Up until now, this blog has been about my brick wall ancesters. But this is a tribute page to my great uncle Hugh Barber, son of my paternal great grandparents Mortimer and Hannah Durrin Barber.

Hugh Jay Barber was born on  31/Mar/1883, in Ellsworth, Pierce Co., WI. He died on 28/Nov/1963 and is buried in Tillamook, OR.

He was first married to  Anne RIPLEY on 12 Oct 1908 in Tillamook, Oregon. Anne was born on 3 Jul 1884 in Nebraska, United States and died on Aug 1931 in Tillamook, Tillamook Co., OR. She is buried in Tillamook.

Hugh next married Dorothy Marquam Bentley on 6 Jul 1934. Dorothy was born on 27 Mar 1893 and died on 13 Sep 1975 in Portland, Multnomah Co., OR. She is buried in Portland. Dorothy is the niece of Philip August Marquam, lawyer, judge, legislator, and real estate developer in the U.S. state of Oregon.

Children

• Helen Elizabeth b. 13/Aug/1909, Nehalem, Tillamook County, Oregon, USA; d. 14 JULY 2000, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA; m. Russel NELSON, b. 25 FEBRUARY 1904, Salem, Marion County, Oregon, USA; d. 9 MARCH 1956, Tillamook County, Oregon, USA 
• Bessie Priscilla b. 13/Jan/1911; d. 13 JAN 2004 • McMinnville, Yamhill, Oregon, USA; buried in Bay City, Alameda, California, USA; m. Murl George PETERSON on 16 Dec 1934 in  Tillamook County, Oregon, USA 
• Emerald Hugh “Rip,” b. 01/Aug/1912; d. 27 APR 1987, Tillamook, Tillamook, Oregon, USA; m. Elsie D. WILHITE on 3 Nov 1934 in Alameda, California, USA
• Edith, b. 1919; d. 1920; buried in Tillamook County, Oregon, USA  
• Glenn Jay, b. 22/Oct/1920; d. JUNE 5, 2000, Washington County, Oregon, United States; m. Maxine Hope LYSTER on 18 Sep 1949

Hugh Barber
 by Glenn Barber

When visitors enter the gallery that overlook the Tillamook Cheese Plant, at the far end is a display of medals. These medals were all won by one cheesemaker, Hugh Barber. For a better understanding of why these medals are on display here is a brief report on his life.

Hugh was born in Ellsworth, Wisconsin, on March 31, 1883. He was the oldest of the surviving three boys and three girls. The closest child was a brother, Leslie. When Hugh was 20 years old the family moved to Tillamook, Oregon. His mother wanted to be near her mother who had married Asa Fox and lived in Tillamook.  Hugh managed to finish eighth grade in Tillamook, and played football for the first Tillamook high school football team. He said they never lost a game while he was playing. Despite being forced quit school to help take care of the family; he was a well-educated man. The “Saturday Evening Post”, “Colliers” and the National Geographic” were part of reading at home. He continued his education by studying books on cheesemaking, reading Hoards dairyman and the Holstein-Friesian World.

Soon after arrival in Tillamook, the family moved to the head of Netarts Bay, across the tideflats next to the sand dune by the ocean beach. It was here that Hugh first learned to make cheese. Charley Wiley, the farmer the Barber family was renting from hired Hugh to ride to the little cheese factory on his farm and make cheese. This was not cheddar, but called brick cheese because to press the cheese a brick was placed on the floating lid of the mold to press the cheese into the final form.
Sometime during these early years, Hugh learned how to make cheddar from Guy Ford, who later became the dairy inspector for Tillamook county creamery Association.  Soon, Hugh and Brother Leslie bought a farm on the North Fork of the Nehalem River.

The brothers soon realized that the farm would not support two families, so Hugh turned to working in a cheese factory. He soon became head cheesemaker at the little factory of Aldervale. This factory was close to the farm he and his brother had bought.

It was here that one morning when he came down to open the factory he noticed a critter in the vat of milk. During the winter the farmers dried up most of their herd since the grass was not growing and the milk production would drop. The factory only made cheese every other day, on the off days the milk was put into the vat to await the next days milking. Closer inspection proved the animal to be a skunk (or the local civet cat which stinks just as bad) When draining the vat he discovered the only reason the one animal was able to keep its head above the liquid was by standing on the body of its brother!

