We sometimes wonder how the pioneers of this land survived, prospered and lived to a ripe old age. Carl Sandburg wrote in his autobiography, Always the Young Strangers, about some of the early settlers of Knox County. He saw them on Main Street in Galesburg, at the county fair and even became acquainted with some of their children and grandchildren.
 
They were part of the living history around him. He tried to picture in his mind the days before there were streets, roads and buildings in the town of Galesburg. He carried those pictures in his mind and many memories to be used later in his writings.
 
John T. Barnett was one of those old settlers. He was born October 20, 1809, in Sullivan County, Tennessee, at the northeastern tip of the state. His parents were James H. and Mary A. Tipton Barnett. James died in 1823 and Richard Dunlap became Mary’s second husband.
 
The family moved to a farm near New Salem, Illinois, in Sangamon County during the year of 1829. Abraham Lincoln surveyed the four corners of their farm. Twenty year old John became friends with Lincoln even they were opposites in political persuasion.
 
John married Malinda Robison on November 22, 1831, in Sangamon County. They were to have eight children. In 1834 the family moved to a farm in Hancock County. He was active in politics there serving as a county commissioner.
 
By 1846 John had moved his family to Section 18 of Galesburg Township in Knox County. The land is now part of Galesburg’s Municipal Airport.
 
John was active in the public affairs of the township serving five years as assessor, four years as town clerk, twenty years as Justice of the Peace and a number of years as a county commissioner. He retired at the age of seventy. After his wife’s death in 1893, he went to live with his daughter, Mrs. Martha Hull.
 
As he grew older the family began to have celebrations of his birthdays. He died of old age on September 2, 1905. His faculties were still good except for being hard of hearing. At the time of his death there were seventeen grandchildren, fifty or sixty great grandchildren and several great great grandchildren.
 
He was buried in the Williams Cemetery (now called the Clay-Mosser Cemetery) next to his wife. The cemetery is located in the northwest corner of Section 30, Galesburg Township near the Warren County line.
 
At the time of the Lincoln-Douglas Debate on October 7, 1857, John Burnett was head of the Douglas faction of supporters. He met Lincoln at the home of Mayor George Sanderson. Lincoln explained that he and Barnett were old companions. He told the story from their early years that they had been spear-fishing in the Sangamon River. In order to keep the torch light out of his own eyes Lincoln had held it above his head. John complained “Abe bring down that torch. You’re holding it clear out of Sangamon County.”
 
Sandburg repeated the story in his two-volume biography, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years.