Mittie was the great grandmother of my brother-in-law.

When Mittie Campbell was born on June 16, 1882, in Georgia, her father, Hugh, was 36, and her mother, Mary, was 35. She had two children with Samuel Tilden Barnes and three children with Henry Little. She died on June 4, 1953, at the age of 70, and was buried in Columbia, Mississippi.

Her first husband Samuel Tilden Barnes died very young at the age of 32. (He was the great grandfather of my brother-in-law) Samuel had moved to Mississippi to work in a sawmill. Something fell on his foot and he got blood poisoning from the injury. He died as a result of the blood poisoning.

The first source material that I found for Mittie was the 1900 US census taken when she was 18 years old. At that time she was living in Pates Crossroads, Geneva, Alabama with her parents and 2 siblings. The census taker did a poor job of spelling. He lists her as Mattie and her father as Hue. (Should be Mittie and Hugh) In this census, it is stated that both of her parents were born in South Carolina. Her father’s occupation is non-sensical to me…it says “Rids Woods Turpin Tin.” Could that have something to do with wood alcohol or turpentine? Remember, this is the same census recorder that spelled everyone’s name incorrectly! This census record shows Mittie’s place of birth as Georgia.

In the US census from 1910, Mittie was the head of household, is 27 and a widow. Her first husband, Samuel Tilden Barnes, had died a year before this census in 1909. In this census record, her son, Eugene, was 4 years old and her daughter, Hilma, was 1 year old. (She states that the number of children born to her were 3 and 2 were living.) At the time of this census, they were living with Arthur Campbell (her brother.) Their home was on Pearl Street in Beat 5, Marion, Mississippi. Her brother, Arthur, was a foreman in a saw mill.

Sometime between the 1910 census and 1917, she remarried to Henry Little. I am drawing this conclusion because her first child from the second marriage was Jonnie Lee Little born in 1917.

By the time of the 1920 census, Mittie is listed as the wife of her second husband, Henry Little, who was a butcher. They are residing in Columbia, Mississippi.

This sad story about her 2nd husband (a step-father to EL Barnes ) is listed on this web-site. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67951582/henry-little

After I read the full story of Henry Little’s death, it appears to me to have been accidental.

It is interesting to note that EL (Eugene) Barnes was only 2 years old when his father, Samuel Tilden Barnes, died. I am not sure when Mittie’s second marriage occurred, but she had children with Henry Little starting in 1917. This means that EL Barnes had Henry Little as a step-father from the time he was 10 years old (or younger.) Also, Samuel Barnes had been married and had a child with his first wife Mary Letha Galloway before he married Mittie. So, this means that EL Barnes had a step sibling from that marriage and then also the step siblings from Mittie’s marriage to Henry Little (a bit confusing) This is the blog that I wrote a while back about EL Barnes https://tellinglifestories.org/2018/08/17/eugene-ludlow-barnes-1906-1979/