Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Barber, Royal E 1822 - 
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Author: Portraits & Bio Sketches, 1890

ROYAL E. BARBER. 

Among the veteran lawyers of Joliet Mr. Barber stands a prominent figure, and 
has made for himself a fine record during an uninterrupted practice of nearly 
forty-five years. He possesses in a marked degree the talents and application 
requisite to success, and numbers among his clientage a large portion of the 
solid residents of this county. During his long career in the profession he 
has disposed of a large number of intricate cases, and there are few points in 
common law which he is not able to handle in an adroit and skillful manner. He 
is of stanch New England ancestry, a native Vermonter, and was born in Benson, 
that State, August 3, 1822. John and Emma (Perry) Barber, the immediate 
progenitors of the subject of this notice, were natives of Connecticut, and 
descended from Puritan stock, their ancestors being among the early Colonists. 
The mother was a cousin of Commodore Perry, who distinguished himself in the 
battle of Lake Erie. John Barber was a life-long farmer, and the parental 
household included seven children, who reached mature years, and three who 
died in infancy or early childhood. Royal, our subject, was the second born. 
In 1831, when he was a lad of nine years, a party of John Barber's neighbors 
came to the West on a prospecting tour, and sent back such glowing accounts of 
this section of country that Mr. Barber was led to join them the following 
year. In the autumn of that year the party chartered a canal boat at 
Whitehall, N. Y., and a week later reached Buffalo, where they took passage on 
the steamer "Henry Clay" for Detroit. There they boarded the 
schooner "Austerlitz," which in one week reached Chicago or near there, 
anchoring, however, outside of the bar about three miles from shore. The party 
and the schooner's cargo were thence all transported to the shore in the yawl 
boats. The steamer which conveyed Gen. Scott's troops to Chicago, in 1832, is 
said to have been the first craft of its kind which had struck that port. 
Landing near Ft. Dearborn the party encountered various thrilling incidents. 
When attempting to cross the sand bar the yawl grounded, and the sailors 
jumping out got it off quickly and then jumped in again in readiness for the 
next wave. The "Austerlitz" was bound for St. Joseph. Later the yawl boat was 
stranded upon the bar at the mouth of that stream, overturned and the Captain 
and most of his crew were drowned. At the time John Barber landed in Chicago, 
the only buildings were a few log houses and Ft. Dearborn was enclosed with a 
log stockade. There was one frame building which had been erected that summer 
by J. H. Kinzie, with lumber which he had hauled from a sawmill at Plainfield, 
this county. The original plat of the village of Chicago, lying between what 
is now State and Canal Streets, Madison and Kinzie, was laid out that summer. 
The agent besought John Barber to buy a town lot, and took him out to what he 
said was Lake Street, and showed him a lot eighty feet front, and two hundred 
feet deep, which he offered for $50. Mr. Barber stepped on to a bog, shook 
himself, and the earth trembled all around him. He therefore replied that he 
was "not going to sink any $50 in that mud hole." John Barber now hired a team 
of horses and a double wagon, and gathering together his family and some 
goods, forded the south branch of the Chicago River, and struck off across the 
prairie for Naperville, where some of his acquaintances had settled. He made 
his selection of a farm at what later was named Barber's Corners, this county, 
and in February, 1833, moved his family into a log house, where the children 
were reared, and where he and his wife both died. Mrs. Barber departed this 
life May 1, 1874. Mr. Barber passed away in the winter of 1877. Soon after 
coming to this county he contracted rheumatism, which rendered him an invalid 
many years. This was the result of exposure during the cold winters, when 
engaged in getting out rails for his fences. The subject of this notice 
remained on the farm until he found that the labor of harvesting, which was 
then all done by hand, made him ill every year. So, deciding to abandon farm 
life, in 1845, he came to Joliet, and became the Deputy Clerk of several 
courts, discharging the duties of these in connection with the study of law, 
until his election in 1852, as Clerk of the Circuit Court and ex-officio 
Recorder. At the completion of his term he compiled the first set of abstracts 
of records, and then entered upon the regular practice of law, which he has 
since pursued. With the assistance of clerks he managed the abstract 
department until selling out to his son, January 1, 1889. In 1876-77 he was 
Mayor of Joliet, and as School Inspector he performed much labor in behalf of 
education, holding this office nine years. In 1887-88 he erected the Barber 
Building, one of the most elegant structures in the city of Joliet. Mr. Barber 
was first married, April 24, 1849, to Miss Elizabeth Ellen Crowley. This lady 
died of cholera in 1850. Mr. Barber contracted a second marriage, November 7, 
1854, with Miss Frances Cornelia House. Of this union there were born five 
children, one of whom died at the age of three years. There are now living two 
sons and two daughters. The eldest daughter, Miss Alice Stillman Barber, is 
engaged in a mission seminary at Beirut, Syria, whither she went in the fall 
of 1885. Before she had acquired command of the Arabic tongue she was left in 
charge of the institution for two years. Edward M., the eldest son, is now in 
the State of New York; William C. is engaged in the abstract business in 
Joliet; the younger daughter, Emma F., is the only child remaining under the 
parental roof.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890 
 


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