Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Volume I and Volume II, Lewis
Publishing Company, 1904, pp. 105-107.  McCracken Co.

RICHARD J. BARBER

     Richard J. Barber, magistrate and a well and favorably known citizen
of Paducah, was born in Halifax county, Virginia, in December of 1839.  His
parents were Dr. Thomas and Harriet (Maynard) Barber, both natives of the
Old Dominion.  In 1845 the parents removed from Virginia to west Tennessee,
where the father practiced medicine and also became a prominent planter.
     Here Richard J. Barber was reared.  He was given good educational
advantages and obtained a good literary education.  It was his father's
desire that his son study medicine, and for a time the latter studied
medicine.  But the medical profession was not to his liking, while
merchandising was, and at last the father consented to the son's going
behind the counter as a salesman.  When the Civil war came on young Barber
espoused the cause of the Confederacy.  Imbued with the true southern
spirit, and loving the "sunny south" and its institutions, he enlisted in
the Confederate army and fought gallantly through that dark and dreadful
conflict between the states.  In 1861 he enlisted in the Twenty-seventh
Tennessee Regiment, Company F, and upon the organization of the company he
was made first lieutenant.  In 1862 he was promoted to the rank of captain
and for three years shared all the experiences of his regiment, one of the
most active in the southern ranks.  He was severely wounded at the battle
of Shiloh. Two days later he reported for duty, and was again wounded, this
time at Farmington, near Corinth, during the siege of Corinth.  In 1864
Captain Barber was made a prisoner in west Tennessee and later was paroled.
He then became a resident of Paducah, where he engaged in the mercantile
business, and was a member of the firm of J.M. White & Company, general
merchant.  In this undertaking he was prosperous, and for considerable time
the firm did an enormous business, but Captain Barber became desirous of
entering the wholesale grocery business, severed his connection with J.M.
White & Company, and for five years thereafter was a successful wholesale
grocer of Paducah.  He sold his interest to his partner, and then operated
on the tobacco market, part of the time as inspector.  Subsequently he
engaged in the life insurance business, becoming one of the most successful
life insurance solicitors and establishing in life insurance circles an
enviable reputation.  During the years spent in the life insurance business
Captain Barber traveled extensively throughout many states in the interest
of his business and endured many hardships incident thereto.  Desiring a
less strenuous life, he quit the life insurance business, returned to his
home in Paducah, and soon afterward was elected to the office of
magistrate, which he has since held, gaining for himself a most
complimentary reputation as a magistrate.  He is familiarly known by his
numerous acquaintances by the title of Major, and he is held in very high
regard by all who know him.
     He has been a constant reader all his life, and consequently has
become a well informed man.  In Masonry he is prominent, being a
thirty-second degree Mason, and he is recognized as being one of the best
informed on the unwritten law and history of the fraternity.  In politics
he is an uncompromising Democrat and is an active worker in the ranks of
his party.
     In the city of Paducah, in 1865, Captain Barber married Miss Mamie
Anderson, now deceased.  The marriage gave issue to two children, Samuel
and Lucy, the latter only now living.

Barber Maynard Anderson
=
Halifax-VA TN

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