BIO: Harry T. BARKER, Beaver County, PA
  
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Joe Patterson
  
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  BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES.  This Volume Contains Biographical Sketches 
  of Leading Citizens of Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  Buffalo, N.Y., 
  Chicago, Ill.: Biographical Publishing Company, 1899, pp. 412-413.
  _________________________________________________________________ 
  
  HARRY T. BARKER has made surveying and civil engineering his profession, and
  has occupied the position of city engineer of New Brighton and Beaver Falls
  since 1879. He is a director of the Riverview Land Company, which had its
  origin in 1892. The subject of this sketch is a worthy representative of one
  of the old and prominent families of Delaware, his ancestors having settled
  in that state many years prior to the War of Independence. Mr. Barker was
  born in New Brighton, Pa., August 28, 1849, and is a son of Thomas A. and
  Eliza (Oakley) Barker.
  
  On the paternal side, Samuel Barker was the original immigrant of the family
  in this country, - he having located in Delaware as early as 1685; he
  received a grant of two hundred acres from the Penns. The next in line was
  Joseph Barker, who was the great-great-grandfather of the subject hereof, and
  his birth occurred on his father's farm in Delaware; he was a strong
  Episcopalian, as were his parents. Samuel was the great-grandfather of Harry
  T. Barker, and he married Rachael Ball, by whom he reared a family of
  children. Mr. Barker's grandfather was Abner, a native of Delaware, who early
  in life located in Pittsburg, Pa.; prior to 1790, he served in the fire
  department of that city. Being a man of means he retired at an early age, and
  spent his closing years in that city, in comfort and happiness.
  
  On the maternal side, the family is of English extraction, and the Oakleys,
  from whom Mr. Barker's mother sprang, have been residents of America since a
  very early period. The grandfather was Milton Oakley, a native of Baltimore,
  Md., but later a resident of Butler county, Pa., where he was actively
  engaged in business. He died in the village of Harmony, in middle age.
  
  Thomas A. Barker was born in Pittsburg, Pa., in 1823, but was reared to
  manhood in Beaver county, he having left home to live with his older brother,
  Dr. Butler Barker, a practicing physician of Beaver; after receiving a common
  school education in Beaver, he located in New Brighton, where he embarked in
  mercantile pursuits, - continuing thus until his death, in February, 1859. He
  married Eliza Oakley, who was born in 1821 and died in 1863; they were the
  parents, of the following children: George O., who died aged five years;
  Frank A., who died in 1879, from an accidental gunshot wound; Harry T.; and
  Ellen O., the wife of Harry Brown, of Cincinnati, Ohio.
  
  Harry T. Barker obtained his primary education in the public schools of New
  Brighton, which was supplemented by a course in the military academy at West
  Chester, Pa., and upon his graduation therefrom, by a course in the Cooper
  Institute in New York City;
  
  BEAVER COUNTY  413
  
  he then took an engineering course under the professorship of George L. Fox,
  then a celebrated teacher in mechanics and mathematics. On graduating, he
  accepted a position in the ship building establishment of the Roaches, of New
  York City. Returning to New Brighton, in 1873, he and his brother, Frank A.,
  began a banking business under the name of Barker Brothers, establishing a
  private bank in Beaver Falls; this business was continued until 1878, when
  the subject of this record took up his profession as a surveyor and civil
  engineer; in the following year he was elected city engineer of both Beaver
  Falls and New Brighton, and has served in that capacity until the present
  time. Mr. Barker was one of the organizers of the Riverview Land Company, in
  1892, and he is one of its directors; he has surveyed that section into town
  lots, and also surveyed the route of the Riverview Railroad, which is about
  two miles long, and of which company he is one of the directors. Mr. Barker
  is esteemed by his many friends, and possesses all the characteristics of a
  loyal citizen and a good neighbor.
  
  The subject of this narrative is a Republican, and has served three years as
  county surveyor, having been elected to that office in 1882. Socially, he is
  a member of the A. O. U., W.; and of the K. of P., - both of New Brighton.
  Religiously, he and his family are prominent members of the Episcopal church,
  of which the subject hereof is a vestryman. On May 29, 1873, Mr. Barker and
  Miss Annie V. McClean were united in the bonds of wedlock, and to them have
  been born two children, George M., and Adele, both of whom are deceased.