Photograph collage: scenes at Brookland, with obituary of Ellen Barker and photographs of Charleston gates
Book 1, Page 168 ·1885–1957
Transcription
The page is densely mounted with photographs in three rows. A newspaper obituary clipping occupies the lower-left quadrant. Pencilled captions in the compiler’s hand sit beneath each photograph.
Top row — five photographs
Left to right, the captions beneath each photograph read:
Drive way at “Brookland.”
Uncle Theodore & Aunt L. / outside of store room / at “Brookland”
The home at “Brookland”
Uncle Theodore & Aunt / Louisa playing croquet
Drive way at “Brookland”
Middle row — three photographs and a portrait
Left to right:
The house at “Brookland.”
Spring house at “Brookland”
Vegetable garden at “Brookland”
A small carte-de-visite-style portrait at the right end of the row, pencilled below:
William F. Barker?
Bottom row — obituary clipping, two ironwork photographs, and a portrait
Newspaper clipping (lower left)
THE ASHEVILLE CITIZEN, ASHEVILLE, N. C. 7
Friday, November 29, 1957
Death Takes Miss Bark[er]
Miss Ellen Barker, retired school teacher, artist and authority on nature lore in Western North Carolina, died at 2:30 p. m. yesterday in an Asheville hospital following a long illness.
A native of Charleston, S. C., Miss Barker had resided most of her life at the old family home of her mother, the former Miss Mary Lucas, at 47 Starnes Ave.
Services will be conducted at 3 p.m. tomorrow in the chapel of Trinity Episcopal Church.
The Rev. John W. Tuton, rector, will officiate. Burial will be in the Lucas family plot at Riverside Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be Walter Bearden, Melvin Carter, Anthony Lord, Eugene Banks, James Tyson and Belknap Bourne.
Miss Barker was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church. She taught school in Asheville about 40 years ago and was one of the first graduates of the old Asheville High School. She also was a graduate of North Carolina Woman’s College, Greensboro.
Miss Barker was the daughter of Capt. Thomas Barker, an officer in the Confederate Army, who brought his family from a plantation at Charleston in 1885 to reside at the Starne[s Ave]nue residence.
She was an authority on birds, flowers and animals in this section and made a study of nature. Her advice was sought by many who knew her and she enjoyed a wide circle of friends throughout this area. Her keen sense of humor made her popular with many.
Miss Barker was considered talented in art, having studied for some time at the Art League in New York City. Her uncle, Major Theodore Barker, a noted officer of the Confederate Army resided at Flat Rock and Charleston.
She is survived by a number of cousins in Charleston and Savannah, Ga.
Morris - Hendon - Black Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
A pencilled annotation written across the lower portion of the clipping:
Ellen was the / last of the Barker / name of our / branch of the / family.
Photographs of ironwork
A photograph of an ornate iron gate flanked by classical columns and a fanlighted doorway, pencilled below:
St. Philips Church gateway / Charleston, S.C. The FitzSimons / and Barkers attended this / Church — I was christened in / St. Philips — Amy S. Walker
A second photograph showing an iron-gated stone-pillared entrance with a lawn behind, pencilled below:
Gate at 131 Tradd St.
Portrait (lower right)
A small carte-de-visite-style portrait at the right end of the row, pencilled below:
Thomas M. Barker?
AI Notes
An album page densely mounted with photographs in three rows, plus a newspaper obituary clipping at lower left. Top row: five photographs of scenes at Brookland (driveway; Uncle Theodore & Aunt Louisa outside the storeroom; the home at Brookland; Uncle Theodore & Aunt Louisa playing croquet; and a driveway view). Middle row: three photographs of Brookland buildings and grounds (the house, spring house, vegetable garden) and a small portrait pencil-captioned ‘William F. Barker?’. Bottom row: a clipped obituary ‘Death Takes Miss Bark[er]’ from The Asheville Citizen of Friday, November 29, 1957 (Ellen Barker, retired Asheville schoolteacher, d. 28 Nov 1957, daughter of Capt. Thomas Barker, niece of Maj. Theodore G. Barker); two photographs of ornamental ironwork (St. Philip’s Church gateway, Charleston, and the gate at 131 Tradd Street); and a portrait pencil-captioned ‘Thomas M. Barker?’. Pencilled captions in the compiler’s hand identify each item, including a note in Amy Walker’s hand about her own christening at St. Philip’s.
Brookland was the Hendersonville, NC home of Theodore Gaillard Barker (1832–1917) and his wife Louisa Preston King, the Mountain-Carolina retreat the family settled into after Reconstruction wrecked Lowcountry rice planting. The deceased Ellen Barker (d. 28 Nov 1957) was TGB’s niece — daughter of his brother Capt. Thomas M. Barker — and per the compiler Amy Walker’s note here, “the last of the Barker name of our branch of the family.” Amy’s note about her own christening at St. Philip’s Church pins the Walker family to one of Charleston’s two principal Episcopal parishes; St. Michael’s and St. Philip’s together served the white planter elite of the antebellum lower peninsula.