Caroline L. Barnes was born around 1843 in Tompkins County, New York, to Benoni and Jerusha Barnes. Her father was a farmer who owned $2,200 of real estate and $800 of personal property by 1860. She grew up in Newfield, New York, and by 1870, she was working as a “tailoress.” She married Union veteran Samuel Simpson around 1871, and they had three children: Mary, born around 1872; Corabell, born around 1872; and Robert, born around 1879. They lived in Ulysses, New York, and her husband earned a living as a farmer. Samuel died in 1888, and she applied for a widow’s pension in January 1889. By 1900, she was living in Van Etten, New York, with her son Robert and his wife Maude. She died there on April 11, 1901.

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