It was about this time that the Tillamook county creamery Association was becoming a reality. One reason Hugh was in favor of the farmer’s cooperative was the variation in the quality of the milk received at the processing plants. He could always tell when the state farm inspector came into the county. That individual with his old white horse always entered the county at the southern edge and worked his way north. As he slowly came into the Nehalem country the milk at Aldervale would get better and better until it was really up to snuff. Then after inspecting the farms the inspector would go on to Clatsop county and soon the milk quality would decline until it reached the dismal quality before the annual farm inspection.

After some years he moved to Mohler factory and made cheese there. His next move was to the Fairview factory; he was now in the center of the county. And for the first time was making cheese within the Tillamook County creamery Association. The farmers built Holstein factory nearby and since Hugh was partial to Holstein cattle, it was a natural for him to make cheese there. The Fairview factory closed.

He was an innovator and Holstein factory reflected that trend. One of the firsts was to separate the butterfat from the whey and churning that into butter. For a time the association butter factory was located in the Fairview cheese factory building. One of the first mechanical stirring machines in Tillamook cheesemaking was put into use. Other innovations followed, to the betterment of cheesemaking in general and the Tillamook cheese industry in particular.

While at Holstein, for cheese to be entered into competition, he put the best milk into one vat while not completely filling that vat with milk. He would attend that vat personally and when it was time to put the curd into molds for pressing, he would only take out five 24-pound wheels of cheese. Hugh had noticed that the 24-pound cheeses cured better than the 5 pound and 2 pound cheese, he reasoned that the best curing would be a huge block of cheese. So rest of the curd was put into a 400-pound wheel of cheese. To press such a huge block of cheese house jacks were used and the cheese was kept into the mold for several days. Then the cheese was aged from 8 months to 18 months. He was right, this cheese proved to be premium and every year Meier and frank, a large department store in Portland would buy one or two of those huge cheeses and cut it as a publicity stunt. This was Tillamook’s finest since it was made from the same vat as the award winning cheese.

During the ‘30s Hugh read in the newspaper that Los Angeles county fair was going to score cheese. He sent one down to that competition and received the gold medal as top prize. This happened for 5 years in a row. The sixth year the cheese dame back without any score or explanation. So Hugh wrote to find out what had happened. The competition had been canceled and Hugh had won all the gold medals that were offered.

Over the years his cheese had placed first in the competition at the northwest livestock exposition. One letter he received from the exposition started out “As usual, we are eating Hugh Barber cheese”.  The winning cheese was cut and served at the exposition. Hugh had one disappointment while he was making cheese in Wallowa County. During WWII he was hired for one year to run a little factory between Enterprise and Joseph. He sent cheese to the livestock exposition and waited to see how well it did as reported in the newspaper. Nothing ever was reported and after the exposition closed he found that the officials were waiting on him to come to the exposition where they planned to get him up on the stage to present the award to him in front of the crowd.

When the one-year was over, he returned to Tillamook where he was hired as a co-maker at the Tillamook factory. He made cheese at that factory until he retired due to health problems. Throughout his career as cheesemaker he was always ready to help other cheesemakers with advice and problem solving. Much of the time he was asked to help with making prize-winning entries into competition. When asked about helping other cheesemakers who might do better in competition than he, his reply “everyone is different. No one will be able to make cheese like Hugh Barber”. One cheesemaker after Hugh had retired asked about some cheese that he planned to put into competition. After sampling the cheese, Hugh indicated one as young cheese another as medium and the third as aged cheese. All three won prizes at the fair.

Hugh was perhaps the best cheesemaker in the United States. His fame spread far and wide. During the depression, visitors came out of their way to visit the Holstein cheese factory. Many bought cheese and many sent money after reaching home to have the cheese shipped to them in various parts of the United states.

If he were alive today I am sure he would be in favor of the methods used by the creamery association to produce award-winning cheese.

