| High View Farm A Family History Web Site |
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| William Horace Barbour Born 1852, Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania; Died 1945, Washington, DC. Father of Elizabeth Barbour Baden Biographical Notes Will Barbour was the beloved patriarch of his family, a "character" and colorful storyteller. As a boy, he was in the theater when Lincoln was shot! One of the family treasures passed down through the years is this letter from Mr. Barbour to Mary Eagan of Chicago, his niece on his wife's side. It begins by describing Jim Henry Baden's return from scientific work in Chile to the states, where he would register for military service, and continues to describe the changes brought on by World War II. Will Barbour lived through the Civil War, the Indian Wars where his brother in law was killed, the Spanish American War, and World War I. Now he is about to see his grandchildren go off to serve in World War II. Yet he maintains a cheerful, philosophical attitude which gives us some indication of the power of his personality. William H. Barbour 4440 Nichols Ave. S.W. Washington, D.C. July 8th, 1942 Dear Mary, I have your nice letter of July 6th at hand. Before answering it I must remind you that today I am ninety years, four months, eight days and 12 hours old. So please excuse bad writing and spelling. Also my sight is very dim. Otherwise I am in pretty fair shape. Now, something about the others of the Baden family. Henry Baden arrived in New York on Sunday, June 26th, after a slow 26 days journey. Bessie, Jim and Mary Adele drove to N. Y. on Thursday the 25th as the boat was to arrive on the 26th. But it was three days late. The boat arrived early Sunday morning but the passengers were not allowed to land until 4 PM in the evening and it was a very tiring wait for the Badens. Their car was parked on the street outside of the wharf and they arrived home at 11 PM Monday morning and Bessie was sick in bed for a week after. Not only were the Badens kept waiting but Marie and her family were also waiting in their car in the street all that time in the hot June day. Henry looked fine, but a little thin.  Jim Henry Baden in 1942 And the first thing Henry did on Tuesday was to go up to the War Department and register for war duty. As yet we don't know what branch of the Army he will be drafted for. But we hope it will be the Signal Corps as that is in line of his education. He is still on the payroll of the Smithsonian Institution. Tom is still in College. He is going to take a Summer course so as to hasten up his final exam. He has another year to serve before final graduation; then he goes in the U. S. Marines as Lieutenant. Last Summer he had training at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and the Marine Base at Quantico, Va., and he may have to take the same training again soon; and later on he will be sworn in as a Lieutenant of Marines.  Tom Baden as a student Ralph, John's son, is 16 years old, and is working for the Government at Bolling Field Aviation Camp just near us. And Mr. Baden is employed at the Maritime Commission. And Mary Adele is employed by the District Government in an important position. And Bessie has to look after the household and pretty near all the work falls on her as we can't get any help as the Government has taken all the help to do labor work and run elevators at a hundred and twenty five dollars a month, wages that we can't afford to pay, so we have sold all our farming tools, horses, cows and chickens and sold 28 of our 30 acres and you wouldn’t know the old Baden home as there are hundreds of new houses built all around us. And they are to be built two hundred two story houses on our place. About 80 have been finished and have people living in them. All those beautiful trees and shrubbery have been cut away, and the pretty flower beds plowed under. Now they are streets and alleys and the North side of our house is up on a 10 foot hill; the same at the back of the house near where the barn used to be. That is wrecked. It make us all feel sad to see the old place pass away. But Mr. Baden could not afford to keep the place as it was as the taxes have increased over four hundred and fifty dollars this year alone. And it will be over that next year.  Elizabeth Baden in the Driveway at 4440 - 1940's Your Uncle Will Barbour  The Baden family home after the farm was sold and construction begun on new housing Biographical Notes on William Barbour, based on family stories as remembered by Mary Baden Parker: Born February 27, 1852 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Earliest story he told was witnessing the death of President Lincoln. He and a friend were working in a bowling alley next to Ford's Theater and they heard Lincoln was attending a show there, so they went up a back stairway to get a look at him and saw him shot. They then ran to the Evening Star Building and waited for the "Extra" papers to come out and said they really made a lot of money that night---people would hand them bills and not wait for change. On July 7, 1873 he became a conductor for the Pullman Palace Car Company on trains that ran west to Texas and New Mexico and many times they would be held up by Indian Raids and had many scary experiences but never "lost his scalp." His wife's half-brother Thomas P. Eagan was not so fortunate; he died in "Custer's Last Stand." He was a clerk in the Folding Room of the House of Representatives from approximately 1880 to 1889 when he was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the Folding Rooms of the Senate --- a job he told us was mailing out packages for members of the Senate and staff. He was very precise in fixing packages to mail and told us he learned that when he worked at the Capitol.  Barbour Family - c. 1900 The gentleman in the center, once identified as Will, was actually a friend of the children. After his retirement he took over the care of the chickens on the farm where he and Grandma both lived with our family. He had a great sense of humor and was very profuse in his praise of everything we kids did. We never went out on a date or for any occasion that we didn't stop by his room for his vote of approval and flattery on our appearance. He was highly regarded and loved by all.  