Barr, Nancy F. 1845-1931

BARR, SLOCUM, JOHNSON, BELDEN

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 8/10/2012 at 10:17:28

The Grinnell (IA) Herald; Nov. 24, 1931

MRS. R.A. BARR DIES IN SLEEP
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Former Beloved Resident of Grinnell Passes Away Saturday In West Union
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HAD REACHED ADVANCED AGE OF 86 YEARS
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Mrs. Barr Took An Active Part In The Church And Club Life of Grinnell
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Mrs. R.A. Barr, for so many years one of Grinnell's good women, passed peacefully away, apparently in her sleep, last Saturday morning in West Union, where she had been staying for some weeks with an old school friend. She had been suffering from heart trouble but had seemed much better, and her passing was entirely unexpected. Mrs. Barr was 86 years old, having passed her birthday on March 23.

Nancy F. Slocum, was born in 1845 in Lake Zurich, Ill. She came with her parents to Fayette county in 1854 from Lake Zurich and settled on a farm near West Union which her father bought from the government. Here she grew to womanhood and in 1865 she was united in marriage with Robinson A. Barr, a veteran of the Civil War. Four children were born to this marriage, two dying in infancy and another son, George, after he had reached man's estate. George was the father of a daughter Martha, now Mrs. Edward L. Johnson of this city. A fourth son, Will, formerly a member of the Grinnell college faculty and a well-known and successful chemist, survives.

Mr. and Mrs. Barr lived in Grinnell from 1903 to 1921, when Mr. Barr passed away. They were a happy and useful couple, always active and helpful and interested in the best things of life.

Since Mr. Barr's death in 1921 Mrs. Barr has been here only a few times. She has spent much time visiting numerous relatives in the west and for several months she has been in West Union.

Beside her son Will and her granddaughter, Mrs. Johnson, she is survived by a grandson, William L. Barr and a sister, Mrs. Mary Belden of Alpha, near West Union.

Mrs. Barr was a busy woman during all her years of residence here. She was active in the Congregational church and in the Women's Relief Corps and was a member of the Literary Clan and the Read and Reflect club. She was a woman of fine mental attainments and took a lively interest in the affairs of her community and of the world in which she lived; an interest which she did not relinguish until her dying day.

Her friends here were legion and though she has been away from Grinnell for a number of years she will be deeply and sincerely mourned.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson attended the funeral which was held Sunday in West Union. Burial was in the old family burying ground on the farm which her father opened for cultivation so many years ago and where all the members of the family who had preceded her, including her husband, now rest in peace. It will be a comfort to her friends to think that she slumbers in a beautiful spot with her loved ones about her. She loved them and was devoted to them in life and in death they are not separated.