Moses Barber was born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, April 22, 1833, a son of James and Elizabeth Barber, natives of Rhode Island, of colonial ancestry and English descent. A brother of James was Colonel Barber, who served in the War of 1812, and the grandfather of Moses Barber was a Revolutionary soldier. Moses was reared to young manhood on his father’s farm in Rhode Island, and then migrated westward to Illinois. After a residence of a few years in Illinois he came to Kansas and was a resident of the State upon the outbreak of the rebellion of the Southern States. He enlisted in Company I, Second regiment, Kansas cavalry, in 1861, and was soon promoted to ranking sergeant of his company. He served his country well and faithfully and took part in several hard fought engagements with his regiment, and received his honorable discharge at the close of the war at Leavenworth, Kan. After receiving his discharge from the service he set out on horseback in search of a homestead, riding the faithful cavalry horse which had carried him through the strenuous days of the Civil war. His route led him in a northwesterly direction from Ft. Leavenworth through Atchison county. He stopped for sustenance and rest at the home of a family named Hubbard at Parnell, Kan. Mr. Hubbard was a pro-slavery and State rights man who had removed from the Southland in 1855 after two years in Missouri, a State rights advocate, and although Mr. Barber was his guest, they had frequent clashes over the troubles of the South and war incidents. The bitterness of the great conflict had not yet been obliterated, and it was only natural that the Union veteran and State’s rights man should have disagreements. This was not all of their troubles, as time soon developed. Mr. Hubbard had an attractive daughter, and thereby hangs a tale of romance. Mary Hubbard was the acme of beauty in the eyes of young Barber and he purposely stayed around in the neighborhood that he could be near Mary and do his courting despite the evident antipathy of Father Hubbard. In fact, Moses often said later, “That was the reason I stayed there.” The attraction between Mary and Moses grew into friendship, friendship ripened into love, and the son of the North and the daughter of the South were married. The parental opposition to this natural outcome of the meeting of two young souls who were evidently destined for each other was so great that a quiet marriage was necessary. Moses and Mary quietly departed one day and returned to the parental roof as man and wife. Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard soon afterwards decided to accept the inevitable and become fond of their son-in-law. Time and subsequent events proved that Moses and Mary were well mated and the marriage, if a hasty one, proved to be very happy in the years to come. Mr. Hubbard soon afterward went west to satisfy the gold fever which obsessed him and Moses Barber settled down on his father-in-law’s farm which he purchased, thus beginning a highly successful career as an agriculturist. The first home of him and his young wife was a little log cabin which formerly belonged to the Hubbards, but as prosperity came as the reward of years of careful husbandry, he erected a handsome farm residence of thirteen rooms which still stands on the place, built in 1882. Mr. Barber was one of the first men in Kansas to see the possibilities in fruit growing and early began to develop that part of the farming avocation. He planted four or five acres of apple trees as a start in his horticultural experiments, and his success with his first orchard was so gratifying that he increased his apple orchards to sixty acres of bearing trees. He became widely known as the “Apple King of Kansas.” While managing his immense fruit orchard he did not neglect the other side of the farm work and cultivated assiduously and successfully his large farm of 320 acres of land in Mt. Pleasant township. In the early days he was a large cattle feeder and made large shipments to the stock markets.
Moses Barber was married May 15, 1865, to Miss Mary Hubbard and this union was blessed with two children: Mrs. Abigail Brayman, of Wickford. R. I., and Herbert J., with whom this review is directly concerned. Mr. Barber departed this life July 3, 1896, after having lived a long and useful life which was profitable as well as happy. Mrs. Mary (Hubbard) Barber, his surviving widow, was born May 7, 1845, in Roanoke county, Virginia, and was a daughter of Clark and Rebecca Hubbard, both of whom were born and reared in Virginia and came to Kansas in 1855. Mrs. Barber resides with her son, Herbert J., in Atchison, Kan.
Herbert J. Barber attended the district school of his neighborhood in Mt. Pleasant township and later pursued a course in the Atchison Business College. After finishing his business course he returned to his father’s farm and took charge of the fruit growing and general farming. Later he spent three years in Colorado in the employ of a Denver wholesale book and stationery house. In 1894 he returned to the home farm and successfully managed it until 1908. He then removed to Cummings, Kan., and assisted in the organization of the Cummings State Bank. He became the cashier of this institution and has given evidence of decided financial and business ability of a high order in his vocation. Besides his banking interests Mr. Barber has land holdings in Colorado and western Kansas. He makes his residence at 1020 Santa Fe street in Atchison.
