OBIT: John Campbell BARR, 1895, formerly of Huntingdon County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by P Barr 10.emlet@telus.net Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm __________________________________________ Rev. J. C. Barr died at his home on Washington Avenue at 11 o'clock Saturday night last, from an infection of the kidneys, an affliction that first attacked him about eight years ago, and from which he frequently suffered long and severely. He had been confined to his room and bed the past week. In the spring of 1893 he was thrown from a buggy, breaking one of his legs at the thigh and otherwise injuring him very severely, which doubtless irritated his deep-seated kidney trouble and hastened death. John Campbell Barr was the second son of eleven children of Samuel and Sibella (Bell) Barr, and was born at the homestead in Little Valley, Mifflin county, Pa, January 4, 1824. Born on a farm, he grew to physical maturity while helping to cultivate his father's crops in summer and acquiring his early education during the winter months in the common schools of the community. His literary studies were pursued at Tuscarora Academy and at Jefferson college, Canonsburg, Pa. He entered the junior class at Jefferson in September, 1848, and graduated from that institution in 1850. He then left his native state and followed the occupation of teacher while he prosecuted his studies in theology, finally rounding out his course at the Cincinnati Theological Seminary, an institution that was shortly after removed to Danville, Ky. He was licensed to preach by the Cincinnati Presbytery in the spring of 1853 after which he performed missionary work and taught in the western part of Ohio and in Indiana till the fall of 1855, when he was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Princeton, Ill., where he was ordained and installed by the Presbytery of Rock River. Thus he had worked his way to the pinnacle of education required by the rigid discipline of the church to which he had decided to give his life work, by means secured by his own labor as his studies progressed. Seemingly prophetic of his career up to this time, and largely so in the years that followed, the subject of an oration which he had delivered upon his graduation at Jefferson was "The Spirit's Wanderings." In the fall of 1857 Rev. Mr. Barr removed from Princeton to Malden, Ill., to take charge of a new field, in which he was instrumental soon after in organizing a church, of which he became the pastor. He continued there seven years, during most of the time supplying another church which he was also instrumental in organizing at Arlington, Ill. In 1864 he was called to a church newly organized at Geneseo, Ill., where he continued seven years more, and in the fall of 1871 he was beckoned to return to the clime of his early life by a call from the Presbyterian church at Alexandria, Pa., a pulpit just made vacant by Dr. S. M. Moore, who had accepted a call to the Tyrone church and who in October last had died in his home on Lincoln avenue in this place. Mr. Barr remained the faithful and beloved pastor of the Alexandria church till the fall of 1885, when he became the pastor of the Petersburg and Shavers Creek churches. In the spring of 1887 he was called to the Monoghan charge at Dillsburg, York county, in which is included the Presbyterian church at Petersburg, Adams county. In this field he continued till the summer of 1894, when his ever earnest and ever faithful work in the ministry ended on account of his illness having taken such form as to make it impossible for him to continue. It was on the 28th of May, 1893, that he was thrown from a buggy and injured. For many weeks following the accident, his death was almost daily expected, but he was finally restored to sufficient health to preach from his pulpit while resting upon crutches, from December 1893 to July 1894, when he was obliged to surrender to the ravages of physical disorder. He was loath to surrender the work that he loved and had for many years greatly enjoyed, and in which he had been singularly successful, but he recognized that the inevitable verdict had been rendered, and submissively yielded to the call. His regrets at being forced to retire from the pulpit were fully shared by his parishioners, who ever hoped that he would be again returned to health and to active work among them. A request for Mr. Barr to remain their pastor, though inactive, until his son, Alfred, soon to graduate from Princeton, should be qualified to accept a call to fill his place, was an expression of unquestionable love and confidence. But feeling that he would be serving the Master's cause best by declining the proposition, he urged that another pastor be immediately called, and determined to go into the midst of his relatives to spend the remainder of his days which he felt at the most could be but few. He, therefore, with his family, moved to Tyrone on the 12th of September last where it gave him great pleasure to enjoy the daily association of those he yearned to be near to while he awaited the summons to go hence and possess the glittering robes prepared for him in the golden city of the spirit land. Rev. John C. Barr lived to be 71 years, 11 months and 10 days old. His was a life of true piety and earnest Christian work, an example worthy of emulation by the best of mankind. Full of sympathy and love for his fellow man he ever yearned for the salvation of the precious ones about him. In the home he was bright, cheerful, considerate and kind. He possessed a happy and fond domestic nature, a magnet that drew the members of his family about him and intertwined as it were their souls about his own on the way to spiritual paradise.... On the first of May, 1855, the Rev. J. C. Barr was married to Miss Jane Hamilton. It was a happy union blessed with three children, one of whom died early in childhood. The other two survive, viz: Miss Roberta C., at the family home in Tyrone, and Rev. Alfred H. Barr, just now completing his theological course at Princeton seminary from which he will graduate next May. Mrs. Jane Barr died at Alexandria, Pa., March 30, 1878. After several years of solitude Mr. Barr was, on the 24th of May of the year 1881, married to Miss Eliza Cresswell, of Alexandria, who survives. In both instances he was most happily married. The intelligent cooperation and warm sympathy of the one who was closest to him were ever effective stimulants to the labors of his calling. In illness the same kind, sympathetic hands ministered to every need. Surviving also are two brothers and two sisters, viz: William F. Barr of Lenox, Iowa, Mrs. James C. Boal of Centre Hall, and S. W. Barr and Mrs. J. M. Harper of Tyrone. The funeral occurred Tuesday.... burial at the Alexandria Presbyterian church. The Tyrone Herald, Tyrone, Pa., Thursday, 19 Dec 1895 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/