BARKER, Sarah 1854-1942

BARKER, COMSTOCK

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 1/9/2011 at 11:45:35

FUNERAL OF AGED REINBECK WOMAN WILL BE SUNDAY

Miss Sarah Barker Started First Sunday School at Lincoln

Funeral services for Miss Sarah Barker, 88, who died at St. Thomas Hospital Convalescent home in Marshalltown, Thursday night, will be held at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Robinson funeral home in Reinbeck, conducted by Rev. Alvin H. Boettcher, pastor of the Congregational church. Burial in the Amity cemetery.

Sarah Barker was born in Petersburgh, Canada, April 30, 1854, daughter of George and Mary Comstock Barker. The family came to the United States in 1867, and settled at old Buckingham, north of Traer, in Tama county.

Built Sod House First

Her father purchased the farm, now owned by Earl Lockhard, located two miles east and two miles south of Reinbeck. He built a sod house in which he and a son, George, lived while the new frame house was built. That house still stands on the place.

Of sturdy pioneer stock, Miss Barker was much interested in religious work of this community. She was a charter member of the local Congregational church. She started the first Sunday school in the town of Lincoln, and also promoted and aided in raising money by subscription for the erection of the first church building in Lincoln. This building is still standing and in use.

Life Work Teaching

Her life work was teaching school, and for many years she served as a rural school teacher in this part of Iowa. In 1910 she went to North Dakota, where she filed on a homestead claim, and lived on it and taught rural school while proving up on the land. She gave up her school teaching in 1913 and returned to Reinbeck, which had since been her home.

Her surviving relatives are five nephews and two nieces.

Miss Barker is the last of a family of two daughters and four sons.

--Waterloo Sunday Courier (Waterloo, Iowa), 7 February 1942