Barr, Andrew Jackson (1833-1913)

BARR, HOFFMAN, ROBINSON, MEEKS, SILVERS, MARVEL

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 10/29/2023 at 13:30:35

Daily Freeman Tribune
Webster City, Iowa
Friday, September 19, 1913

OLD RESIDENT IS CALLED

A.J. Barr Dies at Family Home on West Bank Street - Had Just Passed his Eightieth Birthday

CAME TO THIS COUNTY IN 1873

A Good Man Has Passed to His Reward Following a Long and Useful Career

A.J. Barr died last night at the family home on West Bank street at 11:30 o'clock of ailments incident to old age, having passed his eightieth birthday last Monday. He retained his mental faculties and was bright and cheerful to the last.

Andrew J. Barr was born in Logan county, Ill., Sept. 15, 1833. He was reared in DeWitt county, that state, where his parents removed in his infancy. He remained at home until his marriage and then settled on an unimproved farm six miles from the old homestead where he lived two years, when he sold out. In 1859 he moved to Blue Earth, Minn., bought a claim and entered 160 acres of government land. This was during the time of the Indian troubles in that state and the settlers were obliged to build stockades to defend themselves. Mr. Barr moved his family into a cabin without door, floor or window, except one pane of glass put in a crooked log. His family at that time consisted of his wife and three children. He lived there a year and a half and then sold out and moved to the adjoining county, Fairbault, where he bought another unimproved farm and made it his home eleven years. February 18, 1863, Mr. Barr enlisted in company C, Sixth Minnesota infantry. His regiment remained at Fairmount, Minn., until the following June and later were ordered down the Mississippi river. He was still later a nurse in the hospital boat at St. Louis and afterward transferred to Chicago. While in the service he also acted as chaplain of his company. He was one of the guards at the court house when President Lincoln lay in state and also one of the pall bearers at the funeral of the dead president. He was discharged in 1865 and returned to his home in Minnesota. In 1873 he sold his Minnesota farm and came to Hamilton county, where for the fifth time he opened up a new farm. The deceased sold his farm twenty-five years ago and removed to this city. He was married Sept. 29, 1853 to Catherine E. Hoffman, a native of Virginia.

The deceased was a member of the Methodist church. When eighteen years of age he was appointed class leader and occupied that position much of the time during his long life. He acted as Sunday school superintendent in most of the communities in which he had lived and was also an exhorter and evangelistic worker during the last twenty-five years or until his advanced age made this impossible.

Mr. Barr was a man of strong convictions and was highly respected and esteemed by all who knew him. He was a true husband, a kind father and an ideal citizen and the world is the better for his having lived in it.

Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Barr, four of whom are living. The wife and three sisters are also left to mourn the passing of the deceased. The children are Mrs. Elsie Robinson, Gilbert, John T. Barr, Lehigh, Mrs. Martha Meeks, of this city and W.M. Barr of Sioux City. All of the children were at the bedside at the time of his passing away except W.M. Barr. Mrs. W.J. Silvers of this city is the only sister who resides here. Many nieces and nephews and other relatives of the deceased live in this city and in the surrounding country, the reunions of the Barr family which have been held in this city in the past being attended by them. Mr. Barr has always occupied the chair at these gatherings as the oldest member of the family.

The funeral services will be held Saturday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock in the Methodist church, conducted by Rev. C.H. Kamphoefner, and burial will be made in Graceland cemetery. The pall bearers, chosen by the deceased before his death - in fact, all details of the funeral and ceremony were planned by him - are all nephews of Mr. and Mrs. Barr: Thomas and William Silvers, Charles, James and Thomas Barr and Charles W. Marvel.