Barr, Andrew J.

BARR, WATT, HOFFMAN, MARICLE, ROBINSON, BEIGHTOL, MEEKS, DEFRANCE

Posted By: Janelle Martin (email)
Date: 5/19/2009 at 18:21:40

History of Hamilton County Iowa, 1912, Vol. II, p.53

ANDREW J. BARR

Andrew J. Barr, a retired agriculturist residing in Webster City, has lived within the borders of Hamilton County for the past forty-five years and was long identified with its farming interests. His birth occurred in Logan County, Illinois, on the 15th of September, 1833, his parents being Thomas and Elsie (Watt) Barr. The maternal grandfather of our subject was a Methodist minister. Thomas Barr, the father of Andrew J. Barr, followed farming in Illinois throughout his active business career.

Such education as Andrew J. Barr received in his youthful years was acquired during a few short periods at school and through his own efforts while working on his father's farm. In later years, however, he continually augmented his knowledge through reading, experience and observation. He worked on his father's farm until twenty years of age, when he was married and started out as an agriculturist on his own account in Illinois. In 1856, with his wife and two children, he drove from Logan County, that state, to Minnesota, the trip consuming twenty-one days. He lived there for fourteen years, engaged in general agricultural pursuits. On February 18, 1863, he enlisted for service in the Union army as a member of Company C, Sixth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, remaining with that command until the close of the war. He was assigned to many duties of trust, traveling between the regiment in the field and northern points, and was engaged at various times to assist in the exchange of prisoners between Camp Douglas and Richmond, Virginia. After the cessation of hostilities between the north and south he returned to Minnesota, where his wife had continued the operation of their farm, keeping the land productive during his absence and ably caring for the crops. Minnesota was at that time infested with marauding bands of Indians, many of whom frequently visited Mrs. Barr while her husband was at the front with the boys in blue. Nevertheless she bravely continued her work and cared for her children, and not only attended to the cultivation and harvesting of crops but cared for the stock and drove to town by ox team whenever her business required. On disposing of his Minnesota property Mr. Barr came to Hamilton County, Iowa, and purchased a farm in Freedom township, in the cultivation of which he was actively engaged until 1887. In that year he bought property and took up his abode in Webster City, continuing to supervise the operation of his farm, however, until a few years ago. He is now living retired, enjoying the fruits of his former toil in well earned ease.

Mr. Barr married Miss Catherine Elizabeth Hoffman, her parents being John and Catherine D. (Maricle) Hoffman, of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, the former a cooper by trade. They were born, reared and married in Maryland and later removed to Virginia, their daughter Catherine being born in Frederick County, that state, in 1835. In the early '50s John Hoffman liberated his slaves and removed to Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life. Mr. and Mrs. Barr became the parents of six children and they now have seventeen grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Elsie C., who was born in 1854, gave her hand in marriage to Horace Robinson and resides in Story County, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have seven children and four grandchildren, as follows: Nellie, who is married and has two children; Benjamin, who is married and has one child; Maude; James; Blanche; Hallis, who is married and has one child; and Eva. John T. Barr, whose birth occurred in Illinois in 1856, married Miss Ann Beightol and resides near Homer, Hamilton County, Iowa. He now has four children and one grandchild: Grace, who is married and has one child; Earl; Elsie; and Gay. Martha gave her hand in marriage to William Meeks and lives six miles east of Webster City. Mr. and Mrs. Meeks have four children and two grandchildren, namely: Grace, who is married and has one child; Merl; Ethel, who is the mother of one son; and Florence. William Marion, who wedded Martha De France, is a hotel proprietor of Brunswick, Nebraska. He has two children and two grandchildren: Ettie; and May, who is the mother of two daughters. Lafayette Barr passed away when but five years of age. Angie Barr died when seventeen months old. Andrew J. Barr and his wife were married when still very young —at the ages of twenty and eighteen years respectively. Their married life has been an ideal and happy one, their mutual love and confidence increasing as the years have gone by. During the early days of struggle and hardship they never lost faith in each other nor in God, "and their earnest labors have been blest and rewarded, not only in worldly goods, but also in a large and happy family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They reside at No. 929 Bank street in Webster City.

Since 1850, or for the past sixty-two years, Mr. Barr has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. From 1862 until 1892 he was actively identified with the Sunday school as superintendent and general worker. He belongs to Winfield Scott Post, No. 66, G. A. R., and served as its chaplain from 1901 until 1911. The Barr family came originally from the north of Ireland, and Mr. Barr numbers among his valued possessions a bible, printed in 1698, which was brought from that country by one of his ancestors. Andrew J. Barr had the distinction of being the oldest representative of his family at a reunion held in the fall of 1911 at Waynesville, Dewitt County, Illinois, where more than five hundred of the name gathered together. He has now passed the seventy-ninth milestone on life's journey and his career has ever been such that he can look back over the past without regret and forward to the future without fear.