Barrett Ridge, Mississippi
Edmond (Ned) and one of his sisters, Briget, joined other immigrants fleeing the potato famine and went to America in search of a way to provide for their family. On the way over, Briget fell from the boat while sleepwalking and drowned. Ned worked hard when he got to America and sent money home to the family in Ireland. He worked his way south and then moved westward into Mississippi in 1852. Ned married Mary Vina Warren on December 29, 1858 and they settled into a log cabin on a gentle rolling hill near Saltillo. On March 10, 1866 Edmond (Ned) Barrett had made enough money to purchase that land, which became known as Barrett Ridge. Ned and Mary had 11 children, whom they raised in the log cabin on Barrett Ridge. Most of them established homes there and raised their own children on the Ridge.
Edwin Francis Walker
Edwin, known as Ned, was the son of Francis Horton Walker and Marilla Antoinette Metcalf, he a real estate and publishing man, she a nurse, and both from old New England families. Marilla’s father, Mason Jerome Metcalf, was a Boston inventor of some note.The couple moved to Evanston, Ill. in 1870. Edwin was born two years later in Chicago.