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.
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.
