Published: May 25, 2009 04:25 pm      

Nell Barnes, 99, a direct descendent of military greatness

Somerset — The theme of sacrifice is common on Memorial Day, but just because it’s come and gone doesn’t mean we should forget those who dedicated their lives to making America the way it is today.

That means not taking our history — whether that be the history of the country or the history of how Somerset came to be settled — for granted. While they’re few now, some strands connecting us to the area’s past still exist.

Meet Nell Barnes.

Barnes, who turns 100 on October 5, is a direct descendant of the man who reportedly came to the area in the late 1700's and named the county after General Casimir Pulask, who lent his military expertise to a rebel army that would eventually defeat the British forces in the Revolutionary War.

“I’ve known it all my life,” Barnes said about her family’s disting-uished history.

Nicholas Jasper, according to historical documents, came into the area before October of 1798. Nicholas’ brother, Sergeant William Jasper, is reported to have fought and died alongside General Pulaski in the in the Battle of Savannah in 1799 during the Revolutionary War. Sergeant Jasper was also proclaimed the hero of the Battle of Sullivan’s Island at Charleston in 1776.

It’s no secret that Casimir Pulaski’s feats accomplished while aiding a band of rebels en route to victory in the Revolutionary War affected many. His name is present in counties in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Virginia, and those acts weren’t lost on Nicholas Jasper, who would later become the first sheriff of Pulaski County.

That Jasper military tradition continued. Nicholas Jasper’s soon Thomas is known to have fought in the War of 1812.

“The whole family has quite a history of heroes in early America,” said Carl Skaggs, one of Barnes’ close friends.

While some Jaspers made their way into other states to settle, a majority of them stayed near Somerset where they remain today. Nicholas Jasper died in 1827, and his grave can be located in the Sinking Creek Church Cemetery in Somerset. That cemetery contains the remains of veterans of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the Civil War.

Jump to the present, and you can see that nearly 100 years of history is present just in Nell Barnes.

Born in 1909, Barnes was witness to some of the most historic moments in the last century, and perhaps some of the quieter moments that would no doubt later change the way Americans live — think a first trolley car ride and a first car ride, both coming in one day.

“He (the driver) charged so much to take you to the fairgrounds,” Barnes said.

Barnes was eight years old when World War I broke out. She remembers her parents, Lucy Coffman and Gideon Wesley Jasper, throwing a party for those soldiers who were preparing to fight in a war that would eventually take the lives of tens of millions of people.

“The house was full,” Barnes said.

From the roaring 20s to the Great Depression to World War II, Barnes can remember it all.

“Nell’s lived through 100 years of major history of the U.S.,” Skaggs said.

Barnes — who was the fourth child in a family with nine siblings in all — married her husband, Ted Barnes, in 1934. After obtaining a college degree, she began her teaching career in the community’s many small schools. That career lasted for around 27 years before she went into social work for an additional 20 years.

Barnes still resides in the home she and Ted built together in 1935, located on a 40-acre farm on Slate Branch Road. She stays there alone — Ted died in 1967 and her daughter, Nancy, passed away several years ago.

But she is surrounded by loved ones. Friends from her church, Pisgah Presbyterian, and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren visit often.

But her ties to Pulaski County’s history isn’t known by many.

“I don’t think there’s enough people who pay tribute to the elders in this county,” Skaggs said.

Barnes’ family history was catalogued by Skagg’s wife, Carol, as part of a historic project for Pisgah Presbyterian, but the impact of that history — hundreds of years of it — can best be felt when you can listen to it in person.

“They can’t believe that far back, but my relatives were the settlers of Pulaski County,” Barnes said about people’s reactions when they’re told about the Jasper family history.

And Barnes’ distant relatives, Nicholas and William Jasper, are only two soldiers in the millions who fought and risked sacrificing everything to build America into the country it is today.

Let’s hope we don’t forget about those sacrifices until next Memorial Day.