St. Clair County
Remnants Of The Past

FREEMAN BARROWS

Missouri Chigger, August 2005
Pgs. 28 & 29

Early Papinville Residents
By Robert S. Barrows

Freeman Barrows grew up in Middleboro, Massachusetts, and with his father and brother John, moved to New Bedford to establish a wholesale grocery business. Freeman decided to go west and arrived at Harmony Mission, MO in 1838. He taught a private school for George Douglass, then he became manager of the Douglass-Waldo store in the abandoned Harmony Mission school house. When Bates became a county in 1841, Freeman was elected county clerk and recorder. He became postmaster and later, judge of the Probate Court.
Freeman met Asenath Vaill while she was here visiting her sister, Elizabeth Waldo, in Balltown (Little Osage), MO. They were married in 1842 and lived in a log cabin two miles east of Papinville, where Freeman worked at the county seat. Later he built a fine home that still stands today. About 1858, Freeman’s health had declined, so he gave up his positions. He died in 1861, just prior to the Civil War.
At the end of the war, the Barrows family returned to their ravished farm, but the house had survived, one of the very few in the county. They rebuilt the farm but incurred debts. Both brothers died, leaving John to run the farm.
Bad weather and the panic of 1892 hit them hard. They lost the farm and moved to Rich Hill. Asenath was a staunch Christian with an indomitable spirit. She raised her children and delighted in telling her grandchildren of the frontier life with the Indians that both her and Freeman had lived. Both Freeman and Asenath are buried in Green Lawn Cemetery, Rich Hill, MO.

Note: Robert S. Barrows was from Rochester, NY. He passed away in October 2004. His son, Rob Barrows has generously given the Papinville Historical Association many documents, journals, books and pictures of early Papinville, MO and Bates County.