The Barnetts descended from John W. ("Jackie") Barnett who settled in Tippah County, MS, are of Scotch-Irish extraction. Very little is known of their antecedents and that little has been derived chiefly from fragmentary statements made by Mr. Barnett to which have been added a few items gleaned from relatives in Tennessee and elsewhere. He ran away from home in South Carolina while still a mere youth, and during his subsequent wanderings became ill with smallpox on board a boat plying between ports on the Alabama River. When his condition was discovered by the crew, he was put ashore in the vicinity of Selma, Alabama, and left there to die. He recovered and then remained in that locality some 15 years or more. About 1835 he, with his wife and several children, moved to Mississippi and settled on land near Hickory Flat, then in Tippah County but after 1872 included Benton County.

John W. Barnett was born Feb 20, 1796 probably in South Carolina. He married first, about 1820 to Martha Barnes, who was born June 3, 1798, in Tennessee. She died July 5, 1859. He remarried about 1872 to Nancy Stacks of the Hickory Flat community, who survived him. Nancy had no children and lived on the old Barnett homestead where he had first settled in Mississippi. He died Jan 8, 1880, on his farm where he had lived many years. John and his first wife and several of their children were buried in a private cemetery established during his lifetime near his farm and later known as the Barnett Graveyard.

In 1997 Carl Hudson, a descendant, visited the Barnett Graveyard which is located not far from Edgar Lee Hudson's old home site. There were 8 to 10 graves that had no markers, only stones in the ground at the head and foot.Several graves had been vandalized years before. John Barnett's grave had a large concrete cover. Markers were found for:

John Barnett
Husband of Nancy Barnett
Born Feb 20, 1796
Died Jan 9, 1880

Martha, wife of John Barnett
Born June 3, 1796
Died July 25, 1859

Albert Lee Barnett [Son of Albert Lee & Mary Smith Barnett]
"Sleep Dear Brother
& Take Your Rest
God Called You Home
He Thought It Best"
Born May 1, 1872
Died Dec 7, 1889

Ben J.W. Marett
"His Virtue Forms The Noblest Monument to His Memory"
Born Apr 17, 1809
Died Oct, 1861

Double Head Stone:

Jas T.B. Barnett [James served in the Confederate Army]
Born Aug 29, 1837
Died Jan 16, 1894

& Eliza J. Barnett
Born Nov 2, 1819
Died Nov 17, 1888

According to the "Darden Family History with Notes an Ancestry on Allied
Families" complied by Newton Jasper Darden, 1953, the following people are also buried in the Barnett Family Graveyard:

Willoughby Chiswell Robertson
Born: 6 May 1803
Cumberland County, VA
Died: 5 Jan 1860

Spouse: Ann Evelyn Delap-Robertson
Born: 8 Feb 1810
North Carolina
Died: 12 Mar 1883

The daughter of Willoughby and Ann,Virigina A. Robertson, married Duncan Barnett, one of Andrew Barnett's sons. Residing in Hickory Flat, they were both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South at Myrtle.

Andrew George Barnett
Born: 9 Mar 1821
Selma, Alabama
Died: 4 Dec 1851

Spouse: Margaret McNair
Born: 9 Sep 1818
Robeson Co., North Carolina
Died: 30 Dec 1862

As a youth, Andrew came with his parents, John & Martha, in 1835 to Mississippi. The family settled on lands near Hickory Flat, then recently vacated by the prior Indian occupants who had been moved to lands west of the Mississippi River. He farmed in Tippah County, then moved to Carroll County, MS, where he remained only throught the year 1845, and returned to the Hickory Flat community. He became a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and had some ability as a speaker. He was licensed by that church to preach the Gospel, and undertook a course of study to fit him for the work, but this was terminated by his early death.

Albert Lee Barnett
Born: 23 Jan 1826
Darden, Union County, MS
Died: 30 Aug 1905

Spouse: Mary Smith
Died: 27 Aug 1906

Albert, the son of John & Martha, served in the Confederate Army.

Allied Familes of the Barnett Family:
Adair, Barnes, Boatner, Cathcart, Clary, Dodds, Hudson, King, McFatter, McNair, Reynolds, Robertson, Rogers, Smith, Stephens, Talley, Wood.