| Memorial | John BARTER
At 4 o’clock Friday afternoon, Feb. 7, 1890, three men met in the drug store of Youmans & Gallager, on Washington avenue, south. One of the trio was Hon. John Barter, another was John Ingledew, and the third was a representative of the Courier-Hearald. Mr. Barter had been busy during the afternoon and was on his way home to his farm, two miles south of the city, in the township of Spalding. He was in a happy frame of mind and robust and hearty, not even having a cold, for which he said he was grateful. A general conversation turned on the subject of death and obituary notices. “It is an anomaly,” said Mr. Barter, “that some men receive in the public prints laudation before they die, and often don’t deserve it, while others, good and true men, pass away and the great good they have done is unnoticed. The glory of their lives and deeds dies with them.” A few desultory remarks followed and each man went his way, little expecting one was, within a few hours, to enter the valley and the shadow of death. This proved to be the case however. The sun had scarce risen, Saturday, Feb. 8, 1890, when the light of John Barter’s life went out and a busy life had suddenly ended. He was ill but a few hours, acute inflammation of the bowels seizing upon him. Mr. Barter was born in Somersetshire, Eng., August 22, 1825. His parents removed to Canada three years later, locating at Montreal. The subject of this sketch came to Saginaw in 1850 and followed his trade, that of a millwright, until 1858, when he purchased a farm in the township of Spalding and removed thereto. A Republican in politics, he has been many time honored by that party. He was justice of the peace twelve years, drain-commissioner six years, a member of the board of supervisors fourteen years, eight years as chairman, and July 30, 1879, was appointed agent of the State Board of Correction and Charities, which office he filled honorably and satisfactorily to the day of his death. He was married January 1, 1854, to Mary Spalding, the first white child born in Spalding township who survives him. Four children, Leah, James, Belinda and Annie, also mourn the loss of an affectionate father and kind friend. That section of the city known as “South Saginaw,” under which title it was incorporated, owes a great deal to Mr. Barter, who by energy, money and influence aided materially in the upbuilding of that place. One of the last acts of his life was to consummate the sale of 100 oak trees growing on his farm, to Capt. Chesley Wheeler, for $1,700. He was an honest man. These words are in themselves a fitting monument to a life of unpretentious simplicity and virtue. For two score years his has been a familiar face and figure on the streets of the Saginaws. In every relation of life in which he moved, as an honorable artisan, an industrious tiller of the soil, as justice, supervisor, and dealing gently, but justly with wayward youth in the capacity of State agent for juvenile offenders, and as a neighbor and citizen, he did his whole duty as he saw it conscientiously and with a fidelity that won for him the esteem and respect of his fellow men, and his death causes sincere and wide spread regret. |