E. B. BARKER, fruit-raising, P. O. Cobden, was born in Massachusetts April 8, 1816, to Jonathan and Rebecca (Hosmer) Barker. They were both natives of the same State, their ancestors being among the early settlers of Massachusetts, he being of Welsh descent, she English. They both died in their native State. They were the parents of six sons and one daughter, all but two of whom are now living. When Lafayette was in Boston, in 1825, there were six of the children there to see him. In 1875, fifty years later, five of the number again met in the same city. Both the grandfathers of our subject were in the battle of Concord. When our subject was about nine years old his parents moved to Charleston, Mass., and it was there that he received his education. In early life, he learned the trade of carriage-making, but did not follow it after he had grown up. In 1836, he came West, and for eighteen years he steamboated on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, as engineer. Most of the time he was on a mail boat between Cincinnati and Louisville, but took trips as far as St. Louis and New Orleans. After leaving the river, he began farming and fruit growing, twenty-five miles above Louisville, where he remained for some years. He then went to Ohio and engaged in the same business, twelve miles north of Cincinnati. In 1862, became to his present farm and has been here since, engaged in fruit growing, peaches receiving most of his attention. His farm was mostly in the woods when he first bought, but now has forty acres in fruits and orchards. In Ohio, 1844, he was first married to Martha Ann Robinson, daughter of James and Mary Robinson, and was born in Ohio. She died in Ohio, and left our subject four children — Lucy, Albina, Cora and Mattie. In Ohio, in 1855, he was again married to Mrs. Elizabeth C. (Humphrey) Covington. She was born in Indiana to Holman S. and Mary Humphrey. He was born in Virginia, she in Pennsylvania. He died in Edgar County, Ill., but she is still living there. She was mostly raised in Ohio, near Cincinnati. Mrs. Barker was first married in Edgar County, Ill., to Edward Covington, and by this marriage she has one son living, John, and one daughter dead. Mr. Covington died in Edgar County. Mr. Barker has five children by present wife — Lizzie, Mary, Cyrus, Linnie and Emery. In politics, he is a Republican, but was a Whig before the Republican party started.
Extracted 02 Apr 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part V, page 118.
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