Harry T. Barnes

It was 1919, and the death of their infant son drove Ida Barnes nearly mad, resulting in an avalanche of events that she and her husband, Jim, were totally unprepared for. He had lived in Baltimore City all his life, and could not imagine moving to the "wilderness" of Appalachia as Ida's condition demanded. The Barnes Bridge, the second book in the Over the Barnes Bridge series, is a true story about the hardships Ida and Jim Barnes endured and how they created a new life for themselves and their five children in the mountains of Western Maryland. Danger and adventure were daily events; near-death experiences all too common. Jim became a coal miner and logger. Ida labored over a scrub board and wood cook stove, tended crops, kids, and chickens, and made a home for them.

Ida was a coal miner's daughter from the Appalachian Mountains. Norman was the son of a Baltimore City carpenter. At the age of seven, in separate incidents, both of their fathers died violently. In their teens, Ida was sent to a girl's reform school by her brutal stepfather, and Norman lost his mother to mental illness and was left to fend for himself. Both had to grow up fast, and there was little time for tears. "She Called Him Jim" tells the story of how these children rose above adversity and came to know and love one another. It is a true story of courage and perseverance, describing their adventures, hardships, and romance in the early 1900s of Baltimore City, Maryland.The next book in the series, "The Barnes Bridge," is a collection of stories about Ida and Jim, their children, and their lives in Friendsville, Maryland-their joys and sorrows, harrowing near-death experiences, hardships, humor, and courage.