Barbee, Christopher C.

BARBEE, NEWTON, SPARKS, PARKS, REDDICK

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/21/2009 at 10:30:15

Barbee, Christopher C.

For sixty years an honored resident of Jasper County, or practically all his life, Christopher C. Barbee, well known hardware merchant of the town of Ira, Independence Township, is entitled to special mention with the successful and representative men of the County. He has for nearly a half century been inseparably connected with the agricultural and industrial growth and development of the County and in the equally important matter of education and public morals he has also taken a leading part. While primarily attending to his own interests, his life has been devoted, as much as possible, in the ordinary course of every-day events, to his fellow men, having sought to inspire a proper respect for law and order and ready at all times to do his full duty in furthering any movement having for its object the general betterment of his community. His career contains few mistakes and abounds in much that is honorable and of good report, containing the record of an untarnished name and a character above reproach, which is much more to be desired than great riches.

Mr. Barbee was born in Hendricks County, Indiana, March 8, 1852, and when two years old he was brought by his parents to Jasper County and this has been his home ever since. The long, tiresome trip was made overland in an old-fashioned wagon, and they camped along the rough roads and forded the unbridged streams. He is the son of John arid Ollie (Newton) Barbee, the father born in Kentucky and the mother in Indiana. They came to Jasper County, Iowa, in 1852 and here became well established on a farm, spending the remainder of their lives here, the father dying on March 9, 1889, and the mother in 1892. Eleven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. John Barbee, six of whom are living at this writing.

Christopher C. Barbee, of this sketch, began life for himself on the farm, which he has made his chief life work; he also learned the blacksmith's trade, which he followed successfully for a number of years. He has for some time maintained a hardware store in Ira where he keeps a large and carefully selected stock of general hardware and farming implements, and he enjoys a very liberal patronage with the surrounding country, his customers, many of them, coming from remote localities. He also owns a modern and comfortable home in Ira, and through his industry and good management has become very well established in a material way.

Mr. Barbee talks interestingly of the days when the family first settled here. Wild game was abundant and Indians formed the major portion of the population. He says that often when the larder was empty of meat the father would give notice to the family that he intended to go out and kill a deer and that the rest of the family might be required to help bring it in, many of the deer being so large that it required more than one person to carry it home.

Mr. Barbee was married on May 26, 1873, to Angeline Sparks, who was born in Minnesota, September 11, 1858, the daughter of Joseph and Amilda (Parks) Sparks, the father born in Kentucky and the mother in Indiana. They moved to Minnesota in an early day and there the mother's death occurred on June 12, 1900. The father was a soldier in the Union army and died while in the service.

Mrs. Barbee has one full brother, John Sparks, who resides at Bemidji, Minnesota, and two half brothers, Ernest and Charlie Clemmons, of Bemidji, Minnesota, and one full sister and two half sisters, deceased.

Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Barbee, four of whom are living at this writing, namely: Bertie died in infancy; Mrs. Maude L. Reddick, born December 31, 1877, lives in South Dakota; Otis .C., born December 21, 1879, and Clarence J., born January 4, 1882, were killed in a train wreck while journeying to Dakota; J. Clifford, born December 26, 1884, is a blacksmith at Mingo, Iowa; Ray H., born February 9; 1889, lives in Ira; James Edward, born January 18, 1895, is assisting his father in the store at Ira. These children were reared and educated in Jasper County.

Politically, Mr. Barbee is a Republican, and while he has been too much engrossed with private affairs to seek public offices, he has always been interested in his party's welfare. He and his family are members of the Latter-Day Saints Church. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 1134.