Springfield-Greene
County LibraryEarly and Recent History and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Representative Citizens
JOHN BARRETT. There are farmers who might be known as one idea men, for they give too much attention to some particular phase of their work to the neglect of the general system required to make farming a success. Such men may have a bad influence. The man who has a reputation for big crops should study his farming to see if it will bear close critical inspection in its various details. John Barrett, one of the foremost farmers of East Center township, Greene county, does this. He gives such attention as is necessary to produce large yields of all his crops and at the same time keeps his place attractive in every way, thus setting a good example.
Mr. Barrett is a scion of one of the earliest pioneer families in this section of the state, and for a period of eighty-six years the Barretts have been well and favorably known in Greene county--good farmers and good citizens. Our subject was born in Center township, this county, December 22, 1873. He is a son of Thomas Lafayette Barrett and Margaret A. (Binns) Barrett, the mother a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Binns. The father of our subject was born on November 10, 1843, in this county, here grew to manhood, attended the early-day subscription schools, and spent his life engaged successfully in general farming and stock raising, and became one of the best known men in the county. His father came from Hawkins county, Tennessee, early in the nineteenth century, and located in Greene county when this country was wild and settlers were few, but he was a man of courage and soon had a home established and land under cultivation. The death of Thomas L. Barrett occurred in 1910, after a life of usefulness and honor. He was married on September 28, 1871, and reared a family of six sons and one daughter, namely: Eldorado married W. H. Yeakley, a farmer of Stockton, Missouri; Walter, who is farming in Center township, Greene county, married Bertha Redfearn of Center township; Arthur, who was graduated from the Missouri State University, who is farming in Center township, married Mattie Sparkman; Elbert Lee, who is also farming in Center township, married Minnie Sparkman, a sister of his brother's wife; Thomas V. died on October 3, 1913, at the age of twenty-three years, after securing a good education in the Missouri State University; John, of this sketch; Weldon L., who is in the state university at this writing.
Mr. Barrett, of this review, grew to manhood on the homestead, where he assisted with the work during crop seasons when growing to manhood and in the winter time he attended the local schools, obtaining a good education. He has always followed general farming and lives on the homestead with his mother, the place consisting of four hundred acres of valuable and productive land, constituting one of the choice farms of this part of the county. It lies, along the Carthage road, eight miles west of Springfield.
Mr. Barrett was married on June 4, 1911, to Mary Harris, a daughter of William and Margaret Harris of Republic township, Greene county, where Mrs. Barrett was reared to womanhood and educated. To our subject and wife one child has been born, Esther Margaret Barrett, whose birth occurred on October 1, 1912.
Fraternally, Mr. Barrett is a member of Bois D'Arc Lodge No. 449, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, also the modern Woodmen of America and the Anti-Horse Thief Association. Politically he is a Democrat, and he and his family attend the Methodist church. Like his father and grandfather before him, he takes keen interest in all movements looking to the general improvement of his township and county.
[1840-1841]
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