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ever inculcated kindness and honesty and truth. Once, in answering an objection that such accuracy could not possibly be secured in the great majority of cases, and was, therefore, scarcely to be expected or striven for, he replied that that was not so. And, among other things, he said he would venture to cite his own experience, and he went on and stated that experience. He said that, during the four years of his acting as Justice of the Peace, he rendered about 4,000 judgments, being, on an average, 1,000 per year. That only four of them were ever sought to be reviewed in the higher Courts; that three of the four were affirmed in the Common Pleas, (the first Appellate Court,) and no further appeal was ever taken; that, in the fourth case, his judgment was reversed in the Common Pleas; but that that reversal was itself reversed in the Supreme Court, and his original judgment was affirmed. So that not one of his judgments was ever in fact set aside. He stated also, that, during the fifteen years of his service as District Attorney of Onondaga County, (then the fourth or fifth County of the State in population and wealth and standing, perhaps even higher than that in the extent, variety and importance of its criminal business,) he had with his own hand drafted, he believed,every indictment found in the County, and had tried every one that was tried; and that, during the whole period, he did not remember that a single indictment was quashed, or found defective on a demurrer, or a single prisoner was ever acquitted by reason of any technical failure or flaw in an indictment; of course, he had not convicted all the criminals indicted and brought to trial during his long term of office; but none of them had escaped, so far as he could recollect, by reason of any fault or flaw of his in preparing the indictment. When he was told that this implied an accuracy, a care and a patience that were almost super-human, and which it was therefore useless to try to equal, he replied: Not at all; it was simply the result of carefully applying ordinary powers to the faithful discharge of ordinary duties; that another could do all that he had

done and more; and that probably he owed as much of his success in the discharge of these important duties, to the good will and confidence of the public, and of the members of his own profession towards himself, as to anything else; that they believed he meant to do his duty fairly and honestly, and so failed to look for, and of course to see, the errors he must no doubt have committed-that it was not human to avoid every error or mistake; and that there was the best authority for saying, "Loquando dormitat bonus Homerus.'

The wife of Mr. Birdseye, who was almost eleven years. younger than himself, survived him more than seven years, dying on the 5th day of October, 1860.

They reared a family of twelve children, viz :

Victory James, married Betsey Anne, second daughter of Daniel and Anne Marsh, of Pompey, now residing in Pom

pey.

Ellen, married Charles A. Wheaton, then of Pompey and subsequently of Syracuse.

Ebenezer, died in New York City, May 12, 1846.

Emma Rawson, resides in Syracuse.

Lucien, graduated at Yale College, August 16, 1841, married Catharine Mary, daughter of Samuel and Philena Baker, of Pompey, resides in Brooklyn, N. Y.

Henry Clay, graduated at Yale College, July, 1844; died at Albany, N. Y., Feb. 18, 1847.

John Clarence, Lowell, Mass.

Albert Franklin, married Mary Catharine, daughter of Elias and Hannah Post, who died Sept. 4, 1875. Resides in Pompey. ·

Charlotte Amelia, married to Harrison V. Miller, M. D., of Syracuse.

Horatio, married to Laura Amelia Chapman, resides in Pompey.

Julia Catharine, married to Rev. John F. Kendall, D. D., then of Baldwinsville, N. Y., and now of LaPorte, Ind.

Eunice Electa, resides in Syracuse.

BARBER FAMILY.

Elihu Barber was born at Hebron, Conn., March 17th, 1768,and was the seventh and youngest son of David Barber, who at that time was a rich merchant, buying his dry goods in Boston, but shipping potash, beef and horses, from New London, Conn., to the West Indies in exchange for rum, sugar and molasses for his trade; like most younger sons of rich men, Elihu was a petted, indulged and I might say, poiled boy, thinking his father rich enough to supply his every want, without any exertion of his own; and this state of things continued till the close of the Revolutionary War; when in consequence of a forced payment of a bill for several thousand dollars due a Boston house, for goods bought just at the commencement of the war, (the parties going to England during its continuance as they were Tories) he was ir retrievably ruined; having armfuls of Continential money which at that time however was of very triffling value, as we read that Thomas Jefferson gave $6,000.00 of it for an over

coat.

