Hawthorne, Julian, Ed. "The History of Washington: The Evergreen State from  
Early  Dawn to Daylight." New York, American Historical Publishing Co., 1893. 
p.  490.

BARNES, SARAH A., a pioneer resident and farmer of Dixie, Walla Walla County, 
Wash., was born in Indiana in 1835.  Her parents were also natives of that 
State, and her father was a soldier of the War of 1812.  Mrs. Barnes received 
her early education in the "subscription schools" of that then primitive 
region.  In 1849 she became the wife of William T. Barnes, of Missouri.  She 
lived and farmed with her husband in Holt County, Mo., until 1852, when they 
removed to Oregon, took up a farm in the Willamette Valley, and continued to 
reside in Washington County, Ore., until 1864.  They then came to Walla Walla 
County, Wash., and settled on Dry Creek, twelve miles east of Walla Walla 
City, where Mr. Barnes died in 1892.  Mr. Barnes had the reputation of having 
been an important factor in the progress and substantial improvement of the 
neighborhood where he dwelt, a good man and a true.  The widow has eight 
children, some of whom are married.  She herself sustains a high character in 
the community.  Her journey across the plains was full of adventure and much 
disaster, the party with which she travelled being attacked with fever and 
cholera in addition to the ordinary difficulties and dangers of the way.  It 
is to the sterling courage, energy, and patient endurance of women like Mrs. 
Barnes that the Northwest owes its prosperous and highly civilized condition 
to-day.

Submitted by: Jenny Tenlen

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Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.