Clarinda Journal (Clarinda, Iowa), Friday, June 22, 1894
Funeral of a Pioneer
Dr. James L. Barrett, an Old Settler of Clarinda Is Buried
In the issue of the Journal for last week was published a brief announcement of the death of Dr. James L. Barrett. His funeral took place last Saturday afternoon at the Presbyterian church and he was buried in the Clarinda cemetery.
Having located in Clarinda in 1855 he was one of the pioneer citizens of this place and was a practitioner of medicine here from its early days until advanced years compelled him to retire from his chosen profession. He was naturally well known to all the older settlers and was closely identified with a great deal of the history of Page county.
The late Dr. Barrett was a man of superior education, possessed of a wonderful memory and gifted in the use of language. He was a very entertaining conversationalist.
He was a great lover of trees and flowers. His love of trees, it might be said, amounted to a passion. Probably most of the evergreen trees in Clarinda were set out under his direction and he knew how trees should be cared for in order to have them come to the best results. Persons in the east, it is said, who had heard of him but did not know his name, were in the habit of addressing his letters to "The Evergreen Doctor, Clarinda, Ia."
An example of his energy is shown by an experience of his early life, when, after leaving college, he walked through the mud ninety miles to work in a printing office as a type setter.
He was a man of pronounced ideas, had the firmest of friends and sometimes strong enemies. Of his character and more his life the ground is well covered by Rev. T. C. Smith, who preached his funeral sermon, and which follows this introductory. The discourse of Dr. Smith was very fine throughout. Of the deceased he spoke as follows:
We lay away to rest today, the body of one who has taken an active part in the work of building up of two great states; one who was known by more people and who knew more than any other man not in continuous public life.
James L. Barrett was born in Campbell county, Ky., Jan. 18, 1817, of Irish-Scotch parentage. When but six months old his parents moved to Indiana, but recently admitted into the sisterhood of states and settled in Jennings county. There the childhood of the boy was spent, and he got what everyone ought to have, the ground work of his life in the country. In 1824 the family removed to Madison, and shortly afterward to Indianapolis. Thence he went to Fishersburg, thence to Pendleton and to Kokomo, building the first log house on the site where that flourishing city now stands.
Afterwards he helped to lay out Greentown and after some wandering south and west and home again, he came in 1855 to Clarinda. And this place, ever since, has been to him home.
He came only two years after the locating and establishing the town, was its first practicing physician and although absent for a time from the place, at different periods, he always claimed this as his residence.
Here his heart centered. He lived in Clarinda wherever he was. He had seen our city rise from the waste of prairie and grow into one of the most beautiful of all the fair cities of Iowa.
One of his passions was tree planting. By his own efforts and by his personal solicitation of others, he helped largely to embower our homes and to set out the colonnades along our streets, whose entablatures of boughs and leaves, ward off the fiery darts of the sun and hide the nests of warbling birds. Many trees are today growing in our city, brought from the Wabash shores and from the mountains of the west and planted by his own hands. If he is a benefactor of man who causes two blades of grass to grow, where grew one before, how much greater benefactor is he who starts the heavenward growth of elm and maple and cedar and then leaves them to the merciful care of heaven, for unborn generations to enjoy. If every tree in Clarinda for whose being here Dr. Barrett is responsible, should wither today, the witness to his wide benefactions of this nature would be very striking and impressive.
I come now to speak of him as a man. I shall use extreme plainness, indulge in no panegyrics and offer no excuses for his faults, save as the truth may do it.
He had faults for he was a man. He had his virtues too, some of them striking and singular.
He was a loyal citizen. While his judgment was fallible and like other men he was sometimes in the wrong, yet I think he always tried to be on the right side.
His patriotism was neither sectional nor partisan. Well versed in the history of his country, he formed an intelligent judgment on all questions and his convictions were deep and ineradicable.
Some of the men before me were as dear to him as if they had sprung from his own loins and were his natural sons.
Much of this is not known to those who have come into the city within the last ten years; but those who have known him for a quarter of a century, know the intense nature of his friendship.
