Obituaries used to give a lot more information then they do these days. Thanks to LeAnn for sending these my way. They paint a portrait of lives filled with hard work, making the most out of tragedy, and moving on to make the best you can of a situation. Jennie sounds like one tough lady.
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| Harry and Jennie. |
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| Harry as a teenager. |
March 11, 1920
Obituary
Word has been received here that Mrs. L. C. Barrett had passed away at a
hospital in Spokane, Washington after ten weeks of intense suffering
from her old enemy, asthma, and when the paroxysms of terrible choking
finally ceased she was too exhausted to rally and she lingered two days
in a sort of stupor and then quietly slipped away.
Jennie Roberts was born in Wisconsin and her mother dying when she was quite young. She was adopted into the family of William Holt and came with them to Owatonna, Minnesota where much of her young womanhood was spent.
She taught school in various neighborhoods in that vicinity with good success, but when she came to teach in the east Berlin district she met her fate in the person of Mr. Leander Barrett an ambitious young farmer of that neighborhood, acquaintance soon ripened into a warmer feeling. Soon after the term of school closed there was a grand wedding at Owatonna and our young couple became enthusiastic farmers and gardeners, the fields were well tilled and productive and beautiful flowers bloomed about the snug well kept cottage home.
But after the death of dear little Willie their first born the home did not seem the same to either of them and they sold it and invested their means in a store at the four corners where a cheese factory had been built. And she having had some experience in trade while in the Holt family was a great help and they prospered.
But when in 1879 and 1880 the great boom of the Red River Valley country struck Berlin, he was swept along with it and took a homestead where Carl Jorgenson's beautiful farm and home now is. But the lure of commercial pursuits prompted another change and a store was built in the then new town of Hunter and was for years an important factor in the town and surrounding country. Then came a terrific bolt from a clear sky in the tragic death of their son Harry, a promising lad of 19 years, a boy respected and liked by everyone for he had grown from a little lad of 5 or 6 years right here among us, and was a great comfort and help to both his parents.
A fire destroyed their store and with their only remaining child Maud, who was born in North Dakota, they went toward the northwest bringing up in Canada and finally moved up into the state of Washington where for some years they have made their home a Spokane. In the years they were neighbors to us they were kindly and helpful in times of trouble and stress and took part on the right side in the solving of our problems as they came up.
She was a charter member of our Presbyterian church of 17 members and was the only member who had ever been a Presbyterian the balance having been made up of Methodists and Congregationalists. She was always ready to do her part either in singing or in the financial part of the work, indeed that seemed a characteristic quality of hers to do her part and one of her characteristics, to do diligently whatever her hands found to do and to be brave under handicaps that would have broken a weaker woman long ago. Not only the handicaps of pioneer life she endured and her grief for her children but all her life she was subject to those terrible attacks of asthma.
All old neighbors and friends extend sympathy to her bereft husband and daughter.
Mr. Barrett's address is 1823 West 26th Ave., Spokane, Wash.
Jennie Roberts was born in Wisconsin and her mother dying when she was quite young. She was adopted into the family of William Holt and came with them to Owatonna, Minnesota where much of her young womanhood was spent.
She taught school in various neighborhoods in that vicinity with good success, but when she came to teach in the east Berlin district she met her fate in the person of Mr. Leander Barrett an ambitious young farmer of that neighborhood, acquaintance soon ripened into a warmer feeling. Soon after the term of school closed there was a grand wedding at Owatonna and our young couple became enthusiastic farmers and gardeners, the fields were well tilled and productive and beautiful flowers bloomed about the snug well kept cottage home.
But after the death of dear little Willie their first born the home did not seem the same to either of them and they sold it and invested their means in a store at the four corners where a cheese factory had been built. And she having had some experience in trade while in the Holt family was a great help and they prospered.
But when in 1879 and 1880 the great boom of the Red River Valley country struck Berlin, he was swept along with it and took a homestead where Carl Jorgenson's beautiful farm and home now is. But the lure of commercial pursuits prompted another change and a store was built in the then new town of Hunter and was for years an important factor in the town and surrounding country. Then came a terrific bolt from a clear sky in the tragic death of their son Harry, a promising lad of 19 years, a boy respected and liked by everyone for he had grown from a little lad of 5 or 6 years right here among us, and was a great comfort and help to both his parents.
A fire destroyed their store and with their only remaining child Maud, who was born in North Dakota, they went toward the northwest bringing up in Canada and finally moved up into the state of Washington where for some years they have made their home a Spokane. In the years they were neighbors to us they were kindly and helpful in times of trouble and stress and took part on the right side in the solving of our problems as they came up.
She was a charter member of our Presbyterian church of 17 members and was the only member who had ever been a Presbyterian the balance having been made up of Methodists and Congregationalists. She was always ready to do her part either in singing or in the financial part of the work, indeed that seemed a characteristic quality of hers to do her part and one of her characteristics, to do diligently whatever her hands found to do and to be brave under handicaps that would have broken a weaker woman long ago. Not only the handicaps of pioneer life she endured and her grief for her children but all her life she was subject to those terrible attacks of asthma.
All old neighbors and friends extend sympathy to her bereft husband and daughter.
Mr. Barrett's address is 1823 West 26th Ave., Spokane, Wash.
And a few months later her husband....
August 19, 1920 Obituary Leander C. Barrett, who was killed at Spokane, Washington, where he was making his home, August 3rd, 1920, by being run over by a Northern Pacific train.
Mr. Barrett was a native of Pennsylvania but came with his parents to live in Berlin, Minnesota; when a young man he married there and was a good hard working citizen one foremost in good work, law-abiding and ambitious, until he came to be a citizen of Hunter; his life and achievements are well known here and were clearly outlined in the obituary of his wife who died in Spokane early last spring and whose ashes were brought to lie beside their son's in our cemetery where his were placed Sunday afternoon by a company of sympathetic friends and neighbors attended by the pastors of both the Presbyterian and Methodist churches. Rev. Hamilton read the 21st chapter of Revelations and Rev. Driver made a comforting prayer and the choir of the Presbyterian church sang �Nearer My God To Thee� while every heart felt a sympathetic throb remembering the daughter so far away; for Maude Barrett Jones grew up here among us and was always a great favorite with everyone. Her present address is Mrs. M. H. Jones, 1502 Jefferson St., Olympia, Washington. Mr. Barrett is also survived by a brother I. S. Barrett of National City, California.
Some lovely flowers were brought by old neighbors and friends and then we left him to sleep on our consecrated hillside among those with whom he had walked and wrought in the days of his health and vigorous manhood.
