantations on the Pon Pon river.

During Reconstruction.

In 1869 Major Barker formed in Charleston the Carolina Rifle Club, the forerunner of the others in this State which acted as mounted volunteer police, and afforded active protection for the white people. He commanded the first parade of armed white men after the war. This was watched jealously by the Radicals and the officers of the club were in danger of arrest. Their club was avowedly a merely social organization. He was in command during the riot in September, 1876, when the negroes took possession of parts of the city before their object could be learned. Major Barker’s coolness on subsequent nights prevented a conflict.

Major Barker was a nominee for Congress, a forlorn hope, in 1876, and after entering the campaign decided to withdraw in favor of Mr. M. P. O’Connor, who was elected. Major Barker was a member of the convention which nominated Hampton for governor. In 1880 he was one of the delegates at large to the national Democratic convention, the others being Gen. Hampton, Gen. M. C. Butler and Gen. John Bratton.