The decrepitude of old age made him at the last apparently vacillating and captious. But the sun never went down upon his wrath. The undercurrents of his nature, in spite of the surface agitations, ran strong and full in the channels which early friendship formed. One of the consolations of his last days was the assurance that while he had at times made bitter enemies, yet all this was now ended, and he died with no enmity in his heart for any man and no man at enmity with him.
He was a true Christian. Early in life he became interested in religion, confessed Christ and joined the church. But he became a prodigal son. Far away from his Father's house, he spent many days in poverty and affliction, but at last he came to himself and he said, "I will arise and go to my father."
I think it was in the spring of 1884 when he presented himself to the session of the Presbyterian church in Shenandoah of which I was then pastor, gave us a clear history of his religious experience, and requested to be taken back into the communion of God's people.
Since that time I have known him well. He was always free to talk about religion, often would introduce it himself, and always welcomed the topic.
I speak therefore that I do know and testify that I have seen.
His was a genuinely Christian and therefore a saving faith.
Many people have erroneous ideas about what constitutes a Christian What is saving faith. They wrongly imagine a Christian is one who has no faults; who is perfect. A Christian is one who is in Christ, and saving faith is simple trust in him and in him alone for salvation. . ..
The end came at last. The clouds came gradually, shutting out the light of life more and more, until, as you may have seen a candle burn out, so went out his life. Not in unrelieved darkness, not in nothingness, but removed from the mists of earth and disenthralled of the earthly vessel, to be replenished with the power of an endless life.
Let the faults of this our friend and brother, be a solemn warning to young men; let his strong virtues incite us all to be more like the Master whom he loved and to trust in our God "who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us."
He is no longer a stranger, but a restored child, returned from his wandering and penitent for his sins.
No more a sojourner on earth, he has found his place which the Savior prepared for him, before he sent for him to be with himself forever.
He died June 15, 1894, age 77 years, 4 months and 27 days.
"Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord; yea for henceforth, saith the Spirit, they do rest from their labors and their works do follow them."
submitted by: Julia Johnson #47176433 [email protected]
Funeral of a Pioneer
Dr. James L. Barrett, an Old Settler of Clarinda Is Buried
In the issue of the Journal for last week was published a brief announcement of the death of Dr. James L. Barrett. His funeral took place last Saturday afternoon at the Presbyterian church and he was buried in the Clarinda cemetery.
Having located in Clarinda in 1855 he was one of the pioneer citizens of this place and was a practitioner of medicine here from its early days until advanced years compelled him to retire from his chosen profession. He was naturally well known to all the older settlers and was closely identified with a great deal of the history of Page county.
The late Dr. Barrett was a man of superior education, possessed of a wonderful memory and gifted in the use of language. He was a very entertaining conversationalist.
He was a great lover of trees and flowers. His love of trees, it might be said, amounted to a passion. Probably most of the evergreen trees in Clarinda were set out under his direction and he knew how trees should be cared for in order to have them come to the best results. Persons in the east, it is said, who had heard of him but did not know his name, were in the habit of addressing his letters to "The Evergreen Doctor, Clarinda, Ia."
An example of his energy is shown by an experience of his early life, when, after leaving college, he walked through the mud ninety miles to work in a printing office as a type setter.
He was a man of pronounced ideas, had the firmest of friends and sometimes strong enemies. Of his character and more his life the ground is well covered by Rev. T. C. Smith, who preached his funeral sermon, and which follows this introductory. The discourse of Dr. Smith was very fine throughout. Of the deceased he spoke as follows:
We lay away to rest today, the body of one who has taken an active part in the work of building up of two great states; one who was known by more people and who knew more than any other man not in continuous public life.
James L. Barrett was born in Campbell county, Ky., Jan. 18, 1817, of Irish-Scotch parentage. When but six months old his parents moved to Indiana, but recently admitted into the sisterhood of states and settled in Jennings county. There the childhood of the boy was spent, and he got what everyone ought to have, the ground work of his life in the country. In 1824 the family removed to Madison, and shortly afterward to Indianapolis. Thence he went to Fishersburg, thence to Pendleton and to Kokomo, building the first log house on the site where that flourishing city now stands.
