Jesse was born on the 18th of January 1841, in Columbiana, Ohio, and grew up with his eleven siblings in Minnesota. He married Sarah Strang in August of 1861, and they both joined the Union Army two months later, with Sarah serving as a nurse. About a year and a half later, Jesse was a Corporal along the Duck River in Tennessee on a scouting mission. It was his actions during the May and June of 1863 that would later earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

While on a scout single-handedly captured two desperate Confederate guerrilla officers who were together and well-armed at the time.

After these actions, Jesse had a short break in service before re-enlisting in December of 1863, and he received a promotion to Second Lieutenant seven months later, commanding a platoon of the 57th Regiment of the US Colored Infantry. Due to a disability, he mustered out of service in October of 1864, and he and his family moved to Washington.

Jesse got into the fur trade and he and Sarah had seven children. He received the Medal of Honor on the 3rd of March 1917, and on the 3rd of November 1923, Jesse T Barrick died at the age of 82. Initially he was buried an unmarked grave in the Pasco City Cemetery in Washington but in 2000, his remains were identified, exhumed, and interred in the Tahoma National Cemetery: Section 8, Grave 108.