Nicholas Barker descendant visits Westfield cabin
For Robert and Malinda Ferguson, a recent drive to Chicago from their home in Roanoke, La., turned out to be more than just a road trip – it was a step back into the past.
As a direct descendant of Nicholas and Fannie Barker, Ferguson said he couldn’t drive to Chicago and be so close without visiting Westfield and the Barker Cabin that now stands next to City Hall.
“The Barker Cabin comes alive every time Nicholas and Fannie Barker’s descendants visit the cabin,” Westfield Washington Historical Society President Jeff Beals said. “This week was a meaningful experience for the family and the historical society, with history being preserved and passed on.”
Robert Ferguson stands with his wife Malinda at the front door of the cabin that his fourth great-grandfather built in 1835. (Reporter photo by Amy Adams)
In 1835, Nicholas Barker moved his wife Fannie and their large family from North Carolina to Westfield, where they settled on property northwest of what is now State Road 32 and Grassy Branch Road. That cabin was eventually used as a barn, then encased in a newer barn. Developers reached out to the Westfield Washington Historical Society in January of 2020 about the presence and history of the cabin. With only two weeks to act, members of the historical society worked tirelessly to salvage all they could of the cabin. Despite delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the rebuilt cabin celebrated its grand opening on June 3, 2023, in conjunction with the Hamilton County Bicentennial month for Washington Township.
Though this was 62-year-old Ferguson’s first visit to central Indiana, his family roots run deep in the city, and he was welcomed by distant cousins from the Barker, Carey, and Osborne families.
Ferguson came fully prepared with genealogy records, land maps, and photographs of his ancestors, all leading back from his mother Wanda Marie Low through her father, Asa Zenas Low, to her great-grandfather, Zenas Carey Barker, to his grandfather, Nicholas Barker.
Ferguson’s aunt, Dorothy Grimsley, 94, and his uncle, Henry Low, 97, have collected genealogical records, photographs, and maps over the course of their lifetimes. Low’s daughter, Leslie Low, helped her father put the information he gathered together, and Ferguson said he trusts their research without a doubt.
“You have to be careful,” Ferguson said. “Too many people start adding names, but you can’t do ‘pretty sure.’ If you can’t go back without making a guess, you gotta stop. Some things need not be found.”
Nicholas and Fannie Barker’s gravesites are among the unfound. Cousins, on the other hand, are as plentiful and intertwined as the branches of the tulip poplar and white oak trees from which the Barker Cabin was originally built.
Rebecca Barker Brock and her husband Lonnie were at the cabin on President’s Day when the Fergusons stopped by. Brock traces the line of her father, Clarence Barker, Jr., back to Nicholas Barker’s brother, Simeon.
Steve Osborne, who also stopped by that day, said that Fannie Low Barker was sister to his third great-grandfather, Elihu Osborne.
Barbara Day, also in attendance, traces her connection to the Barkers through her grandmother, Myra Carey Overman, sister to Olive Carey who married Russell Barker.
“The Fergusons are a delightful couple, and it was such a pleasure to spend a couple hours in the Barker Cabin listening to them share their ancestral connection to Westfield,” Day said.
Malinda Ferguson also understands the importance of family heritage, her maiden name, Broussard, being one of the most common surnames in Louisiana.
“You have to respect what our ancestors had to go through for daily life,” she said. “Seeing the cabin gives us a connection to the place.”
Born one of 12 children to Nelson and Wanda Ferguson in Welsh, La., Ferguson said he is the only one of his line who is still employed in agriculture. He grows rice, grazes 400 head of Brahman cattle, and raises crawfish on 3,000 acres about 70 miles from the Gulf Coast.
Westfield Washington Historical Society President Jeff Beals (left) presents Robert Ferguson with a piece of log and a peg from the original cabin. (Reporter photo by Amy Adams)
After leaving Westfield, the Fergusons planned to drive to Sugar Grove, Ky., to visit another family cabin on Robert’s father’s side of the family. Before they left, Beals presented Ferguson with a portion of an original log from the cabin, along with a wooden peg, so that he could take a piece of his heritage with him.
“I want to come back,” Ferguson said.
When the Fergusons make it back to Westfield, they hope to bring Robert’s aunt Dorothy and their two grandchildren, the next generation of Barker descendants.
The Barker Cabin is located at 136 Penn St. To learn more, visit wwhs.us/barker-log-cabin or follow the Westfield Washington Historical Society and Museum at Facebook.com/WestfieldHistory.