The Barkerites operated in Limestone and Lauderdale counties in the 1910s.
By 1912, John Samuel Barker had convinced more than 70 people living in rural areas along the Lauderdale-Limestone County line that he was Christ. Calling himself the Rev. Barker, the tall, broad-shouldered man who had until then worked mostly as a store clerk began holding religious meetings in brush arbors when the weather was good and in Jim Moody’s general store when it wasn’t.
John Samuel Barker was born to John and Nancy Shoemaker Barker in western Limestone County in November of 1861, just seven months after the start of the Civil War. He grew to be known as an “eccentric.” Still, it wasn’t until he went to Oklahoma in 1900 and began preaching to Native Americans that he realized his words had impact. In fact, he learned he could use the words of the Bible to manipulate people to his own benefit.
But Barker wasn’t satisfied with that. He also taught his followers that the devil would possess one person in each family and that sometimes that “devil” was one of the children. Those who were possessed, he said, should be killed. In 1912, a man named Wiley, or Wylie, Hudson sought help in a Lauderdale County court to get his seven-year-old son, Wallace, from the clutches of the Barkerites. According to a
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