A little farm of thirty acres, in the sterile town of Hebron, and a tract of two hundred and fifty acres of wild land in the extreme northern part of Vermont, was all that was left of his father's large fortune, and a life of toil and privation was before him, where before, was ease and plenty. January 25th, 1791, he married Hannah Gott, and together they toiled on; her busy hands, ripe judgment and sterling good sense, helping to cheer and direct him, until in the early part of 1801, they sold out for $700, and started for Pompey, having all their worldly goods upon an ox sled drawn by two yoke of steers, all their own.

In the latter part of February they reached Pompey and moved into a log-house, on lot 84, and the property of Maj.

Sherwood, where they lived three weeks; buying in the meantime one-hundred acres out the north-west corner of lot 69, from Stutson Benson, paying therefore his hard earned seven hundred dollars, the deed bearing date March 7th, 1801. They almost immediately moved into their new home, and the ringing of his axe as he labored to increase his three acre clearing, and the clang of her loom as she wove woolen and linen cloth for the neighbors at the rate of ten yards a day, and doing her own work, soon began to tell in the way of bettering their circumstances, the clearing steadily enlargening, a fruit orchard of all kinds suitable to the climate soon in bearing, with thrift and plenty everywhere. In a short time a large frame barn was built, and in 1810, a thirty by forty house after the pattern so common in dear old Connecticut is furnished, and moved into-that busy loom having paid for the brick in the chimney, the sawing of all the lumber, and the carpenters'wages for the labor in shingling and clap-boarding the house.

About this time, they began to enlarge their boundaries, adding piece after piece, until they had paid for, and owned, over five hundred acres; the request the active house-wife making when told from time to time, I can buy a hundred acres of Mr. ; "can we pay for it?"always was "get me

fifteen more cows and you may buy it."

This butter business was carried on until Elihu Barber was as well known by the name of "Butter Barber;" for during the war of 1812, it was his custom to carry, on certain days of every week, three pails of golden rolls of butter to market; one in each end of a bag across the saddle, and one. in front of him, thus riding into Manlius, nine miles distant, and arousing the proprietor of the hotel from his slumber with his customary call of "halloo the house," and by nine o'clock he was back on his farm.

At intervals of a few years, now that want was no longer probable, they made their pilgrimage to the land of their birth, toward which, notwithstanding its roughnesss and

sterility, their hearts turned as faithfully as the needle to the pole. When the First Baptist Church of Pompey was organized, and a house of worship erected, Elihu Barber took an active part in its construction, and gave liberally toward it, and his wife was one of its most zealous and influential members; showing her faith by her works, and being a constant attendant and worshiper until old age prevented-and truly it may be said of her, "she did what she could" for the glory of God.

This long walk together was sundered March 27th, 1848, by his death at the homestead, four score years of age. In 1857 she died at the house of their youngest son, David Barber, at Manlius, aged over eighty-eight years. The early years of their married life, were years of toil and privation ; but industry, economy and an indomitable energy that knew no such word as failure, brought them while yet they were middle aged, to comfort and plenty. And although the monumental marble that marks their resting place records no victories won on tented field, still when in early life, grim want and pinching poverty threatened to assail and overcome them, they, by steady advances, utterly routed them. The forest that encircled their home, at first, echoed the howling of wild beasts; but soon was heard the looing of cattle and bleating of sheep, whose wool the humming spindle and clanging loom, transformed into clothing; and the forest itself melted away before the continuous strokes of the axe, and in place of it came luxuriant harvests. Plain and assuming people were they, in the front rank of pioneers, whose onward tread has carried civilization from ocean to ocean; by whose industry, the desert now blossoms like the rose; and by whose examples of stern integrity, unbending principle and Christian faith, towering temples and modest churches dot the land, spreading the gospel of peace. Truly their victory has proven greater than any record written in blood.

Four children were born to this couple, viz: Henry Barber, born February 13th, 1792, died in 1850; Lydia Barber,

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