Obituary:
Funeral services for former area resident Lydia Ann Barton Anderson, 96, will be held 2 p.m. Monday at Chaney-Walters Funeral Home. Rev. Dennis Sillaman will officiate. Burial will follow in Riverside Cemetery. Mrs. Anderson died Wednesday in Sunnyvale, Calif. She was a resident of Redwood, Calif., at the time of her death. She was born Dec. 29, 1884 in Canada to Pete and Magdalena Heist Koenig. Mrs. Anderson came to the LeRoy community with her parents from Canada, where they homesteaded. On Sept. 1, 1903 she married Phillip Barton. After her marriage, the couple homesteaded in the LeRoy community where they farmed for several years. Mr. Barton died in 1938. In 1949, Mrs. Anderson moved to California where she lived until her death. She is survived by a daughter, Bertha Busig McConnell, Vancouver, Wash.; two sons, Charles E. Barton, Sterling, and Rutherford W. Barton, Redwood City, Calif.; four brothers, Ervin H. Koenig, Portland, Ore., Simon P. Koenig, Sterling, Percy Koenig of Austin, Texas and John Koenig, Greeley; a sister, Elsie Buss, Sterling; 11 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren. Chaney-Walters Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. "Beyond the Sunset" and "How Great Thou Art" were sung at her funeral.

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Death Certificate from County of Santa Clara, California:
Name: Lydia Ann Anderson
Date of Death: May 6, 1981
Date of Birth: December 29, 1884
Age: 96
Birthplace: Canada
Name and Birthplace of Father: Peter Koenig Canada
Birthname and Birtplace of Mother: Madeline Heist Canada
Citizen of What Country: USA
Social Security Number: 523-20-0077
Marital Status: Widowed
Occupation: Homemaker
Usual Residence: 455 Buena Vista, Redwood City, San Mateo County, California
Place of Death: Hy-Lond Convalescent Hospital, 797 E. Fremont Ave, Santa Clara County, Sunnyvale, California
Death was caused by: Cardiovascular Disease
Physician Name and Address: Herbert Jang, 500 Remington Dr., Sunnyvale, CA.
Disposition: Burial
Date: May 9, 1981 (submitters note: The obituary shows the burial as May 11, 1981)
Name of Cemetery: Riverside Cemetery, Sterling, Colorado
Name of Funeral Director: Cusimano Family Colonial Mortuary


