Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Barker, Louis 1850 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 25, 2006, 11:58 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

LOUIS BARKER.

    Louis Barker, proprietor of the leading clothing and men's furnishing goods
store in Indiana Harbor, will, as a matter of record for all present and future
history, have the distinction of being the pioneer merchant of this town, the
one who recognized an opportunity and opened a place of business before ever the
present work of exploitation and development of the townsite had been begun. His
fortunate selection of a location and his fine business ability and reliable
methods of dealing have all combined to give him a prosperous trade and an
influential position among the men of affairs in whose keeping lies the
greatness of Indiana Harbor.

    Mr. Barker was born in Russian Poland, December 25, 1850, being a son of
Herman and Goldie (Barnett) Barker. His family name was originally Barkawfski,
but for business reasons he had it changed after coming to the United States.
His paternal grandfather was Jacob Barkawfski, who was a native of Poland and
was engaged in buying horses for the government. He had a small family, and he
lived to be eighty years of age. Mr. Barker's maternal grandparents were Samuel
and Sarah Barnett, both natives of Russia, where the former was a grain dealer
and died at the age of eighty-five. Herman Barker, the father of Mr. Barker, was
a fruit dealer, and in 1865 emigrated to America. Sickness soon caused him to
return to the old country, where he died in 1869, aged sixty-nine years. His
wife died in 1890, when about seventy-eight years old. They were both of the
Hebrew faith. There were eight children born to them, three sons and five
daughters, and the six now living are Simon, Louis. Meier, Pearl, Sarah and
Rebecca.

    Mr. Louis Barker received his school advantages in his native land. He came
to America with his father in 1865, and after living in New York city two years
came west to Chicago, where for a number of years he was in the grocery
business. In November, 1901, he came out to Indiana Harbor and built a small
store building as the first business enterprise of a coming town. He transacted
a general merchandise business for some time, and a year later his family moved
to the place. In the summer of 1903, after the full tide of prosperity and
industrial development had struck the place, he put up a fine brick store and
residence, and he also owns other real estate in the city, besides a building in
East Chicago. His son Harry was the second person to open a business
establishment here, a restaurant, and he later organized the Indiana Harbor
Yacht Club. Mr. Barker is a Republican in politics, and the family remain true
to the religious faith of their ancestors.

    June 26, 1869, Mr. Barker married Miss Rebecca Moses, a daughter of Max and
Lillie Moses. Eight children were born of their marriage, as follows: Annie, who
married Mr. A. Frank, of Chicago, and they have two sons. Benjamin and Lester;
Isaac; Fannie, who married I. Bergson, of Chicago, and has two daughters,
Dorothy and Sadie Belle: Harry: Heiman, who married Belle Cohn and lives in
Indiana Harbor, and has one son. Earl; Samuel: David; and Sadie.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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