As a member of the Hugh Barber family I am pleased that the Tillamook County Creamery Association has chosen to display his medals and keep the memory of one of the men who made Tillamook brand what it is today

Glenn Barber’s Passing
Wayne Barber – Jun 26, 2000

My father, Glenn Barber passed away June 5, 2000. He went to the doctor Thursday, May 25 because he wasn’t feeling well. He had a stroke in the doctor’s office, while the doctor was examining him. They put him in Tuality Hospital in Hillsboro (his doctor was also in Hilsboro) and they did further testing the following Tuesday. He had a mostly blocked carotid artery and needed multiple bypasses. They scheduled surgery at St. Vincent Hospital for Friday, June 2. They cleaned out his carotid and performed 5 bypasses, but he endured complications. Late Friday night he returned to surgery to repair a bypass graft. Saturday afternoon, he was back in sugery to remove a blood clot from his leg.  He was fighting to recover, and there was hope Sunday. But he went downhill Monday and passed  away at 10:40pm. He had a smile on his face when he died. It was peaceful.

His ashes are interred at Willamette National cemetary. The service was June 21. A memorial service was held at the Tillamook Methodist Church Saturday, June 24.

 Here is a biography I read at the commital service on Wednesday:

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 We are here today to pay our respects to my father, Glenn Jay Barber who passed away June 5, and to honor his memory.

Glenn Jay Barber was born October 24, 1922 in Tillamook, Oregon to Hugh J. Barber and Annie Ripley Barber. He joined the Navy in 1940 and served 8 years in the South Pacific during World War II. He talked often of his war experiences: of the time a kamakazi pilot was sure to sink the ship, but was shot down at the last second. He earned a purple heart after some shrapnel struck him in his eyebrow, but he didn’t talk about the medal. He was discharged from the Navy June 5, 1948 and returned to Tillamook. He was offered a couple of jobs, but settled for the offer from the U.S. Post Office.

 He met Maxine Lyster in Church and they were wed September 18, 1949. Their first child, Ken was born in 1951 and two years later, twins, Wayne and Lois were born. He was a member of the Tillamook United Methodist Church for 66 years.

Dad contributed to the community in several ways: he was a Boy Scout leader before I was born, he was an Indian Guide leader, and a 4-H leader. He loved photography which he began as a hobby while in the Navy. He taught his children and many others the art of photography in his 4- H camera club which he led for 30 years.

Dad wanted his children to play music and the three of us took piano lessons and later we took up band instruments. Since Dad played the trombone, it was only natural that his sons play the trombone as well. Dad told me he tried out for the Navy band, but wasn’t accepted. He later learned that most of the Navy band was killed in action at the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He played the piano, accompanying many young musicians in the community as they competed in musical performances.

During his career with the Post Office, Dad delivered the mail first on foot in the city and later as a rural letter carrier. I have heard it said in the past 2 weeks when people heard of his passing, this phrase, “He was my mail man,” yet he hadn’t delivered mail for 27 years! Each of his children remember special times riding with him on the route. Once I remember helping him deliver packages on Christmas day to families whose parcels arrived too late for delivery the day before.

During his tenure as a Rural Letter Carrier, Dad served as president of the Oregon Rural Letter Carriers association. Dad retired from the Post Office at the young age of 50. He said he was offered early retirement and it took him all of 2 seconds to accept the offer.

Dad kept active during retirement, cutting wood, hiking, taking pictures, volunteering at the Junior High School, and taking his grandchildren on special train trips.

Glenn is survived by his wife Maxine, his children Ken, Lois and Wayne, eight grandchildren, two sisters, Helen Nelson of Portland, and Bessie Peterson of Seaside. His brother Emerald Hugh (Rip) Barber and another sister, Edith Barber preceded him in death.

  Wayne Barber

Hugh Jay Barber

Cheesemaker, Dairyman, Family man, Citizen.  Born March 31, 1883, Elsworth, Wisconsin, died November 27, 1963, Tillamook, Oregon.

From dairyman, 1903-1905 to Brick cheesemaker under Charley Wiley on the Netarts Sand Spit, to Cheddar making under Guy Ford and Bennet to head maker at Aldervale, Netarts, Mohler, Fairview, Holstein (Enterprise, OR. 1 yr.) to Tillamook Creamery.  After retirement sold cheesemaking supplies over Western U.S., did special testing at the Tillamook Creamery Assoc. plant.

