For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 205
C. S. BARCLAY...It is to men like C. S. Barclay, now living at West Liberty, that the live-stock interests have been greatly advanced and farming made more profitable than in earlier times. As a breeder of fine cattle, Mr. Barclay attained a fine reputation in the country and now he is enjoying at ease the results of many years of arduous labor. He was born in Knox county, Ohio, October 23, 1842, a son of M. S. and Amy ( Traer ) Barclay. The father was a native of New York state but lived for a number of years in Ohio, coming to Wapsinonoc township, Muscatine county, Iowa, in 1851. Here he successfully engaged in farming until 1893, when he was called to his reward. The mother of our subject was born in Pennsylvania and died in this county in 1891. There were six children in the family: Liddie, who died in 1909; C. S., of this review; James, deceased; Preston, now a salesman of Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Ella Reynolds, of Norfolk, Nebraska; and Cora V., now the wife of Professor Noble of Iowa State College at Ames.C. S. Barclay received his early education in the common schools and was just preparing for the active duties of life when the great Rebellion cast its shadows over the land. In the response to the call for men to defend the Union, he enlisted in August, 1862, in Company D, Thirty-fifth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, to serve for three years or during the war and took part in many of the great engagements and movements including the siege of Vicksburg, the battle of Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; Pleasant Hill, Louisiana; Yellow Bayou, Nashville, and others, also taking part in many skirmishes and hard marches under Generals A. J. Smith and Joseph Mower. He was wounded at the battle of Old River Lake. While making a charge he saw a beautiful stand of Confederate colors just over a stone wall, and jumping the wall he started to sieze the coveted treasure when a party of Confederates concealed in a clump of bushes opened fire. Had it not been for the immediate arrival of his comrades Private Barclay would surely have lost his life. He was in many dangerous positions during the war but this was the most critical that he had ever experienced. At the time of his honorable discharge he was second ranking duty sergeant of his company and was acting as orderly sergeant.
Returning to Muscatine county, Mr. Barclay began his business career as clerk in a store in West Liberty for about a year, at the end of which he became the purchaser and shipper of live stock, and later he engaged in the nursery business at Cedar Rapids for about a year. He was attracted to farming, however, and became associated with his father in agriculture and stock-raising, soon becoming identified with the breeding of fine stock, in which he was continuously engaged for thirty-five years. He devoted his entire attention to the business and was an exhibitor at as many as thirty state fairs, and also at the international fat stock show in Chicago. He purchased stock from various parts of the country and shipped high grade animals to the western ranges. In 1883 he shipped over seventeen hundred head, the most of which he purchased himself, and he acquired an established reputation among large cattle owners as a dealer whose word could be relied on implicitly. Since 1897 he has lived practically retired and has disposed of most of his real estate except a handsome residence at West Liberty and a farm of one hundred and sixty acres.
In 1872 Mr. Barclay was united in marriage to Miss Emily H. Wonsetler, a native of Ohio, and by the this union five children were born, namely: Wade C., a graduate of State University of Iowa and also of the Chicago University in the divinity course, who is now educational director of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday Schools of the United States, with headquarters in Chicago; R. W., a graduate of Iowa State College, now engaged as live-stock auctioneer at Mason City, Iowa; Josephine, also a graduate of Iowa State College, who was a teacher of domestic science in the University of Florida for two years, in the Illinois State University at Champaign for a year, then in Idaho and later in California, but is spending the present year with her brothers in Portland, Oregon; Paul V., Graduate of Iowa State College, engaged in the real-estate business in Portland, Oregon; and M. S., who is a student for three years at Iowa State College, and is also engaged in the real-estate business at Portland.
Mr. Barclay has observed the beneficial effects of education, and schools and colleges have no warmer friend than he. For six years he was a member of the board of trustees of Iowa State College, and in giving every desirable advantage of education to his children he started them off on the road to attain worthy ideals. Politically he is an adherent of the republican party and socially he is identified with the Grand Army of the Rupublic, being one of the stanchest friends of the old soldiers to be found in the country. In the fall of 1905 he had the misfortune to lose his right arm in a corn shredder and it was mainly on account of this accident that he retired from active business. Through strong and determined purpose Mr. Barclay won his way to success and through many genial and worthy qualities he has gained the lasting esteem of a host of friends in Iowa and other states.
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