"This country, the asylum for the oppressed of all land, has been greatly enriched by virtue of religious persecutions throughout different parts of Europe. Perhaps none of these persecutions has contributed more of patriotic zeal in proportion to the number who sought homes here, than that of the old Scotch Presbyterians, Driven from their mountain-fastnesses, they first sought protection in Northern Ireland, and from thence cane thitherward. to this class belong the ancestors of A. L. Barnett. when William Penn was directing the tide of emigration to his colony near Philadelphia they joined the movement; thence went to Virginia. So that John Barnett, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Augusta county, Virginia. His wife Sallie Kenney, was of the same stock with himself. About 1789 the Barnetts threaded their tedious way over the mountains to Kentucky, the "land of promise" in the eyes of the pioneers, John riding behind his father on a pack-Horse. They located in Bourbon County, where Alexander was born October 15, 1910., being third in the family in order of birth. At p[resent there are but three living: Alexander, James and Sarah; whilst Robert Franklin, Mary (who was killed by lightening), Juliet, Elizabeth and William have passed away."