Will Barbour with his wife, Ella Eagan Barbour, and his sister Irene Ralston Personal Notes from Mary Baden Parker, granddaughter: Granddad was known as Will by all of his family --- he had a great sense of humor. Grandma did not have much of one---he would tease her and I can still hear her saying, "Oh, Will, behave yourself.' " Yes, he did often address Dad as "Mr. Baden" but sometimes Jim. Mother hated his calling her "Bessie"---said it sounded like she was a cow! Granddad lived another 3 years after this letter was written. He remained alert and intensely interested in all world events as well as in his family. He saw two of his grandchildren married --- Mary Adele in ‘43 and Tom in ‘44 --- but did not get his wish of seeing a great grandchild. It was sad for the whole family to give up the farm and see the end of so many family reunions. But it was true that it was impossible to get help and it became equally impossible to do all the work necessary to run it --- cut grass, manage gardens and livestock.  Will Barbour in a family group picture - c. 1944
Jim Henry was always known as Henry by all his close relatives (Tom and I always called him Brother). As a little boy he’d say "Daddy, Jim --- me, Henry'! Recollections from Tom Baden, grandson: The most vivid memories of our Grand-Father Barbour come to my mind as follows: he was a very congenial and friendly man who never showed any envy or animosity toward anyone. He was a positive thinker expecting the best from everyone, kind and considerate. I recall when Mr. and Mrs. Threadgill visited the family at 4340 Nichols Avenue during World War II. Helen's father was telling the gathering about the delicious apples grown in Yancey County. Grand-Dad Barbour pulled his chair closer to Mr. Threadgill and requested that he tell more about the subject as he was always interested in apples. Grand-Dad loved music, especially band concerts. I remember sitting on the broad, screened porch at 4340 with him and other family members as we enjoyed hearing the Goldman Band playing from Central Park in New York City (via radio) as we sipped "London Smokes" (ginger ale with vanilla ice cream.) He always enjoyed the family sing-a-longs and encouraged me to keep up my piano playing, drums, and later clarinet practice. We can thank Grand-Dad for possibly passing on to us the "music gene." I believe he played the mandolin in his younger days. He had a good ear for music and loved it! Another memory I have of Grand-Dad is his nightly habit of listening to Gabriel Heatter over the radio in his room as he enjoyed smoking his pipe, usually with a cigar in the pipe bowl. Sometimes we could hardly see Grand-Dad in his room due to all the smoke coming from his pipe.  James and Elizabeth Baden, Jim Henry Baden, Will Barbour, Tom Baden and Mary Baden Recollections of Jim Henry Baden, grandson: I, too, have many memories of my grandfather. Probably the first was of the blizzard of January 1922. 1 remember his plowing through knee-deep snow to go to his job at the Agriculture Department in Washington. He was responsible for my interest in weather, for he knew when storms were coming and always checked the thermometer on the front porch. Another memory was when he fell out of the plum tree and broke his leg. We hauled him up to the house in our wagon, and called Dr. Payne on the next farm before Mother took him to the hospital. He enjoyed listening to the Metropolitan Opera on the radio, and would sit in his room smoking his pipe with a cigar protruding from the bowl. ...Filling the room with so much smoke you could hardly see him! Other radio favorites were the Grand Ole Opry, The Barbour Family, and Fibber McGee and Molly. After his retirement, he would go downtown when he got his pension check and spend the day at the ten cent movies on 9th Street. He bought fancy paper and glitter to cover boxes for Christmas presents. He would stock up for the month with pills (Doan's and Carter’s Little Liver Pills and Smith Brothers Cough Drops) and supplies for his letter writing and birthday cards. He would save cards he received --- cut out the pictures and past them on plain paper, decorate it with glitter, and in green ink write birthday wishes on the inside. Female recipients would get a ten cent store handkerchief liberally sprinkled uith ten cent store perfume! He would fix all cards for the month and place them on the mantle in his room with the date they were to be mailed. After his retirement he kept busy feeding and tending the chickens. He also kept all of the farm buildings white-washed and was finally told to stop after completing them when he was 90 years old and had difficulty getting up and down on the ladders. I was overseas in the Air Force when he died in 1945 at the age of 93 years.
Life in 1942 by Mary Baden Parker Like now, everyone's thoughts were on the War. Jim Henry was returning from his job in Chile (Astrophysical Laboratory of the Smithsonian) and we knew he'd have to register for the draft --- plus we were worried about his return due to all the German submarines in the Atlantic. Tom was in college at U.N.C. but was in the Marine reserves so we knew he’d be called to active duty on his graduation in 1943. Doris and her father had moved to the Newport News/Hampton Roads area where troops and supplies were being dispatched overseas. The Naval Research Laboratory, near to our farm, was rapidly expanding as various research projects were being developed. I met my husband at this time and was married in 1943 and lived in an apartment built on the property that used to be our farm. Then in 1944, when Tom and Helen were married they also moved into an apartment there. Tom was a full fledged Marine stationed at the Navy Yard.  Jim Henry and Tom Baden, WWII Uniforms |
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