Trained many cheesemakers, gave help and tips to any maker asking for help.  Introduced separating cream from whey.  Brought many prizes and recognition of Tillamook Cheese from Dairy Shows.  Many of his medals are on display at the Cheese plant.

Helped in the breeding program of prize Barber Holsteins on farm owned by Hugh and brother Leslie Barber, and operated by Leslie.

Married Annie Ripley, 1908, and after her death, Dorothy Marquam, 1931.  He was admired by his children for his quiet ways, good humor, good judgment and fair dealing.  His formal schooling ended a few months after eighth grade but he continued to learn throughout his lifetime until he became an expert in cheesemaking and diary cattle breeding.

As a booster of Tillamook county he had a keen interest in promoting programs of advancement, particularly in education, dairy business, and cheesemaking; of Tillamook County and of Oregon interests, over a period of sixty years living and working in Tillamook County.

Dedicated by:  Emerald H. “Rip” Barber (deceased), Glenn Jay Barber, Helen E. Nelson, Bessie P. Peterson.

“Netarts Oregon Sandspit”
Remembered by Hugh Barber

The Mortimer Barber Family, three sons, and three daughters arrived in Tillamook County from Wisconsin in late fall or early winter of 1903.  That winter it rained every day for three months.  Mother Hannah marked her calendar.  She missed Wisconsin’s bright sun on white snow.  They lived on the Wilson River tideland north of Tillamook City.  The next spring they rented a farm on Netart’s Bay Sandspit from Gus Kunze who during several year’s stay, taught Hugh to make brick cheese.

Hugh was 21, Leslie two years younger and sister Pearl were all young people in the lively Netarts community.  Deer and bear were plentiful.  Hugh remembered most the huge flocks of ducks and geese.  One winter they decided to swim to the nearest one of the Three Arch Rocks off Maxwell Point.  Not knowing that the seemingly short distance was about two miles.  Winters in usual Southwest storms seemed so warm in contrast to ice of Wisconsin winters.

“By the time we knew it was farther than we thought” Hugh said, “We were too far out to swim back.”  He added, “We didn’t know if we could make it.”  He shook his head at their ignorance.

When the young people got together on long summer evenings Croquet was the game of the time.  They scouted the hills and found no level place for their court.  Finally the young men got together, shoveled off the top of the rounded hill back of the Desmond house and barn.  Any ball hit outside of the court had to be chased downhill.  That added to the excitement of the game.  The new and shorter road to Tillamook town very much the same route as today.  It was a two wheel ruts and so rough that people walked the seven miles if they didn’t have to pick up supplies.  The road it replaced was longer, and mostly on the level between the junction of the present road to Cape Lookout and the one along Netarts Bay.  It connected with the road along Tillamook River and o into town.

Leslie found a bear cub out on the sand dunes.  He felt that he would never use his arms again after holding the squirming animal at arms length, or get clawed by the squirming youngster.  The family decided to keep and care for the young animal tied.  He lived several years tied on the premises.

At that time the Bay’s salt marshes were diked to keep the salt water out of the grass pastures.  About 1950, Hugh attended a picnic never much where Cape Lookout State Park is located.  A plot of good sized tress on a mound amazed him.  He had mowed hay there forty years before!

Indians camped on the spit.  Kitchen Middens, piles of clam and oyster shells and bones of animals thrown out by the the Indians camping there.  They are under the control of Oregon State University and closed to the public.

About the same time, small vessels brought oyster pickers to harvest the native Netarts oysters for the San Francisco market.  The Community living there at the time didn’t hear that Lincoln was shot until the sailors brought news six months after his death.

Hugh learned to make cheddar cheese at Mapleleaf factory under Guy Ford, later under Bennet at Tillamook Creamery.  In 1910 he and wife Annie, who he met playing croquet, and daughter Helen, returned for a year to make cheese on the Desmond place across the shallow valley from the old croquet court.

