Barry Johnson born a Slave and died a Freeman

         One of the most fascinating stories I have found is for someone who is buried in Bayside but does not have a gravestone. I found him in the Internment Records at the Potsdam Public Museum and also I found his obituary. He died Dec 10, 1902. Here is a transcription of his obituary:

DEATH OF AN EX-SLAVE

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Barry Johnson, of Potsdam, Passes Away at an Old Age

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HE ESCAPED IN WAR TIME
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He Came to Ogdensburg Where a Union Officer Found Him Employment and He was a Servant in a Heuvelton Family For Years

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        Potsdam, Dec 17.-- On Friday afternoon, at his cottage on Manyard Street, occurred the funeral services of Barry Johnson, the negro who for twelve years had been employed in the coal business by Bicknell & Bigsby and George W. Bixby.

         Mr. Johnson was 77 years old, and has had an exciting history. He was for thirty-six years a slave, and was fond of telling his experiences.

          He was one of a family of ten children, who were born and reared on a plantation near Annapolis, Md. Before he was 12 years old he was put to work in the fields with the men. Not until he was 36 did he become free. He was often the victim of cruel masters, and to his death bore ridges and scars, the result of cruel beatings with a rawhide.

         When the Civil war broke out he was told that the Yankees were coming to kill all the niggers, and was in mortal terror of the Northerners. With the first outbreak of hostilities he saw a chance for escape from his old master, and took it, but had gone but five miles from home when he ran into a troop of Federal cavalry scouting. He was captured after a long chase. When asked why he ran, he replied that he supposed the Yanks had come to kill him. He was assured that they had come to make the blacks free, and sent back to tell the others.

        He planned the escape of eight of the negros on the plantation, including himself, but the plan was only partially successful. Four out of the eight were run down by bloodhounds. Johnson was one of those who escaped.

       While passing through the woods, near Annapolis, he was captured by the pickets of McClellan's brigade and taken to headquarters. The officers took a fancy to him, and for nine months he stayed with the army doing mess duty for one of the Northern New York regiments. He then left the army and made his way into Pennsylvania, going around Baltimore at night and keeping to the swamps.

        He secured employment on the railroad and worked his way to New York. There he met an officer who had befriended him while he was with the army. The officer happened to be an Ogdensburg man, and promised Johnson to get him a job if he would go there. Out of the money he had earned he had saved enough to take him to Watertown. From there to Norwood he was allowed to ride free after telling his story to the conductor. At Norwood he took the O. & L.C. to Ogdensburg, paying his fare the same way.

       When he arrived in Ogdensburg the officer secured him employment. He remained there for some time, then secured a job with Pickens, of Heuvelton., the then wealthy man of that section and father of the Abbott sisters, one of whom has become famous in grand opera. Pickens liked the man, and for fourteen years he was his trusted servant.

        At Pickens' death he was allowed to go, and secured employment on the R.W.&O. until 1889, when he came to Potsdam with William Luke. In 1879 he married a white woman, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Deaffer, of Heuvelton, whose parents disowned her. No children were born to them. By hard work and careful saving, Johnson was enabled to buy and pay for a small home on Maynard street, where they lived comfortably.

       About a year ago he retired from active work on account of ill health and blindness. The interment was made in the Bixby lot at Bayside cemetery.

Bixby Family Lot (Sec I lot 111) where Barry Johnson is buried