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JOHN S. BARRY BY H. H. RILEY
He became a stockholder in the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, afterwards a director, and still later one of the three persons who constituted the committee of management of the western division. This trust threw a heavy work upon him, and a considerable portion of his time was spent in New York and Chicago.
He was always approachable by the humblest citizen and never carried
about him a consciousness of the high position he had occupied. He was active in all home affairs and very decided in his views about them. He was a lover of money, and knew how to make it. He could lose a large amount without a murmur, but never forgot the man who deliberately swindled him,, out of a small sum. Such was Gov. Barry at home.
A few years before Governor Barry's death he had a slight apoplectic attack while on an excursion with some friends on the upper lakes. Not much was thought of it at the time, as he was not seriously affected. Some two or three years after he had another, and finally he was prostrated in his store, in January, 1870. He was taken to his house, and died on the 14th day of that month. His mind wandered most of the time, though he had rational moments, and knew that he must die. The last words I heard him say (his mind wandering) were: "Meet me at the depot, to-morrow morning. I want you to go to Coldwater, and help me transact some business. "
The
next day he was dead.
His funeral was large, and held in one of our churches, and we laid his remains away in our village cemetery, on a cold winter day, by those of his
wife.
Michigan
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