Reminiscenses
The Lookout Home on the sandspit adjoining the Hill Monument

Cattle:
Jeff Wallace, cattlebuyer, bought some from Portuguese Thompson.  He drove them opposite Netarts and hired Indians to swim the cattle across to Netarts by canoe.  They were then driven north over Neahkahnie Mountain to a big slaughter house or over the south road from Doph to Sheridan to a packing plant.  The drover would put several husky steers ahead as they would be fast walkers.  The other, more or less, followed their fast pace.  A man was put behind the lead steers to drive them.  If they put slow ones ahead, they would bunch up.  Mr. Wallace had five or six good cattle dogs, on the order of Shepherd dogs, which were well trained.  If a cow left the trail or went into the woods the dog would get her out.  Big bulls were the hardest to handle.  They wore themselves, dogs and men out.

In early days, all calves were raised.  They usually came in the spring and were sold next summer.  Beef was more important than milk then.

Mr. Wallace wintered cattle in the woods on Neahkahnie.  He brought about a dozen head and put them on the place where the little summer store is just outside Cape Lookout park.  Hugh’s folk fed them daily.  This was the Palmer Place.  Hugh’s folk lived on the Jackson Place.

Once in a storm on Neahkahnie Mtn. the lead steers tried to turn in the narrow trail and six of the big three year olds fell to death.

The Austins who lived near brought oysters to Tillamook each week.  (Irma Mathews was one of the Austin children.)

Tanner:
A relative of Mrs. Albert Mason and her sister, Mrs. Blyback, made boots from seal-skins which he tanned.   He sold them to crews of boats which came in from San Francisco and sent the rest to the San Francisco market.  The boat gathered oysters in Netarts Bay.  Sometimes there were 200 men working according to Mr. Vaughn, the father of Amos, Guy et al.  They lived near Idaville.  The oyster beds were depleted.

Indian Burial:
Hugh heard they were buried on platforms in canoes.  Holes on the sandspit were where the teepees stood.  Teepees were made of poles, bark.  A Mill was on the Desmond place near the Netarts boat landing. Hugh used this creek for a boat landing when they lived on the Desmond place.

Cheesemaking:
Hugh learned to make cheese from Charley Wiley on the sandspit.  Tommy and Charles Lee, Englishmen, bought the factory and hired Hugh to make cheese.  Catterlin build the plant.  He started a butter plant on the Miami River.  He had been in the cheese business in Langolois, CA.  The plant had wood floor, vats made from tin shipped from England, seamed by a plumber.  The frame the vat sat in was called the ’tile’; sides were of lumber 20 inches wide; bottom planks were 12 inches; the pump was outside the door.

At the head of the bay Hugh made brick cheese out of 700 lb. milk daily.  Kunze who owned the place which Hugh’s folks rented was cheesemaker.  The Wiley place for down the spit got all the water for house and cattle at well.  Hugh worked for Mapleleaf under Guy Ford and at Tillamook Under Bennett on cheddar cheese before he made cheese on the Desmond Place near Netarts.

Cattle would go by the beach in strong wind to avoid flies.  Some settlers let them winter in the woods and they came out in good shape in spring.  He used 3 or 4,000 lb. milk for cheddar, closed up in winter, sold better to Tillamook then.  It was molded in 2 lb. rolls.

A Slice of History: Holstein Creamery

March 23, 2011

The Holstein Creamery was one of the many small little creameries that dotted the Tillamook Valley. It was established in late 1917, at which time it became a member creamery of the Tillamook County Creamery Association.

In this photo from 1938, Hugh Barber, head cheesemaker at the Holstein Creamery, accepts a load of milk from one of the dairy farmers. All of the milk was weighed and tested before it was sent to one of the cheese vats. Tacked by the door was a tally sheet showing the pounds of milk received, which is how a farmer was, and still is, paid for their milk.

The second cheesemaker standing by the vat is monitoring the filling of the vat and the beginning of the cheesemaking process.

The Holstein Creamery was located on Third Street in Tillamook, just east of the fairgrounds. At one point it burned down, a common occurrence at creameries since hot fires were needed to create the steam used to heat the milk. The Holstein Creamery was rebuilt and operated until its owners, along with three other local creameries, merged and created the Tillamook Cheese & Dairy Association. Together with TCCA, the two groups built the new, centrally-located plant, which is still a part of our operating plant today.