Afterwards he helped to lay out Greentown and after some wandering south and west and home again, he came in 1855 to Clarinda. And this place, ever since, has been to him home.
He came only two years after the locating and establishing the town, was its first practicing physician and although absent for a time from the place, at different periods, he always claimed this as his residence.
Here his heart centered. He lived in Clarinda wherever he was. He had seen our city rise from the waste of prairie and grow into one of the most beautiful of all the fair cities of Iowa.
One of his passions was tree planting. By his own efforts and by his personal solicitation of others, he helped largely to embower our homes and to set out the colonnades along our streets, whose entablatures of boughs and leaves, ward off the fiery darts of the sun and hide the nests of warbling birds. Many trees are today growing in our city, brought from the Wabash shores and from the mountains of the west and planted by his own hands. If he is a benefactor of man who causes two blades of grass to grow, where grew one before, how much greater benefactor is he who starts the heavenward growth of elm and maple and cedar and then leaves them to the merciful care of heaven, for unborn generations to enjoy. If every tree in Clarinda for whose being here Dr. Barrett is responsible, should wither today, the witness to his wide benefactions of this nature would be very striking and impressive.
I come now to speak of him as a man. I shall use extreme plainness, indulge in no panegyrics and offer no excuses for his faults, save as the truth may do it.
He had faults for he was a man. He had his virtues too, some of them striking and singular.
He was a loyal citizen. While his judgment was fallible and like other men he was sometimes in the wrong, yet I think he always tried to be on the right side.
His patriotism was neither sectional nor partisan. Well versed in the history of his country, he formed an intelligent judgment on all questions and his convictions were deep and ineradicable.
Some of the men before me were as dear to him as if they had sprung from his own loins and were his natural sons.
Much of this is not known to those who have come into the city within the last ten years; but those who have known him for a quarter of a century, know the intense nature of his friendship.
The decrepitude of old age made him at the last apparently vacillating and captious. But the sun never went down upon his wrath. The undercurrents of his nature, in spite of the surface agitations, ran strong and full in the channels which early friendship formed. One of the consolations of his last days was the assurance that while he had at times made bitter enemies, yet all this was now ended, and he died with no enmity in his heart for any man and no man at enmity with him.
He was a true Christian. Early in life he became interested in religion, confessed Christ and joined the church. But he became a prodigal son. Far away from his Father's house, he spent many days in poverty and affliction, but at last he came to himself and he said, "I will arise and go to my father."
I think it was in the spring of 1884 when he presented himself to the session of the Presbyterian church in Shenandoah of which I was then pastor, gave us a clear history of his religious experience, and requested to be taken back into the communion of God's people.
Since that time I have known him well. He was always free to talk about religion, often would introduce it himself, and always welcomed the topic.
I speak therefore that I do know and testify that I have seen.
His was a genuinely Christian and therefore a saving faith.
Many people have erroneous ideas about what constitutes a Christian What is saving faith. They wrongly imagine a Christian is one who has no faults; who is perfect. A Christian is one who is in Christ, and saving faith is simple trust in him and in him alone for salvation. . ..
The end came at last. The clouds came gradually, shutting out the light of life more and more, until, as you may have seen a candle burn out, so went out his life. Not in unrelieved darkness, not in nothingness, but removed from the mists of earth and disenthralled of the earthly vessel, to be replenished with the power of an endless life.
Let the faults of this our friend and brother, be a solemn warning to young men; let his strong virtues incite us all to be more like the Master whom he loved and to trust in our God "who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us."
He is no longer a stranger, but a restored child, returned from his wandering and penitent for his sins.
No more a sojourner on earth, he has found his place which the Savior prepared for him, before he sent for him to be with himself forever.
He died June 15, 1894, age 77 years, 4 months and 27 days.
"Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord; yea for henceforth, saith the Spirit, they do rest from their labors and their works do follow them."
submitted by: Julia Johnson #47176433 [email protected]
Clarinda Journal (Clarinda, Iowa), Friday, June 22, 1894
Funeral of a Pioneer
Dr. James L. Barrett, an Old Settler of Clarinda Is Buried
In the issue of the Journal for last week was published a brief announcement of the death of Dr. James L. Barrett. His funeral took place last Saturday afternoon at the Presbyterian church and he was buried in the Clarinda cemetery.
Having located in Clarinda in 1855 he was one of the pioneer citizens of this place and was a practitioner of medicine here from its early days until advanced years compelled him to retire from his chosen profession. He was naturally well known to all the older settlers and was closely identified with a great deal of the history of Page county.
The late Dr. Barrett was a man of superior education, possessed of a wonderful memory and gifted in the use of language. He was a very entertaining conversationalist.
He was a great lover of trees and flowers. His love of trees, it might be said, amounted to a passion. Probably most of the evergreen trees in Clarinda were set out under his direction and he knew how trees should be cared for in order to have them come to the best results. Persons in the east, it is said, who had heard of him but did not know his name, were in the habit of addressing his letters to "The Evergreen Doctor, Clarinda, Ia."
An example of his energy is shown by an experience of his early life, when, after leaving college, he walked through the mud ninety miles to work in a printing office as a type setter.
He was a man of pronounced ideas, had the firmest of friends and sometimes strong enemies. Of his character and more his life the ground is well covered by Rev. T. C. Smith, who preached his funeral sermon, and which follows this introductory. The discourse of Dr. Smith was very fine throughout. Of the deceased he spoke as follows:
We lay away to rest today, the body of one who has taken an active part in the work of building up of two great states; one who was known by more people and who knew more than any other man not in continuous public life.
James L. Barrett was born in Campbell county, Ky., Jan. 18, 1817, of Irish-Scotch parentage. When but six months old his parents moved to Indiana, but recently admitted into the sisterhood of states and settled in Jennings county. There the childhood of the boy was spent, and he got what everyone ought to have, the ground work of his life in the country. In 1824 the family removed to Madison, and shortly afterward to Indianapolis. Thence he went to Fishersburg, thence to Pendleton and to Kokomo, building the first log house on the site where that flourishing city now stands.
Afterwards he helped to lay out Greentown and after some wandering south and west and home again, he came in 1855 to Clarinda. And this place, ever since, has been to him home.
He came only two years after the locating and establishing the town, was its first practicing physician and although absent for a time from the place, at different periods, he always claimed this as his residence.
Here his heart centered. He lived in Clarinda wherever he was. He had seen our city rise from the waste of prairie and grow into one of the most beautiful of all the fair cities of Iowa.
One of his passions was tree planting. By his own efforts and by his personal solicitation of others, he helped largely to embower our homes and to set out the colonnades along our streets, whose entablatures of boughs and leaves, ward off the fiery darts of the sun and hide the nests of warbling birds. Many trees are today growing in our city, brought from the Wabash shores and from the mountains of the west and planted by his own hands. If he is a benefactor of man who causes two blades of grass to grow, where grew one before, how much greater benefactor is he who starts the heavenward growth of elm and maple and cedar and then leaves them to the merciful care of heaven, for unborn generations to enjoy. If every tree in Clarinda for whose being here Dr. Barrett is responsible, should wither today, the witness to his wide benefactions of this nature would be very striking and impressive.
I come now to speak of him as a man. I shall use extreme plainness, indulge in no panegyrics and offer no excuses for his faults, save as the truth may do it.
He had faults for he was a man. He had his virtues too, some of them striking and singular.
He was a loyal citizen. While his judgment was fallible and like other men he was sometimes in the wrong, yet I think he always tried to be on the right side.
His patriotism was neither sectional nor partisan. Well versed in the history of his country, he formed an intelligent judgment on all questions and his convictions were deep and ineradicable.
Some of the men before me were as dear to him as if they had sprung from his own loins and were his natural sons.
Much of this is not known to those who have come into the city within the last ten years; but those who have known him for a quarter of a century, know the intense nature of his friendship.
