Barton C. Pope
{{Short description|Florida state representative}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Barton C. Pope
| death_place =
| allegiance = {{flag|Confederate States|1861}}
| branch = {{army|CSA|size=23px}}
| serviceyears = 1861–1862
| rank = Private
| battles = American Civil War
| birth_date = {{Birth date text|1813}}
| birth_place = Georgia, U.S.
| death_date = after April 5, 1862 (aged at least 49)
| party = Democratic
| image =
| children = 5, including Frank
| spouse = Fanny
| education =
| term_start = 1854
| term_end = 1855
| state_house = Florida
| district = Madison
| unit = 1st Florida Infantry
}}
Barton C. Pope (1813{{cite web | url=https://docplayer.net/104194135-Table-of-contents-in-memory-of-two-of-our-members-2.html | title=TABLE OF CONTENTS IN MEMORY OF TWO OF OUR MEMBERS PDF Free Download }} – after April 5, 1862) was an American lawyer and politician from the state of Florida.
Life
Pope was born in Georgia in 1813 or 1814. Pope moved to the Florida Territory sometime between 1827 and 1844.{{Cite news|last=Hunt|first=Alfa|date=May 22, 2009|title=The Pope Family|page=9|work=Madison-Enterprise Recorder|publisher=Greene Publishing|url=https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028405/00380/9|access-date=May 23, 2021|via=University of Florida}} In 1844, he purchased 200 acres of land from Henry Sapp in Madison County, Florida.{{Cite web|title=Henry Sapp|url=http://burval.net/p109.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-24|website=Burval Genealogy|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225124429/http://burval.net:80/p109.htm |archive-date=2009-02-25 }}
Pope became a prominent a lawyer in Madison County. In 1849, he was nominated by state senator William P. Moseley of Madison County to be the solicitor for Florida's Middle Judicial Circuit Court; however, Pope lost the nomination vote to former state representative Samuel B. Stephens of Gadsden County.{{Cite book|last=|first=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g0ZBAQAAMAAJ&q=%22barton+c+pope%22+florida&pg=PA149|title=Journal of the Proceedings of the Senate of the General Assembly of the State of Florida at its Fourth Session|publisher=The State of Florida|year=1848|volume=6|location=Tallahassee|pages=149|language=en|access-date=May 23, 2021|via=Google Books}}
He was also a Freemason, becoming a high-ranking member of the Madison County's Masonic lodge, serving as Grand Orator in 1851 and as the Lodge Master from 1853 to 1855.{{Cite book|last=|first=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yV9HAAAAYAAJ&q=%22barton+c+pope%22+florida&pg=PA330|title=Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Florida|publisher=J.F. Brennan|year=1859|location=New York|pages=330|language=en|access-date=May 23, 2021|via=Google Books}}{{Cite news|year=2003|title=Madison Lodge # 11 F. & A. M|volume=8|work=Madison County, Florida Genealogical News|publisher=Madison County, Florida Genealogical Society|issue=4|url=http://nebula.wsimg.com/8e34c49668d3288a4b887f417878dd2c?AccessKeyId=C78E56CF2DF0F06037BB&disposition=0&alloworigin=1|access-date=May 23, 2021}}
In 1854, Pope was elected to represent Madison County as a Democrat in the Florida House of Representatives, serving until 1855.{{Cite book|url=https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/FileStores/Web/HouseContent/Approved/ClerksOffice/ThePeopleOfLawmakingInFlorida.pdf|title=The People of Lawmaking in Florida 1822 - 2019|publisher=Florida House of Representatives|year=2019|location=Tallahassee, Florida|pages=147|asin=B0084P8LC2|access-date=May 23, 2021}}
Pope was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1860 United States House of Representatives election in Florida for Florida's at-large congressional district. Though he was the early frontrunner for the nomination, he was defeated on the 12th ballot at the party convention by Robert Benjamin Hilton, the clerk of the Florida House of Representatives.{{Cite news|date=1860-06-30|title=Democratic nominations for governor and U.S. representative, 1860|pages=2|work=The Florida Peninsular|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62784489/democratic-nominations-for-governor-and/|access-date=2020-11-08}}
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Pope enlisted in the Confederate States Army as a private, joining Company F of the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment on April 4, 1861 for a 12-month service. He was mustered out at the same rank on April 5, 1862. It is from this point that Pope disappears from the historical record.{{Cite book|last=Robertson|first=Fred L.|url=http://archive.org/details/soldiersofflorid00flor|title=Soldiers of Florida in the Seminole Indian, Civil and Spanish-American wars|publisher=Board of State Institutions|others=New York Public Library|year=1903|location=Live Oak|pages=69}}{{Cite web|title=Soldier Details - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm|access-date=2021-05-24|website=National Park Service|language=en}}
Family
Pope had a brother named W. Henry Pope who represented Jackson County, Florida in the Florida House of Representatives in 1856.
Pope was married to a woman named Fanny, who was 10 years his junior. They had at least five children: four sons named Clifford (born 1844 or 1845), Frank, Hunter, and Randall (latter three were born after 1850); as well as a daughter named Anna (born 1846 or 1847).{{Cite web|last=McLeod|first=Henry|date=December 26, 1850|title=1850 Madison County, Florida Census Transcription|url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/madison/census/1850.txt|url-status=live|access-date=May 23, 2021|website=USGenWeb Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090328121604/http://files.usgwarchives.net:80/fl/madison/census/1850.txt |archive-date=2009-03-28 }}
Frank, Hunter, and Randall Pope all became prominent attorneys. Frank later became a Florida state senator while Hunter was murdered by a family friend, John Cason, following a dispute regarding a billiards game.
References
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Category:Date of birth unknown
Category:Year of death missing
Category:Place of death missing
Category:Democratic Party members of the Florida House of Representatives
Category:Confederate States Army soldiers
Category:People of Florida in the American Civil War
Category:People from Georgia (U.S. state)
Category:People from Madison County, Florida