Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Page 603 

GEORGE BARRETT cast his lot with the early settlers of Park Township in October,  1878, and is now comfortably located on section 11. From a tract of wild prairie for which he paid $600, and which was eighty acres in extent, he commenced building his present homestead, and later added thirty acres, so that he has now 110 acres, the greater part of which has been brought to a good state of cultivation. He makes a specialty of stock-raising, and is numbered among the enterprising men of Sedgwick County.

            Putnam County, N. Y., was the birthplace of our subject, and the date thereof Dec. 29, 1839. His parents, Abijah and Lydia (Robinson) Barrett, were also natives of the Empire State, whence they emigrated to Wisconsin when their son George was a little lad five years of age. They first located in Rock County, sixteen miles west of Janesville, and were among the earliest pioneers of that region, experiencing the difficulties and dangers of life in a new settlement. The elder Barrett purchased eighty acres of unimproved prairie, to which he subsequently added until he was the owner of 500 acres, and established one of the finest homesteads in Rock County. His death took place there in December, 1879, when he was about eighty years of age.

            The mother of our subject, in October, 1884, about five years after the death of her husband, came to this county on a visit to her son George, and died at his residence in March, 1885. The parental household included sixteen children, twelve of whom attained their majority and were married. George, of our sketch, is the only member of the family in this State. He developed into manhood at the homestead in Rock County, Wis., and acquired his education in the district school.

            Mr. Barrett, in 1858, accompanied by his elder brother, Frederick, crossed the Mississippi into Southern Kansas, the latter bringing with him $1,800 in gold, which he invested in land, now the site of the city of Emporia, and they, from that property, platted that now flourishing city. In the fall of 1858 they returned to Wisconsin and resumed farming in Rock County. Our subject two years later, in 1860, took unto himself a wife and helpmate in the person of Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin and Sophia (Emery) Soden. Mrs. Barrett was born in Otsego County, N. Y., April 13, 1842, and removed with her parents to Wisconsin about 1844, settling in Rock County about the same time the Barretts emigrated there. Mr. Soden, after a residence of thirty years in Rock County, where he had carried on farming continuously, died in June, 1874. The mother made her home with her son, in Dane County, and died in March, 1888, in her seventy-seventh year, leaving many friends to mourn their loss.

            Mr. and Mrs. Barrett, after their marriage, settled on the farm of the father of our subject, where they continued to reside until 1873. Then, in order to give their children the advantages of better schooling than they could obtain in the country districts, Mr. Barrett invested a part of his capital in a house and lot at Evansville, Wis., and removed there with his family. Subsequently he assumed charge of the 220-acre farm of Lewis Spencer, which he managed for three years.

            In 1878, Mr. Barrett with his family and personal effects started overland with teams for Southern Kansas. After a journey of four weeks and two days they halted in Park Township, this county, where our subject at once invested in eighty acres of raw prairie land, which is included in his present homestead. His three living children, who remain at home with their parents, are Emery R., Grace and Abijah. One son, Shepherd, died when about ten years of age.

[ Home ]