The decrepitude of old age made him at the last apparently vacillating and captious. But the sun never went down upon his wrath. The undercurrents of his nature, in spite of the surface agitations, ran strong and full in the channels which early friendship formed. One of the consolations of his last days was the assurance that while he had at times made bitter enemies, yet all this was now ended, and he died with no enmity in his heart for any man and no man at enmity with him.
He was a true Christian. Early in life he became interested in religion, confessed Christ and joined the church. But he became a prodigal son. Far away from his Father's house, he spent many days in poverty and affliction, but at last he came to himself and he said, "I will arise and go to my father."
I think it was in the spring of 1884 when he presented himself to the session of the Presbyterian church in Shenandoah of which I was then pastor, gave us a clear history of his religious experience, and requested to be taken back into the communion of God's people.
Since that time I have known him well. He was always free to talk about religion, often would introduce it himself, and always welcomed the topic.
I speak therefore that I do know and testify that I have seen.
His was a genuinely Christian and therefore a saving faith.
Many people have erroneous ideas about what constitutes a Christian What is saving faith. They wrongly imagine a Christian is one who has no faults; who is perfect. A Christian is one who is in Christ, and saving faith is simple trust in him and in him alone for salvation. . ..
The end came at last. The clouds came gradually, shutting out the light of life more and more, until, as you may have seen a candle burn out, so went out his life. Not in unrelieved darkness, not in nothingness, but removed from the mists of earth and disenthralled of the earthly vessel, to be replenished with the power of an endless life.
Let the faults of this our friend and brother, be a solemn warning to young men; let his strong virtues incite us all to be more like the Master whom he loved and to trust in our God "who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us."
He is no longer a stranger, but a restored child, returned from his wandering and penitent for his sins.
No more a sojourner on earth, he has found his place which the Savior prepared for him, before he sent for him to be with himself forever.
He died June 15, 1894, age 77 years, 4 months and 27 days.
"Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord; yea for henceforth, saith the Spirit, they do rest from their labors and their works do follow them."
submitted by: Julia Johnson #47176433 [email protected]
Funeral of a Pioneer
Dr. James L. Barrett, an Old Settler of Clarinda Is Buried
In the issue of the Journal for last week was published a brief announcement of the death of Dr. James L. Barrett. His funeral took place last Saturday afternoon at the Presbyterian church and he was buried in the Clarinda cemetery.
Having located in Clarinda in 1855 he was one of the pioneer citizens of this place and was a practitioner of medicine here from its early days until advanced years compelled him to retire from his chosen profession. He was naturally well known to all the older settlers and was closely identified with a great deal of the history of Page county.
The late Dr. Barrett was a man of superior education, possessed of a wonderful memory and gifted in the use of language. He was a very entertaining conversationalist.
He was a great lover of trees and flowers. His love of trees, it might be said, amounted to a passion. Probably most of the evergreen trees in Clarinda were set out under his direction and he knew how trees should be cared for in order to have them come to the best results. Persons in the east, it is said, who had heard of him but did not know his name, were in the habit of addressing his letters to "The Evergreen Doctor, Clarinda, Ia."
An example of his energy is shown by an experience of his early life, when, after leaving college, he walked through the mud ninety miles to work in a printing office as a type setter.
He was a man of pronounced ideas, had the firmest of friends and sometimes strong enemies. Of his character and more his life the ground is well covered by Rev. T. C. Smith, who preached his funeral sermon, and which follows this introductory. The discourse of Dr. Smith was very fine throughout. Of the deceased he spoke as follows:
We lay away to rest today, the body of one who has taken an active part in the work of building up of two great states; one who was known by more people and who knew more than any other man not in continuous public life.
James L. Barrett was born in Campbell county, Ky., Jan. 18, 1817, of Irish-Scotch parentage. When but six months old his parents moved to Indiana, but recently admitted into the sisterhood of states and settled in Jennings county. There the childhood of the boy was spent, and he got what everyone ought to have, the ground work of his life in the country. In 1824 the family removed to Madison, and shortly afterward to Indianapolis. Thence he went to Fishersburg, thence to Pendleton and to Kokomo, building the first log house on the site where that flourishing city now stands.
