Martha Jane “Jennie” Strong was born in Sumpter District, South Carolina, on December 6, 1838, to Elijah Frink Strong (18041860) and Sarah Eleanor Barrineau Strong (18101850). Jennie’s father, Judge Elijah Strong, was a farmer and a judge born in Connecticut who moved to South Carolina where Jennie’s mother had been born. Sarah belonged to the Huguenot family with the name of Barrineau. Sarah’s father was Isaac Barrineau. Elijah and his family moved to Ouachita County about 1846 when Jennie was eight. He was living in Champagnolle Township, Ouachita County, in 1850, with nine children. This area later became Calhoun County.
Jennie married Joseph Benjamin McCulloch (1826-1864) on August 10, 1859, in Calhoun County. Joseph was the first lawyer to settle in Calhoun County. He represented this district in the State Senate for the sessions of 1859 and 1861. On March 16, 1861, they had a child named Sallie. Then in May of the same year, at the outbreak of the Civil War, Captain Joseph raised a company of soldiers, the “Calhoun Escopets”, for the Confederate Army leaving Jennie home to care for their baby. This company was at once sent to Northwestern Arkansas and took part in the battle of Pea Ridge. In this engagement nine men were killed and at Franklin, Tennessee, they lost nearly one-half of their men. He was wounded during the war and died in 1864 leaving Jennie a widow at the age of 26 years.
On June 24, 1866, the young widow married John Council Barrow (1836--1919) in Calhoun County. John, a farmer and lawyer, was born in Autauga County, Alabama. His father, James Barrow (1789-1888), was born in North Carolina but spent many years in Alabama. His mother was Parmalia Willie (18041874). They moved to Calhoun County sometime between 1840 and 1845. He joined the Confederate Army as a private with the “Calhoun Escopets”, Joseph McCulloch’s Company. He was taken prisoner in Franklin, Tennessee. After the War he returned to Hampton and married Jennie. Jennie gave birth to a daughter, Joe, in 1867, and a son, John, Jr., in 1869. John, Sr. practiced law here until 1871 when the family moved to Monticello. While in Monticello Jennie gave birth to George Beauregard in 1872 and Zilpa Jean in 1881. They lived in Monticello until 1883 when they moved to Little Rock. John served in the State House of Representatives in the early 1870s, served as Prosecuting Attorney, and was Circuit Judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit in the late 1880s. He died in Little Rock on November 23, 1919.
As a young child, Jennie and her family left their home and moved to a new and strange country. As a young woman she was a Senator’s wife and when the Civil War started was left with a baby and all the responsibilities of survival as her husband went to fight in a war that left her a widow. She then married a lawyer and politician. She was a wife and mother, raising her children in the public eye, in a time when the modern conveniences of today were unheard of. As so many of the women who have lived in Calhoun County over the years, she deserves the admiration and respect of those who have come after her. Jennie died January 13, 1909, at her home in Little Rock.
Sources: 1850, 1870, 1880 Census; The History of the Descendents of Elder John Strong by Benjamin Woodbridge Dwight, pg. 224; findagrave.com; ancestry.com; Calhoun County Marriage records; Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1890, pg. 784; M. Jennie Barrow obituary, Arkansas Democrat, Wed., Jan. 13, 1909, pg. 10; US Confederate Soldiers service Records 1861-1865; John Council Barrow Death Certificate; North America, Family Histories 1500-2000, History of Bucks County; Arkansas Digital Archives (digitalheritage.arkansas.gov)
