Legislators in the Tree: Edwin Barber
One roadblock to passage was the cost: an estimated $50,000, or about $1.7 million in 2023 dollars. One member objected saying he thought it was a scheme of a flag company to obtain business. The chair of the military committee rose to say, “I cannot vote for this bill but I admire the spirit of the gentleman who offered it. I am sorry he did not display the same spirit thirty-four years ago, as he seems to have a splendid physical make-up for a soldier.” (Edwin did not participate in the Civil War.)
The Indianapolis Journal said Edwin made several previous attempts to get the bill passed, so when he rose to speak on March 11th, it was “an old story to members, who shouted every time he gestured with one of the flags in his hands. When he concluded, the members burst into singing “Marching Through Georgia.”
The lyrics of this lively song celebrate the joy the Union soldiers felt in seeing the flag. The chorus includes the words, “Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the jubilee! Hurrah! Hurrah! The flag that makes you free!”
Another member rose to say that the conduct of legislators was an insult to the flag, setting off “wild confusion” and causing the Speaker to break his gavel trying to restore order. He summoned the door keeper to help him. A member threw a bottle of bicycle oil from the gallery, which shattered in front of the clerk’s desk. Edwin’s flag bill was narrowly defeated, 40 to 38.
It was June 1894 when Edwin was nominated for state legislator at the Whitley County Republican convention. A prominent businessman in the small town of Larwill, he owned a dry goods store downtown for many years, and several grain elevators in the county. He won election that fall, the first Republican from Whitley County to do so.
Edwin was the son of Harlow Barber and Elsie Case. He was born in Sheldon, New York in 1831, the youngest of five sons born before Elsie’s death of consumption when she was 29. Edwin was only a year old when he lost his mother. Two years later, his father Harlow remarried to Elsie’s sister, Sophronia Case. Sophronia was twelve years older than Harlow and the widow of Harlow’s uncle Roswell. So Sophronia was Harlow’s aunt by marriage – before she became his wife, and she was Edwin’s biological aunt. A family story said that when Elsie was on her deathbed, she asked the two to marry and raise her sons together. There was gossip about the marriage, but it was a lasting one.
They moved to Indiana when Edwin was eight, his father and older brothers working to clear the thick forest to create farmland. As a young man, Edwin went to California seeking gold with a party that included at least one of his brothers. They went the overland route and he made brief references to their hardships in some of his writings. He stayed there for seven years before returning to his Hoosier home in Larwill in 1859.
Back home he married his wife Rachel in 1863, and they had four children. He was also a charter member of the Larwill Masonic Lodge.
Somehow, he and his brothers dodged Civil War service, although they were abolitionists and Lincoln supporters. In 1882 he sold his business and began selling safes, which he did for the rest of his life. In 1887 he was named to the board of directors of the newly incorporated Lowell Gas, Oil and Coal Company. In 1889 he was named one of the directors of another newly incorporated company, the New York, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad. Neither ever really took off.
Edwin’s single term in the legislature seems like a time of frustration. Members of both houses were often rowdy, not hesitating to shout others down – and more. The Indianapolis Journal reported in one March 1895 session that, “senatorial dignity appeared to have fled to the dogs….Members pelted each other with the few articles that had not been carried away. Senators Holler and Stuart engaged in a rough and tumble scuffle in the aisle after a fashion that Senator Kern denounced as scandalous and reprehensible, and the Doorkeeper was called to put the offending members in their seats.”
On one occasion in the House, also in March 1895, bored members began throwing books at each other, earning a sharp rebuke from the speaker. “Here, you little boys, quit that!” The Indianapolis Journal quoted him saying. “Some of you, who are old enough to be grandfathers, are acting like children in knickerbockers.”
It was at that session that Edwin proposed a resolution honoring a recently deceased Senator Thayer. These resolutions were common, and fraternal organizations and other groups would have such resolutions printed in the newspaper and a copy given to the deceased’s family. Here is a typical example, appearing in the Coffeyville Weekly Journal 10 March 1899:
Whereas we have received the news of the mournful death of Captain D.S. Elliott…therefore, be it
Resolved, First, that we extend to his bereaved family our sincere and heartfelt sympathy in this, their dark hour of sorrow;
Second, that the family has lost an affectionate husband, a kind and loving father; the city of Coffeyville an efficient officer, an honorable and upright citizen and the United States a valiant soldier…..
Fourth, that a copy of these resolutions be spread among the minutes of this meeting and a copy be sent to his bereaved family and published in the paper of this city.
Edwin’s resolution passed. The newspaper described what happened next: “Mr. Barber, without asking the House for permission, as soon as the resolution was adopted, launched into a lengthy and previously prepared eulogy of the deceased, although no hour had been set for such. Many of the Representatives thought it was trespassing on their good nature, for they felt they could not, with propriety, head him off.” When another representative proposed a resolution to provide a room in the Statehouse basement for a mineral oil inspector, this was when members began throwing books at each other.
