The James Reddick Barnes house, built between 1850 and 1860, stands well back off the road in Saratoga township, southeast of Wilson. It is not registered with the National Register of Historic Places.

In the 1860 slave schedule, James R. Barnes reported enslaving 41 people and controlling another 32 as trustee for minors. (Though unnamed in the census, those minors included the Isaac Scarborough heirs.) In June 1856, two people he jointly owned with others, Cate and Sherard, were sold at auction at a toll house on White Oak Swamp. As high bidder, Barnes was able to buy them back.

In 1950 and 1960, the Wilson Daily Times ran articles on historic Wilson County houses, most of which had anchored plantations. The James R. Barnes house was featured twice.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 January 1950.

Ten years later, the house’s history had stretched a bit. Now the claim was that the house itself, rather than the land, had passed through seven generations from John Barnes. However, Barnes died in 1789 and his grandson Reddick Barnes in 1835, and great-grandson James Reddick Barnes actually built the house. (Also note the incorrect suffixes added to the names of the owners, i.e. III, IV, and VI. They are the result of the reporter’s incorrect interpretation of the owner’s generation of ownership, as spelled out in the 1950 Times article.)

Wilson Daily Times, 8 January 1960.