Afterwards he helped to lay out Greentown and after some wandering south and west and home again, he came in 1855 to Clarinda. And this place, ever since, has been to him home.
He came only two years after the locating and establishing the town, was its first practicing physician and although absent for a time from the place, at different periods, he always claimed this as his residence.
Here his heart centered. He lived in Clarinda wherever he was. He had seen our city rise from the waste of prairie and grow into one of the most beautiful of all the fair cities of Iowa.
One of his passions was tree planting. By his own efforts and by his personal solicitation of others, he helped largely to embower our homes and to set out the colonnades along our streets, whose entablatures of boughs and leaves, ward off the fiery darts of the sun and hide the nests of warbling birds. Many trees are today growing in our city, brought from the Wabash shores and from the mountains of the west and planted by his own hands. If he is a benefactor of man who causes two blades of grass to grow, where grew one before, how much greater benefactor is he who starts the heavenward growth of elm and maple and cedar and then leaves them to the merciful care of heaven, for unborn generations to enjoy. If every tree in Clarinda for whose being here Dr. Barrett is responsible, should wither today, the witness to his wide benefactions of this nature would be very striking and impressive.
I come now to speak of him as a man. I shall use extreme plainness, indulge in no panegyrics and offer no excuses for his faults, save as the truth may do it.
He had faults for he was a man. He had his virtues too, some of them striking and singular.
He was a loyal citizen. While his judgment was fallible and like other men he was sometimes in the wrong, yet I think he always tried to be on the right side.
His patriotism was neither sectional nor partisan. Well versed in the history of his country, he formed an intelligent judgment on all questions and his convictions were deep and ineradicable.
Some of the men before me were as dear to him as if they had sprung from his own loins and were his natural sons.
Much of this is not known to those who have come into the city within the last ten years; but those who have known him for a quarter of a century, know the intense nature of his friendship.
The decrepitude of old age made him at the last apparently vacillating and captious. But the sun never went down upon his wrath. The undercurrents of his nature, in spite of the surface agitations, ran strong and full in the channels which early friendship formed. One of the consolations of his last days was the assurance that while he had at times made bitter enemies, yet all this was now ended, and he died with no enmity in his heart for any man and no man at enmity with him.
He was a true Christian. Early in life he became interested in religion, confessed Christ and joined the church. But he became a prodigal son. Far away from his Father's house, he spent many days in poverty and affliction, but at last he came to himself and he said, "I will arise and go to my father."
I think it was in the spring of 1884 when he presented himself to the session of the Presbyterian church in Shenandoah of which I was then pastor, gave us a clear history of his religious experience, and requested to be taken back into the communion of God's people.
Since that time I have known him well. He was always free to talk about religion, often would introduce it himself, and always welcomed the topic.
I speak therefore that I do know and testify that I have seen.
His was a genuinely Christian and therefore a saving faith.
Many people have erroneous ideas about what constitutes a Christian What is saving faith. They wrongly imagine a Christian is one who has no faults; who is perfect. A Christian is one who is in Christ, and saving faith is simple trust in him and in him alone for salvation. . ..
The end came at last. The clouds came gradually, shutting out the light of life more and more, until, as you may have seen a candle burn out, so went out his life. Not in unrelieved darkness, not in nothingness, but removed from the mists of earth and disenthralled of the earthly vessel, to be replenished with the power of an endless life.
Let the faults of this our friend and brother, be a solemn warning to young men; let his strong virtues incite us all to be more like the Master whom he loved and to trust in our God "who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us."
He is no longer a stranger, but a restored child, returned from his wandering and penitent for his sins.
No more a sojourner on earth, he has found his place which the Savior prepared for him, before he sent for him to be with himself forever.
He died June 15, 1894, age 77 years, 4 months and 27 days.
"Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord; yea for henceforth, saith the Spirit, they do rest from their labors and their works do follow them."
submitted by: Julia Johnson #47176433 [email protected]
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