Another bill Edwin proposed was defeated. Known as Mr. Barber’s drainage bill, it allowed farmers to pay for the repair or construction of drainage ditches in ten-month installments. The Indianapolis Journal headline was “The Speaker Wanted a Brick - Mr. Barber Had Little Respect for a Point of Order.” The reporter said discussion of the bill was the cause of a “storm” in the House, with the Speaker “beating a terrific tattoo with his gavel,” to no avail, leading him to say that he wished he had a brick, presumably to throw it at Edwin. There had been some legislative maneuvering and Edwin felt tricked into not having a debate on the bill. The reporter wrote, “Mr. Barber spoke anyhow and his stentorian voice was heard all over the house, despite the cries of “order!” and the thumping of the gavel.” Edwin persisted in completing his speech, after which the Speaker said, “The gentleman is out of order, and is only helping to kill the bill by talking out of order.”
There was at least one other occasion in which Edwin annoyed his fellow representatives. In Feb 1895, the Nicholson Bill by Rep. S.E. Nicholson was debated. It was a bill designed to strengthen existing liquor laws on the books. It would prohibit the selling of alcohol after 11 p.m., for example, and close a loophole in selling liquor to minors. It passed, 75 to 20, with Edwin voting in favor, but not after annoying his peers.
When Mr. Barber’s name was called he rose to explain his vote and proceeded to read several pages of manuscript in the Luther Benson style of temperance address. The House soon tired of this and drowned his voice with cries of “question,” “time’s up,” “tell us how you vote,” etc. amid much laughter at the flowery periods. But Mr. Barber was not to be put down in that way and swung his arms while straining his voice to surmount the din. The Chair pounded the marble while a half dozen members were on their feet demanding recognition for the point of order that the gentleman had exceeded his time. The Chair held that the time taken by interruptions should not be counted against the speaker and thus Mr. Barber had from six to eight minutes on the floor. He wound up a top-lofty period by declaring that he voted aye. The incident caused a lot of good humored excitement.”
[Luther Benson was known as the “Hoosier Orator.” He spoke on temperance and in 1885 published a temperance book, Fifteen Years in Hell, An Autobiography.]
One thing Edwin accomplished was being chair of a committee to honor Washington on his birthday. About a thousand people were at Tomlinson Hall when the ceremony opened, but so many streamed in late that the auditorium was “comfortably filled.” Tomlinson Hall was a public, city-owned venue opened in 1886. Its auditorium seated 4,200, according to one source, and 3,500, according to another. The governor was to speak, but didn’t; several members of the legislature who were supposed to be there didn’t show, and the minister who was scheduled to give the invocation died. However, Edwin presided and the ceremony was considered a success. Seventy blind students from the School for the Blind sat on the stage and sang patriotic songs. The Boys’ Reform School band played military airs. There were orators, of course, and Indianapolis Mayor C.S. Denny gave a speech in which he stressed that every American should recognize Washington’s birthday, the Fourth of July, and Decoration Day. Senator John Kern read “Washington’s Farewell Address.” Other speakers talked about the importance of teaching patriotism to children, especially the “little foreigner.” Edwin gave an “elegant” speech about the American flag. Sacred and holy thoughts fill the breast of all true Americans when they behold the banner of their country, he said. The ceremony closed with everyone singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
In April 1896 Edwin declined to be renominated, citing ill health. Perhaps the frustrations and incidents of indecorum and disrespect were a factor. However, in 1898 he allowed himself to be nominated again in Whitley County. This time, however, he was not chosen to run.
Edwin worked for the Victor Safe Company and operated an office with his son in Fort Wayne. He obviously enjoyed writing and had articles, stories and poems published in newspapers and at least one magazine. For example, a short story with characters from the gold rush was published in a local paper, and an article in the November 1905 edition of the magazine Physical Culture. His article focused on class legislation in medical laws. He also had an opinion piece on the Republican party published in the Huntington Weekly Herald.
In 1900 he penned a sixteen-stanza poem on the American flag which the South Bend Tribune praised as a “masterly production in verse.” The first, and one of the last stanzas give an idea of the theme and spirit:
Shall the Flag Come Down?
Shall the flag come down from the skies
where they flung it,
When Dewey sailed in from the sea?
Come down from the hills
Where Americans hung it,
On lands which they have made free?
Aye, triumph we must,
For our cause, it is just,
Haul down the flag? No never!
On the sea or the land
By our flag we will stand,
And keep it afloat forever!
On the first day of September 1916, widowed, 86-year old Edwin finally closed his office in Fort Wayne, and moved in with his daughter Jennie in Larwill. He took sick on his arrival and died September 10th.
Note: Edwin was a second cousin of my third great-grandfather, Myron Fitch Barbour. Edwin’s aunt/stepmother Sophronia was also Myron’s stepmother. Sophronia’s first husband was Roswell Barber; they married when Myron was six. Both Myron and Edwin were raised by Sophronia.
Copyright Andrea Auclair © 2023
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