GEORGE BARKER

BARKER

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/22/2020 at 20:17:34

GEORGE BARKER, a pioneer of Adams county, Iowa, was born in Clayton township, Perry county, Ohio, January 18, 1841. His father, Richard Barker, born in the same township, was a son of John Barker, born in New Jersey, son of Samuel Barker. Samuel Barker was one of four brothers who came from England to America before the Revolutionary war. He participated in that struggle, went home sick and died soon afterward. One brother was named William, and the names of the other two are not known. John Barker was one of the early settlers of Ohio. He married Mary Chamberlain, a daughter of Irish parents, the maiden name of her mother having been Mulford. Their son, Richard, father of George Barker, was reared in Perry county, Ohio, and there married Elizabeth Strait, who was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and reared in Ohio. Her parents were Peter and Catherine (Myers) Strait. April 17, 1860, Richard Barker lef[t] Perry county, Ohio, for Iowa; crossed the Mississippi river May 12, and on the 21st of the same month arrived at Quincy, then the county seat of Adams county, Iowa. He located on wild land in Douglas township, section 36, and there made his home until March 10, 1879, when he moved to Harrison county, Missouri. At the latter place he died on the 28th of May, 1882. His widow still lives on the old farm where he died, and is now seventy-one years of age. They had a family of eight children, five of whom [r]eached adult years, namely: George, whose name heads this biography; Maria Guysinger, of Nodaway county, Missouri; Melki, of Douglas township, this county; Milton, who resides with his mother in Harrison county, Missouri; and Clara, wife of Charles Snethen, also of Harrison county, Missouri. The three deceased ones are Jemima, wife of Isaac H. Morris, of Portland, Oregon, who died leaving one child, Evered Morris; and Albert, who died at the age of ten years, and Frank, at eighteen months. Richard Barker was a farmer all his life; in politics a Democrat, and in religion a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a man in every respect deserving of the honor and esteem he received from all who knew him.

George Barker grew up on a farm and received his education in the common schools of his native county. He was twenty years of age when he came with his father to Adams county. During the war he enlisted here, August 9, 1862, in the Twenty-Third Iowa Infantry, Captain George's company, and served some three years, participating in many important engagements. He was honorably discharged at Harrisburg, Texas, July 27, 1865; returned to Iowa and was paid off at Davenport. He then came back to Adams county and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He improved a farm in section 1, Nodaway township, and lived on it for nine years. In May, 1875, he took up his abode on his present farm, in section 26, Douglas township, which was then wild land. He has spent his time and energy in improving and cultivating this farm since that time, with the exception of ten months spent in the mercantile business in Carbon. He owns 100 acres with good buildings, orchard, grove and other improvements.

Mr. Barker was married June 24, 1866, at Quincy, Iowa, to Mary Malinda Bean, who was born in Carroll county, Ohio, and reared in Van Buren and Adams counties, Iowa. Her parents, Benjamin and Elizabeth (Sherrol) Bean, were born in Ohio. Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Barker, viz.: Elizabeth, who is engaged in teaching; John Albert, Francis Augustus, George Frederick, Ella Belle, James Richard, Charles Alonzo, Benjamin Ford and Joseph William.

In politics Mr. Barker was a Republican for twelve years, then a Greenbacker, later a Democrat, and now an Independent. He has served as trustee, assessor and clerk of his township. He is a member of the United Brethren Church, is a class-leader and Sabbath-school superintendent, and in 1888 was licensed as a local preacher. His wife and two daughters are also members of the church. Mr. Barker is associated with Llewellyn Post, G. A. R.