The marriage of H. J. Barber and Miss Eva Wertz was solemnized in February 19, 1902. Mrs. Barber was born the twenty-sixth of May, 1878, in Pennsylvania, a daughter of David and Eliza Wertz, both of whom were born and reared in the Keystone State. David Wertz was for many years a merchant at Parnell, Kan., and is now living in retirement at that place. The mother of Mrs. Barber is now deceased. One child, Mary Reta, born August 13, 1904, has blessed the marriage of Herbert J. and Eva Barber.
Politically, Mr. Barber is a Republican, and has held the office of trustee of Mt. Pleasant township for four years. He and his family are religiously affiliated with the Baptist church. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Washington lodge, No. 5, of Atchison, and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Barber is a booster and public-spirited citizen by nature and is always ready and willing to support anything for the good of the community and the people. Every civic program which will have a tendency to benefit the whole of the people finds him as one of its warmest supporters.
ROBERT PINDER.
Robert Pinder, the efficient and capable manager of the Effingham Lumber Company, while having been a resident of Effingham but a few years, has so identified himself with the life of the community and taken such an active part in the city’s affairs, that his citizenship is an important and component part of the body politic. He is a hustler in both thought and deed, and strives to advance his city as well as managing his business at profit, and so as to gain increasing prestige for the lumber company’s business, which has been under the present management since 1912. The company conducts a general lumber business, and sells all kinds of building material, such as farm gates, Crown and Tulsa silos, of superior make, tiling, roofing and roof paints, etc. The sheds and yards cover six lots, and Mr. Pinder employs two men to care for the business. The president of the company is W. C. Alexander, of Atchison; the vice president is T. B. Pinder, of Clifton, Kan., and the general manager and secretary-treasurer is Robert Pinder, with whom this narrative is directly concerned.
Robert Pinder was born September 5, 1872, in Timberland, England, a son of John and Anna (Burton) Pinder, who were farmers in their native country, and about 1894 immigrated to this country and settled on a farm near Everest, Kan., where they died. In 1886 Robert was indentured at Martindales, England, for three years and one and one-half years at Horncastle, to grocery and provision merchants, with the understanding that he was to receive his board and lodging, and his father was to provide for other necessaries, such as wearing apparel, and medicine, in case of sickness. His periods of indenture required both day and night service and to play no games, or frequent taverns or dice tables, or contract matrimony, or buy and sell. For an American boy to be required to do anything of this sort would be considered the rankest injustice, and he would rebel at being compelled seemingly to sacrifice his liberty and become a bound employe for so long a time. But such is the custom in England, and the training which Robert Pinder received during his four and one-half years of indenture proved exceedingly valuable lo him in later years. After serving his time as an apprentice he continued in the provision business for three and one-half years longer, and then came to America, journeying direct to Doniphan county in 1894. In the spring of the following year he moved out on the farm owned by his father, who had brought the entire family, with the exception of one brother, to this country. He assisted his father in the cultivation of the farm for four years, and then accepted a position in the lumber business of E. L. Alexander, at Everest, Kan., in the spring of 1899. Three months later he became manager of the Purcell Lumber Company, at Purcell, Kan., and remained in this position for three years, following which employment he was manager of the Alexander Lumber Company at Havensville, Kan., for over ten years. In the spring of 1912 Mr. Pinder came to Effingham and took charge of the Effingham Lumber Company. His success in the lumber business has been marked and rapid, and is an indication of true and tireless business ability of a high order. He is secretary and a stockholder of the Alexander Lumber Company, a large concern: secretary of the Harrison Lumber Company, of Garnett, Kan., and is interested in this concern as a stockholder. Mr. Pinder also administered the family estate after his father’s death in 1909, and his mother’s demise in the year following. There were eight children in the family: Frederick died in infancy; John W., living, in England; Edith Mary, wife of William Pinder, of Huron, Kan.; Robert; Charles, a farmer living near Huron: Henrietta died at Everest; Emma A., wife of Arthur Harris, of Everest; Thomas Benton, in the lumber business at Clifton, Kan.
Mr. Pinder was married November 1, 1900, to Harriet M. Pinder, who was born in Denton, a daughter of A. G. Pinder, a farmer, residing near Huron, Kan. Four children have blessed this union: Ruth Mary, born in November, 1901; Cecil Francis, born in 1903; Leslie Benton, born in 1906; John Sylvester, born in 1909.
Mr. Pinder is a progressive Republican, and has pronounced and decided views upon independence in politics, and believes in “a government of the people and by the people,” and not for the benefit of the favored few. He is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church, and is fraternally allied with the Knights and Ladies of Security, and the Lumberman’s “Hoo-Hoo” society.