Complex sentence: In addition to being a farmer, J. R. Barnes was a logger who cut and floated timber on the Holston River to Knoxville, accompanying the timber on the river in a flatboat.
Split into simpler sentences: In addition to being a farmer, J. R. Barnes was a logger who cut and floated timber on the Holston River to Knoxville. He would accompanying the timber on the river in a flatboat.