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My Life (complete) (Written by Bertha in 1966 when she was 62, edited):
Lydia Koenig and Phillip Barton met in Greeley, Colorado and September 1, 1903 they were married. After their marriage they went to Crystal Spring, Pennsylvania, my fathers home. Then on December 3, 1904, I, Bertha, was born. Fifteen months later on February 28, 1906 my brother Charles was born.
In 1907 my parents left Crystal Spring for Sterling, Colorado, my mothers home town. I don't remember the trip, which was by train, but although I was only three I can yet recall my first Christmas in Colorado. We were living on my grandfather's (Peter Koenig) farm just east of town, between the railroad tracks and the Platte River (I believe the house is still there.)
A year of so later my parents acquired some homestead land about 20 miles southeast of Sterling. There was nothing on the land except a dugout, with a dirt floor, but we lived in it for several months, until, with the help of friends and neighbors (which were few and far between), Dad managed to put in a cement floor. Later he added a room above ground, which served as our kitchen and living room. My dad plowed the land with a one horse plow, bought some adjoining land and became a very successful farmer.
June 16, 1910 my brother, Rutherford, was born. I was six by then, had never enjoyed playing will dolls, but liked anything that was real and alive, especially babies, so helped a great deal in caring for the new arrival, but i still had to carry on with my share of the farm and household chores.
By the time i was eight my parents had acquired some cattle, so i learned to milk cows. Charles and I would drive the herd out to free pasture. Tired of walking two or three miles a day we broke a yearling steer to ride, and rode it one entire summer. The next season Dad bought us a pony, i guess the steer went to market.
After I finished grade school my folks moved to town. I lived at my uncle and aunts, Ed and Simon Koenig, most of the time I attended Sterling High School, as my parents went back on the farm. After graduation, I went back to school another year and took a post graduate course. In the meantime I had met a young man who lived west of Sterling. His name was John Busig.
It was January 18, 1925 that John and I were married and on October 17 that same year I became a mother. Our son, Harold Wayne was born at Mrs. Busse's maternity home. Ten months, a week and a day later on August 25, 1926 another boy arrived. We had hoped for a girl this time, so we didn't have a name for him, but finally decided on Kenneth Eugene. We were living on a dry land farm about eight miles west of Sterling and crops were not always good, but that didn't scare the stork away. On July 19, 1928 I went back to Mrs. Busse's for the third time. This time it was a little auburn haired girl, Ruth Evelyn, who we called Ruthie. She is now Mrs. Jack Lander. Again we hung out our white flag, but I guess the stork just didn't see it, because thirteen months later, August 21, 1929 I was back at Mrs. Busse's. This time another girl. We named her Delores Mae. She is now Mrs. Donald Helton. She is known as Lorry and she is still our baby. Mrs. Busse had told me if I were the first one to come back to her for the fifth time she would take care of me free of charge. Dr. Latta was the pediatrician for all four of our babies. (Here all four are on two horses, the four playing with a sled, Ruthie and Lorry.)
In the fall of 1934, when Colorado became part of the Dust Bowl we packed up our few belongings and moved our family to a place near Parkdale, Oregon, Oregon. Then later to Parkdale, Oregon near Mt. Hood.
It was while we were living at Parkdale that I lost my Dad. Phillip Barton died November 13, 1938 at the age of 58. Sometimes the death of a loved one, we sorrow at the blows life has dealt him and we wish he might have had a second chance, and so it was with him. I like to think that where ever he may be, I am still his one and only girl. My mother Lydia is living 20 miles south of San Francisco near Rutherford and his family and is a very young great grandmother of 82. (Lydia at 91 taken in January 1976.)
Pearl Harbor changed the face of the earth, and so it changed our lives too. The next fall (1942) we moved to Vancouver, Washington where John, Pop as we now call him, went to work in the shipyards and it wasn't long until Harold and Kenneth joined the Navy. After the boys left for war I went to work in a shopping center as manager of the bakery section. The girls were in high school and they helped in the bakery after school and on Saturdays.
It wasn't long after the war ended before the kids were all married. The grandchildren were arriving, about two a year, until there were twelve, nine boys and three girls. They are all near us except Lorry's family of two boys and a girl. They live in Auburn, Washington where Don has a mortuary and Lorry works part time in the hospital as a nurse. We usually manage to get them all together at Christmas time, what a time with ten teenagers. I have ceased trying to prepare big Christmas dinners (Christmas dinner 1949), instead we have cold meats, salads, snacks and desserts, with coffee and cranberry punch, usually on Christmas Eve or when the gifts are opened.
I have never had much time for hobbies and I don't like hobbies that cut us off from the world. I like sports and the competition they entail, so about ten years ago, when women all over the country began bowling, I too joined a bowling league. I'm still trying to maintain more than a 136 average. I also like to swim, but I'm no bathing beauty. I have always had a secret desire to try my hand at the easel, but as for my secret vices, I would rather keep them a secret.
Pop has retired, so now I have twice the man on half the income and as for him, instead of wine, women and song, it is fishing, social security, and television. When life gets monotonous we load up our little travel trailer and go to the beach or to the hills. Sometimes in the fall we go to Colorado and in the winter to Arizona or California. We like trailer traveling, especially when we can travel with friends and relatives, and hope to continue our journeys, but we intend to maintain our home in Vancouver, because we enjoy living near the children and grandchildren.
I have resolved to try to adjust myself to the fact that i am now 62 years old. There may be other resolutions I should make, and there are probably mistakes and personal faults I haven't mentioned, but this is a synopsis of the life I have lived thus far.

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1920 Federal census:
Name: Lydia Barton
Home in 1920: Sterling Ward 3, Logan, Colorado
Age: 35
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1885
Birthplace: Canada
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Spouse's Name: Phillip Barton
Father's Birth Place: Canada
Mother's Birth Place: Canada
Marital Status: Married
Race: White
Sex: Female
Year of immigration: 1888
Able to read: Yes
Able to Write: Yes
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
Phillip Barton 40
Lydia Barton 35
Bertha Barton 15
Charles Barton 13
Rutherford Barton 8

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Some Descendants of Lydia Ann Koenig Barton Anderson

Lydia Ann Koenig Barton Anderson Family Tree

Four generations of women, Lydia Anderson, Bertha Mae McConnell, Ruth Beedle and Cheryl Lander

Lydia and her three children

Picture of Lydia, Phillip, Bertha and Charles

Picture of Lydia, Phillip, Bertha, Charles and Rutherford