Union County IL Archives Biographies.....Barringer, George 1849 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 17, 2008, 3:50 am

Author: George Washington Smith (1912)

   GEORGE BARRINGER. Farmers who have been elected to positions of trust and
honor arc not by any means few in America, but it is the exception that the
tiller of the soil continues to be such long after he has won success in any
sphere outside his regular calling. The allurements of city life in the great
majority of cases quickly overcome the inborn love of nature unadorned, and the
farmer is known by another name. George Barringer, of Jonesboro, Illinois, is
one of the few. After terms in township and county offices he continued to
plant, cultivate and reap, and to raise stock, until he felt it time to retire
from active agricultural pursuits, at which time he located in Jonesboro and
engaged in the real estate business, although he still owns considerable farming
land, which is now rented, in Union county. Mr. Barringer was born on a farm in
Union county, northeast of Anna, January 2, 1849, and is a son of Charles and
Matilda (Hileman) Barringer, both natives of this county. Charles Barringer was
born September 29, 1825, and for many years carried on agricultural pursuits,
but after coming to Jonesboro entered the mercantile field and was so engaged
until about two years prior to his death.

   The education of George Barringer was secured in the district and town
schools, and later he entered a seminary here. He also went to Union Academy and
the Commercial School for Boys, and while at these institutions taught district
school for four or five years while being engaged in study during the summer
months. Giving up the profession of teaching, Mr. Barringer entered the tin and
stove business, in which he continued one or two years, he having furnished the
capital and his partner the tools, and during 1871 and 1872 held the' office of
deputy assessor. Subsequently he became deputy under Sheriffs Hileman and Nimmo,
and in 1878 was elected sheriff of Union county, serving in that office for a
full term of two years. At that time his health failed, and in 1880 he purchased
a farm in Union county, on which he continued to reside until 1883, then moved
to Cape Girardeau county, Missouri. In that state Mr. Barringer carried on
farming on a tract situated near the city of Jackson until the fall of 1891,
when he purchased his present property in Jonesboro, Union county. He now rents
his land and follows the real estate business, in which he has had considerable
success. He has served as justice of the peace and postmaster of Union Point
while living on the farm, and from 1894 until 1902 acted as county
superintendent of schools. During his incumbency of the latter office, he
introduced the eighth grade commencement exercises, issued certificates to those
who passed the examination and reported to the State Department the first high
schools reported from this county. Mr. Barringer served as marshal of Jonesboro
before he was of age, and even at that early time he displayed the same
conscientiousness to duty that has characterized his later terms of office.
Progressive in all matters, he has done much to advance this section, and he is
regarded as one of Union county's substantial, public-spirited men. His
fraternal connection is with the A. O. U. W., which he joined in Missouri, and
he also belongs to Jonesboro, Lodge, No. 111, A. P. & A. M.

   Mr. Barringer's first marriage was to Miss Belle Byrd, of Jackson, Missouri,
who died August 16, 1891, leaving these children: Georgia Belle, who married J.
B. Colard, Jr., and died June 28, 1909; Byrd Polk, unmarried, who is in the real
estate business and owns a pocket and carom billiard hall at Cairo; Matilda
Hileman, who married J. F. Karraker, of Cypress, Illinois; and Mary, who married
N. R. Crooks and lives in Denver Colorado. Mr. Barringer was married in 1892 to
Miss Mary Chase, who was born in Jonesboro, daughter of Charles S. and Ellen
(Cruse) Chase, the former a well-known stone contractor and builder, and four
children have been born to this union, namely: Bessie, Paul, Grace and Ruth. Mr.
and Mrs. Barringer and their children attend the Methodist Episcopal church.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People, and its Principal
Interests

BY
George Washington Smith, M. A.
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1912

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