Richard P. Barker
1803-Sept. 15, 1873
Niles Republican II (Niles, Michigan), Thursday, September 18, 1873, page 3, col. 2, microfilm Niles District Library
Death of the Hon. R.P. Barker
The Hon. RICHARD P. BARKER, one of the oldest and best known citizens of this place, died quite suddenly on Monday last. He was on the streets on Friday afternoon, and was taken with pneumonia on the evening of that day, and gradually grew worse till he died. Mr. BARKER come[sic] to this place from New York city abut the year 1836, and for a time was in the mercantile business, keeping a dry goods store in the Arcade block corner. He soon quit this business, however, and purchased and settled on a farm adjoining the city. He has since led the life of a farmer, but has frequently engaged in manufacturing and speculation. MR. BARKER was elected to represent this district in the State Legislature in 1846, but we do not know that he aimed to remain in politics. Mr. BARKER was a man of many fine qualities, had throughout his life many warm friends, and was regarded by everybody, we think, an honest and honorable man. He was upwards of seventy years old at the time of his death.
Niles Democrat (Niles, Michigan), Saturday, September 20, 1873, page 3, col. 1, microfilm Niles District Library
Death of R.P. Barker
On the morning of the 17th of September the people of the neighborhood with serious face, wended their way to the rural mansion, in the midst of a grove of tall oaks, of the late Hon. RICHARD P. BARKER. They were going to attend his funeral. He died last Monday morning.--The cortege proceeded from the house, about one mile south of the city, to Trinity Church, where divine services were conducted by the Rev. Wm. Lusk, Jr., with responses by a large and appreciative congregation―thence the remains were taken to Silver Brook Cemetery, where they now repose. He was born at Rye, Westchester county, New York, in 1803. Seventy winters had frosted his temples―the allotted duration of life. It is not easy to do justice to such a man―to say enough and not too much. We would not eulogize the dead nor the living. We come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. There are so many “mazes, waters, slaps, and styles” to be passed over and surmounted in life that but few escape without bruises and scars. The good that men do is often interred with their bones and forgotten―the evil is apt to be remembered. But men are known by their deeds, just as a tree is known by its fruits.--Nothing was ever formed in vain. Everything has its uses and its peculiar meaning. When such a man as Mr. Barker, with his evil and his good, starts from that point where time ends and eternity begins, he will not suffer from the test. The balance sheet of eternity, like that of time, will be in his favor. He came to Niles in the year 1839. In 1842 he married the accomplished Miss Phoebe S. Beeson, who has been to him a guardian angel, and is now his widow. He was all his life a man of business and means―a merchant and farmer. He lived to be the last of a large family. He had no children of his own. In 1858 he brought to his house four young children of a deceased brother, and to rear and educate them well was his earnest desire and constant endeavor. They have now come to maturity. In the year 1846 he was elected to the Legislature of the State and filled the position with usefulness and credit. To say he was a gentleman and scholar is true but common place. He had a character of his own, and few men would be more missed in this community. He made his mark, and his friends always knew where to find him. We are not aware that in this wide world he has left an enemy. He had his faults, but let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
“God knows he was not the thing he should be,
Nor was he even the thing he could be,
But twenty times rather he would be
An Atheist clean,
Than under Gospel colors he'd be
Just for a screen.”
He was not a poor man nor a great man, but with his active mind and quick perception, he was certainly a bright man; with his rugged independence and fearless spirit, he was certainly a brave man; with his ready sympathies and large heart, he was certainly a kind man. He was genial to a fault. He was fond of society, and of his companions. He liked to have his “ancient, trusty, droughty cronies” at his elbow; but he was staunch without a stain. There as no such word as mean in his vocabulary. His heart was always in the right place. He could not help but be an honorable and true man. We cannot realize that he is dead. His name was a household word. His opinion on various subjects were always worthy of attention and commanded respect. Although in no way connected with the legal profession, he was in many matters a sound lawyer.
In the sear and yellow leaf, he has gone to his last account, and left behind him many friends and hallowed memories.--And though the chasm caused by his death may be neither very deep nor very broad; though he may never live in the Pantheon of history, and the elastic elements of which society is composed will close over him forever, yet his is the lot of the myriads of earth. Let him rest in peace.