Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County,
Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of
prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with
portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States,
and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890;
page 445-446; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
John L. Barrick. Probably no resident in Lee Township is
better deserving of representation in this volume than John L. Barrick,
who was left fatherless and motherless at an early age, and who, reared
among strangers, has pursued a course which has resulted in securing
for him the hearty respect of those who know him, and given him a proud
rank among the farmers and landowners of the county. The visitor to his
pleasant home will find a well-regulated establishment, where good
stock in sufficient numbers, improved machinery, and a complete line of
well-built edifices add to the value of the naturally fertile soil. The
estate consists of two hundred and sixty-six acres on sections 19, 20,
and 30, which are devoted by the intelligent owner to the purposes of
general farming.
The parents of our subject are believed to have been born in
Pennsylvania, and he, himself, at Utica Mills, Frederick County, Md.,
in May 1825. The mother died when our subject was about three years of
age, leaving the father with seven children to care for. He was a
cooper by trade, and going to Washington County for better
opportunities of employment, he died soon after, leaving his orphans
without a home. The youngest child, our subject, became an inmate of
the household of Mr. and Mrs. Edwards who lived at Williamsport,
Washington County, and remained with them until the death of Mr.
Edwards, when the youth was twenty years of age. At the age of sixteen
young Barrick began to learn the trade of a carpenter andip of four
years. He worked at it in Deerfield, Akron, and Talmage, in the Buckeye
State, and in other towns for some years.
February 22, 1847, Mr. Barrick led to the hymeneal altar Miss
Lydia Hugrn at Holleyhead, North Wales, in 1824. The bride was the
fifth child of her parents, John and Margaret (Williams) Hughes, who
were also born in North Wales, and who had emigrated to Cleveland,
Ohio, in 1832. During that year the father died of the cholera, and so
likewise did one of his sons.
In 1856 Mr. Barrick removed, with his family to this State,
locating at Bushnell, where he resided about two years and a half. He
then removed to a farm near the town, remaining there until the spring
of 1866, when he bought eighty acres of his present farm. By dint of
industry and good management, aided by the prudence of his companion,
he was able ere long to add to his farm, which from year to year has
been made still more remunerative and valuable.
The family of our subject is made up of the following children:
Thalia V., now the wife of Samuel Hawn; Rosabella A., wife of S. R.
Nickerson, of Onarga; Margaret I., now living in South Dakota, her
husband being Myron Nickerson, a Methodist minister; Lewis E., who
married Carrie Steach, and lives on section 20, Lee Township; Lydia,
wife of George W. Thompson, their home being in McDonough County.
Mr. Barrick acted with the Democratic party until about six
years ago, but is now a Prohibitionist. He was a candidate for
Representative on the Prohibition ticket, and received eighteen votes
in Lee Township. He is an enthusiastic worker for the cause of
temperance. He has belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church
forty-seven years, and held the offices of Recording Steward,
Class-Leader, and Steward. He has been Superintendent of the
Sunday-school, and is now Vice-President for Lee Township, of the
Fulton County Sunday-school Association. He has been Commissioner and
School Director, both in Bushnell Township, McDonough County, and here.
Mrs. Barrick is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, having
united with that denomination when but eleven years of age.