The Holstein Creamery was torn down a few years ago.

https://www.tillamook.com/community/blog/a-slice-of-history-holstein-creamery/

Reminiscences of Hugh Barber’s family

Mary Jane Hopkins and Steven Van Rensselaer had four sons.  The oldest is buried in Minn.  Mortimer Barber is buried in the Nehalem cemetery.  Chauncy (Uncle Chant) of Ashland, Wis. and Will of Spooner, Wis. is buried at Minong, Wis.

The earliest Barbers Hugh heard of was that three brothers came to the U.S. from Canada either to Michigan or NY from Ontario.  He believed it to be Michigan.  He said Mortimer’s some historical name.  Steven Van Rensselaer Barber was always called Van.

Grandfather Van Barber lived in St. Clair, Michigan, where the Diamond Salt Mines are.  (Carl Haberlach, head of the Tillamook County Creamery Ass’n. always insisted on using this salt in cheese making.  As late at 1957 it was still the purest salt.)  He went to Pine Island, Minn. to take up a homestead–probably near Rochester–when about 40 years old.

He married Mary Jane Hopkins, nicknamed Jenny.  During the Civil War, she was so frightened by the Indians of the Sioux uprising that they moved to Sycamore, Ill.  (the oldest of the four sons is buried in Minn.)  Here they separated.  She married Grandpa Davis from Mass, and a spiritualist.  The old pine chest belonged to him.  He brought it to Wisconsin.  They had a cherry wood drop-leaf table and mahogany chest of drawers.  Hugh remembers also a box-like checkerboard that folded up.  On one side was a game which the throw of dice determined the plays.  Eri B. Davis was a meat cutter.  Both were past middle age when married either in Illinois or Wisconsin.

He was aging so he became a caretaker at a lodge near Clear Lake.  He lived with Hugh’s folks.  He took a homestead near Spooner, Wis. when Hugh’s folks did in 1896.  This was at Big Casey Lake.  They sold both homesteads in 1903.  Hugh’s folks came to Tillamook, Oregon and Grandfather Barber went to Ashland, Wis. on Lake Superior to live with Uncle Chauncey (nicknamed Chant).  Another brother was Uncle Will.  He lived at Spooner, died at Minong, just north of Spooner.  One son is still in that area.  Hugh’s father, Mortimer Leslie Barber died in Portland, Oregon in 1920.  He had gone from their Nehalem home more or less on a prospecting trip.  (Hugh and brother Leslie went to Portland to make arrangements as their father died on the street.  The money he had with him was given to the boys by the undertaker there.)

Hugh remembers hearing his Mother’s father had a newspaper possibly at St. Paul which federal sympathizers demolished in the Civil War because of his belief of the South.  He was elderly then.  He had married Caroline M. Johnson in St. Paul Territory of Minn.  Ava Durrin was in the Civil War on the southern side.  (Hugh’s cousin Carrie West, a namesake of Caroline, told me that the children tormented her mother and her family by calling them “Copperheads.)

Grandmother Caroline Johnson was born Aug. 17, 1835 in Hella, Norway.  The earliest Barbers probably came directly to Canada if not from the states to canada, following the Civil War.  At least he was strongly pro-British.  Hugh thinks they were Welsh.  If not, they were English.

Hugh’s mother was Hannah.  Her sister was Mary born 1858 and her brother Ava born 1860.  Born 1863 in Minnesota Hannah was very erect, had a good figure, Norwegian type.  She looked very much like Caroline in the picture belonging to Hugh which Carrie West has.  When we moved to Enterprise, Hugh left the picture with Carrie West.

The Johnson family came to Virginia from Norway.  Caroline married Grandpa Fox after Grandpa Durrin died.  She died before he did.  They lived on the Trask River Acreage, later building the Fox house on Nestucca Ave., which is the second house south of Carrie West’s.  Aunt Mary Kinney took care of him about a year and got all his property.  Both died at __.  He was a year younger than she.  She reared Carrie Salton Scharf whose mother died in childbirth at Ellsworth, Wis.  The Scharffe family lived in Mountain Vie, Calif.  Stanley Fox was adopted and electrocuted on an electric line in Tillamook.

