BARBARA SAUNDERS

Barbara Saunders married James Noland at a very young age of 14 or 15, but they remained married for the rest of their lives. She did not live as long as James, but did outlive him.

There is an interesting story about Barbara in the Revolutionary War pension records. Apparently, "while her husband was out fighting battles for his country she was at home plowing and working in the fields to raise something to live upon. That in February, some few weeks before the Battle of Guilford, Lord Cornwallis' army passed by their house while her husband was from home in that army. That all their provisions were taken from the pantry and consumed by the British soldiers. That she told a British officer, while the soldiers were plundering her house, that she would give up everything she had to help them on to Virginia, for she knew they would never get back after they got there. And this turned out to be true, for Cornwallis and his army were taken at Yorktown, Virginia."

Stephen, the oldest son of James and Barbara moved to Indiana. I once went to the Truman Library and recall seeing a letter from a U. S. Senator from Indiana named Noland. The letter was to President Truman and asked if there was any connection between him and the President's Noland relatives. I saw no response (the President routinely turned all such inquiries over to Ethel), but it seems there could be a possibility.

Following the death of James, Barbara moved to Indiana, where I believe she died and is buried. According the pension records, the reason for moving was that all of her children had gone to Indiana. Since her son, Francis, moved to Jackson County, Missouri, not all went to Indiana, but probably more than just her first son went to Indiana.