In the community of Barretville, established in 1852 by his grandfather Anthony Barret, Paul Weisiger Barret co-founded Barretville Bank & Trust Company in 1920 at age 21. Under his leadership, it survived the Great Depression and became one of Tennessee's largest and most successful rural banking systems, with 10 branches in Shelby County and affiliates in Somerville, Rossyille, and Henderson. He amassed more than 3,000 acres of farmland and expanded his family's general mercantile and ginning businesses in southwest Tennessee. An ally of E. H. ("Boss") Crump, Barret served on the Shelby County Quarterly Court for 24 years. As a dominant figure in Shelby County politics from the mid-1950s until the early 1970s, he championed fiscal conservatism and the Baker vs. Carr lawsuit, the landmark 1962 United States Supreme Court case that established the "one man, one vote" standard and led to reapportionment of legislative bodies throughout the nation. In 1920, the Craftsman-style house "Squire's Rest" was built for Barret and his bride, Sarah Dickey Barret, and they lived there for 56 years.