Hugh’s grandfather Steven Van Rensselaer Barber had hard eyes.  If you looked in them they never blinked.  They were gray or brownish.  He played cards but did not drink.   His wife left him.  She said he played cards too much.  He learned to read newspapers after he was grown.  He lived in Ontario Province, Canada and married in New York State.

His grandmother had black hair and blue eyes.  She was supposed to be Pennsylvania Dutch.  She was small, lean, about one hundred pounds.

Grandfather was of heavy build, never fat.  He was like Hugh’s brother Leslie.

Hugh’s father, Mortimer Leslie Barber, was born in Michigan, lived in Minnesota, Illinois, then in Wisconsin.  His grandmother was afraid of Indians during the Sioux uprising so they moved to Illinois.  Hugh thought his grandfather could not stand civilization so they moved to Wisconsin for frontier life.

Grandmother met step-grandad in Illinois.  He converted her to Spiritualism.  She thought Hugh would make a wonderful medium.  She married this man before Hugh was born or shortly after. (1883)  He was a big tall man with a hooked nose.  They moved in with Hugh’s folks.  He got sick at Turtle Lake.  Grandma cooked for a man at Turtle Lake.  Step granddad died so then she lived with Hugh’s folks until she died.  She is buried at Rocky Ridge, Wisconsin.

Grandfather Barber lived on a homestead adjoining Hugh’s folks.  He got too old so he moved in with Hugh’s folks.  He’d cut wood for Hugh’s mother, carried it in etc.  He walked ten and a half miles to visit Uncle Chant, his brother, when he was eighty years old.  He did not come West but went to Ashland to Uncle Chant’s, where he died.

Hugh’s Grandfather, Steven Van Rensselaer Barber, married Mary Jane Hopkins, who later married Eri B. Davis.

Their son, Mortimer Leslie Barber married on Aug. 13, 1881 Hanna Priscilla Zenobia Durrin who was born Dec. 18, 1863.  Her parents were Ava Durrin of Hartford, Conn., and Caroline Johnson of Norway.  Her second husband was Asa Fox who is buried in the IOOF cemetery in Tillamook, Oregon.

Mortimer Leslie Barber and Hanna Priscilla Barber oldest child was Hugh J. Barber born Mar. 31, 1883 at Ellsworth, Wis.  In Tillamook he married Anna Ripley on Oct. 21, 1908.  She was born July 3, 1884 and died Aug. 1931.  His second wife was Dorothy Marquam Bentley.  She was born March 27, 1893 and they were married July 6, 1934.  Dorothy died at Portland, Sept. 13, 1975.

Hugh Aunt, Marry A. Durrin, sister of his mother Hannah Barber, married William Kinney who was committed to a State Hospital where he died.  These were Carrie West’s parents.  Hugh barely remembers him.  Next Marry Kinney married Robert Eichinger (pronounced Iin ger).  This was about thirty years later.  He is buried in the Tillamook IOOF cemetery.  Later she married her third husband, Jacob Pesterfield, a fine gentleman.

Hugh’s Great Grandfather came to Michigan from Ontario.  He may be one of three Barbers who came to Canada from England or is at least a descendant.  His father lived in Michigan.  He had little education.  He became an alcoholic and would trade horses from someone’s old team etc., thereby keeping the family in want.

Grandmother Barber read continually–especially novels.  Grandfather Barber became a caretaker after he and wife separated.  The lodge was for vacation fishing or hunting located at Balsam Lake near Clear Lake, Wis.

After 80 years of age he was on a farm next to Hugh’s folks at Spooner, Wis.  He chewed tobacco, played cards, but did not drink.  He was stubborn, hot-headed, weighed 160 lb.. all the time, was muscular and strong for his age.  He did not want to give up their homestead in Pine Island, Minn., during the Sioux Uprising.  His wife did so she and maybe Grandpa Barber went to Illinois.  Later she married Grandpa Eri B. Davis, from Mass., either in Ill. or Wis.  He was a butcher.  His wife was dead 1876 but he had a son.

