Career U.S. Army officer turned controversial Confederate engineer Seth Maxwell Barton of Fredericksburg was a more distant relative.
Born at "Shady Oak" farm about six miles from Winchester, Virginia, to the former Martha Walker and her husband Richard Peters Barton.
When Richard was a young boy, his father bought 288 acres of land on Opequon Creek that included a stone house which local pioneer John Hite had built in 1753.
He helped found the Valley Agricultural Society of Frederick County, which began holding an annual cattle show in 1856.
[1] Frederick County voters first elected Barton to represent them, part time, in the Virginia General Assembly in April 1823, and he was not immediately re-elected after his first term.
[5] Barton ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as the candidate of the new Whig party in 1839, but lost to Democrat William Lucas.