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action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/goodspeedhist/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114In the early 1860s, two men named John Barber got involved on opposite sides of the question \u201a\u00c4\u00ec should the country support Lincoln’s prosecution of the Civil War,\u00ac\u2020or should it not?1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the Union Convention held at the court house in Flemington in October 1861, John Barber was chosen as one of two vice presidents from Delaware Twp. (The other was A. K. Wagner.)2<\/a><\/sup> In 1862, John Barber, Esq. was named to represent the Vandolah School District (along with George Runk), \u201a\u00c4\u00fato solicit aid to enable the county to pay the volunteers an extra Bounty for their services to their country.\u201a\u00c4\u00f93<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n And in 1863, a man named John Barber was designated to be a vice president of the Democratic Club for the 11th<\/span>\u00ac\u2020school district at Mount Airy.\u00ac\u2020The Democrats were appalled at the idea of going to war over slavery, and at the war measures of Lincoln\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s administration.\u00ac\u2020The Mt. Airy\u00ac\u2020school district covered parts of Delaware and West Amwell Townships, and was not far from the Vandolah School District, so I had to wonder\u201a\u00c4\u00eecould these John Barbers be the same person?<\/p>\n The name John Barber was not uncommon in the 18th<\/span>\u00ac\u2020and 19th<\/span>\u00ac\u2020centuries. Besides the ones living in Hunterdon, in 1860, there was a John Barber living in Hopewell Township, another one in Trenton and a third in Hamilton, NJ; there were also a few in Pennsylvania. But I doubt that those men had anything to do with Hunterdon politics.<\/p>\n I have only two candidates for these opposing positions (supporting the volunteers v. membership in the Democratic Club), and they were quite different: John Barber, Esq. who was 74 years old by 1861, and John V. C. Barber, who was only 22 in 1863. Taking a look at their histories tells us who supported which cause. So let us consider our two John Barbers. First of all\u201a\u00c4\u00ee<\/p>\n When I began looking into the life of John Barber Esq. I did not realize how extensive his political involvement was, especially in the 1830s. And since we\u201a\u00c4\u00f4ve just had an election, it seemed appropriate to study politics in mid 19th<\/span>-century Hunterdon.<\/p>\n He was born in August 1787, the first child of Samuel Barber (1756-1847), a Revolutionary War veteran, and Anne \u201a\u00c4\u00faNancy\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Hoppock (1762-1797, daughter of another veteran). Anne Hoppock Barber died when her son John was only ten years old; she had had five children altogether. Three years later, in 1800, Samuel Barber married Anne\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s sister Mary Hoppock (1766-1813), who gave him four more children.<\/p>\n The Barber family had long resided on property along the Lambertville-Headquarters Road. The first to settle there was Samuel Barber, Sr. (c.1690-bef. 1751) and his wife Eliada or Alida Johnson (c.1695-bef 1782). They had 7 children, son John (Sr.) being the eldest. (The Barber genealogy is extensive and is interwoven with the other families who first settled in the southern part of Delaware Township. The interrelationships are very intriguing, but to plot them out soon turns into a tangled web. However, I have made an attempt: see Barber Family Tree<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Samuel Barber wrote his will on December 11, 1750, leaving his \u201a\u00c4\u00favast estate\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 to his wife during her widowhood. His vast estate was located along the Lambertville-Headquarters Road, and part of that acreage was dedicated to a family burying ground, now known as the Barber Cemetery. This early Samuel Barber was no doubt buried there, although his gravestone is missing.<\/p>\n Their son John Barber died in 1795, leaving a large plantation to his son Samuel, and \u00ac\u00a350 to grandson John when he turned 21. (The repetition of given names makes it a little more challenging to clearly explain this family.)<\/p>\n On December 19, 1812, John Barber married Anne Skillman (1790-1867), daughter of John T. Skillman and Mary Veghte, and had 13 children from 1812 to 1832. As far as I can tell, only two died as children, but another four died in their 20s. It was a perilous time to be young.<\/p>\n John Barber was a very successful farmer and businessman; he ran a tannery as well as managing the large acreage he had inherited, although by 1850 he had sold or given much of it away. The 1850 Agricultural Schedule gives us some insight into\u00ac\u2020Barber\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s farming operations. He was listed with the following:<\/p>\n When people talk about diversified agriculture, they couldn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t have a better example than Barber\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s operation.<\/p>\n In addition to being a farmer, John Barber operated a tannery on Lambertville-Headquarters Road, near his home. I do not have records to show when the tannery was first operated (his father\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s will made no mention of one). The earliest reference to the tannery I found was in the Hunterdon Gazette, on Feb. 13, 1833, when David H. How advertised the sale of a superior kind of leather at John Barber\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Tannery. On Feb. 4, 1835, John Barber advertised for<\/p>\n \u201a\u00c4\u00faA Journeyman Tanner and Currier. One acquainted with both branches of the business, and capable of taking charge of a small establishment in absence of the proprietor, may meet with a situation, by applying to the subscriber, in Amwell Township, near Head Quarters.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Information about the tannery appeared in the Industrial Schedule of the 1850 census. Barber had $1,000 invested in the tannery with 200 hides worth $500; 200 skins worth $180; 30 cords of Bark worth $150; one hand employed for hides, 1 for bark, each paid $18\/month. Annual output of the tannery was 400 sides of leather worth $1,000, 200 sides of skins worth $100, and 25 sets of harness worth $600 or $300 (the census form is somewhat illegible).<\/p>\n By 1860, Barber\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s wealth should have increased significantly, but it did not. He had transferred his property to his son William, who was 27 years old in the 1860 census which reported William\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s real estate as worth $6,000.<\/p>\n In the 1830s John Barber was a member of the Whig party, and was very much involved in the meetings held to protest the division of Amwell Township in 1838. He was chosen as moderator of Delaware Township\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s first town meeting that year, but had served as moderator of the Amwell Township meetings in prior years.<\/p>\nJohn Barber, Esq.<\/h3>\n
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