Grandmother Johnson had six brothers in the Civil War.  Five never came back.  She, Jennie, and husband lived by the Erie Canal when married.  They always talked of Towe paths and canals so when Hugh, while coming west, saw irrigation ditches in the Yakima Valley he thought they were canals.  She told about mules pulling boats along tow paths so Hugh was surprised that people called paths trails in Oregon.  Also what we call a creek was a brook in Wisconsin.

Grandfather Barber always brought presents when he came to visit–some trinkets, toys or candy.  He often brought cloth for Hugh’s mother to make clothes from.  He brought Hugh a Lincoln Cabin bank with two Canadian pennies in it.  When he was a caretaker he took care of the driving horses and milked the cow.  Also met the train with the horses when guests arrived.  He was good at figures.

Grandmother Barber lived with Hugh’s folks after her husband died.  This was at Spooner, Wis.  Before that she was a housekeeper on a homestead at Dunn Lake.  A Doctor owned it but his wife would not come there to the summer cabin.  Hugh was Grandpa Davis’ favorite.  When Hugh would stay over night with them Grandpa would heat a board for Hugh to stand on while dressing by the stove.  He’d hang the board on the wall much as we hang up a bread board.  Both grandparents are buried near Spooner, near Three corners on the Rocky Ridge Road, the one going to Shell Lake via Yellow River on the west side as you go north.

Dec. 1962:

Hugh thinks Grandpa and Grandma Barber were divorced in Illinois.  It was before he was 5 years old.  He thinks Grandma married Eri B. Davis at Clear Lake, Wis.  Uncle Will married Aunt Ida.

Uncle Chant married Aunt Emma.  Hugh’s brother Leslie went to school to Aunt Emma as did Hugh.  In school one day Leslie said that Uncle Chant had come.  This was the first time she had heard of her future husband.  This was at Joel, Wis.  She was still teaching when Hugh’s folk moved to Oregon in 1903.  She was the daughter of Dr. Brown of Turtle Lake, Wis.

Grandpa Durrin was born in 1811 in Hartford, Conn., so he thinks maybe his great grandfather or wife were there during the Revolution.  He is the man who had his newspaper destroyed during the Civil War, in Minnesota at Taylor’s Falls.  He was accused of sympathy for the South.  He died and Grandma married Asa Fox.  They are both buried in the IOOF cemetery at Tillamook, OR.  Both were 84.  She was a year older than he and she died a year earlier.

Hugh thinks Grandpa Barber was born in Michigan or Ontario, Canada.  His father lived in Michigan and Hugh remembers Grandpa went to Michigan to visit him–maybe at St. Clair as Hugh’s father was born there.  He was a small child near Rochester after the Civil War when the Indians rampaged.  They moved as his wife was afraid of Indians.  They lived in a village and each family had a cow and their kids herded them on the prairie in high grass.  Mortimer was small but he herded.  Grandma Mary Jane Hopkins Barber may have been born in Pennsylvania.  She often talked of York State where she once lived.  Her second husband always called her Jenny.  He was Eri B. Davis of Mass.

Grandfather Barber plowed prairie in Minnesota.  Some of the first wheat land.  At Turtle Lake he had oxen for farming and for work in the woods.  He did not put them on the road.  He made ox-yokes.  Oxen were cheap and did not have to by harnesses for them.

Hugh told of going when he was small with Mortimer to visit grandpa Van Barber.  They met an Indian Chief carrying a heavy wagon wheel on his back to get it fixed.  Mort turned around and took the chief back to the town and waited until it was repaired.  Then took chief and wheel several miles back to the Indian’s wagon.  The chief was on his way to the annual meeting of the tribes and out of gratitude for thier help, asked Mortimer and Hugh to attend in the long house.  After quite a while the chief came back out and said they could come in though no whites had ever been allowed.  The chiefs would talk and argue in their own language until they apparently came to an agreement, then would light the peace pipe and pass it from hand to hand around the circle.  Then repeat the process on what Hugh presumed to be the next business.  Hugh said the first time the pipe was passed, the Indian passed it to him.  He was so scared his father would not approve, but was more afraid of the Indians so he took a puff.

For more information, check out Hugh Jay Barber’s profiles:

Wikitree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Barber-6680

FamilySearch: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LV3V-L18

Ancestry: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/73391501/person/32276264113/facts