Thomas J. Barr was born in April, 1824 and reared on a farm in Donegal, Ireland. It was the year one of Beethoven's greatest masterpieces, Symphony No. 9, premiered in Vienna. He immigrated to the United States in the mid-1800's, landed in Pennsylvania, hired to a Quaker farmer, and remained there for six years. He then ran a "dray" (a cart designed to carry heavy loads) for awhile, before engaging in mining and farming while starting his family.

Thomas had joined his brother William Barr, who had preceded him here. We know that William had at least one child, a daughter. Our research has located a William Barr from Ireland, born 1827, who had also immigrated to Pennsylvania. Perhaps he is Thomas J. Barr's brother, for he was also a drayman, although we have never found any indication that these two draymen are in fact related.

In May 2011 we heard from the great great granddaughter of Mary Barr-McCall, (Molly Madigan). She says "Mary was born in Co Donegal, Ireland in Jan 1830. She immigrated to Philadelphia sometime in the 1840's or early 1850's. She married Michael McCall. My grandfather, John Michael McCall was their grandson, my mother is John’s McCall’s daughter. I have a copy of Mary Barr McCall’s obituary. She died November 1904 in Freemansburg PA and was buried in St Michael’s cemetery in Bethlehem PA. Her obituary states that she is survived by two brothers, Thomas Barr of Shackelford MO, and William Barr of Philadephia. The obit unfortunately does not mention her parents’ names."

This would necessarily mean that there were actually (at least) three Barr siblings that emigrated from Donegal, Ireland together, yet still we know nothing about their lives in Donegal before arriving in Philadelphia, including their parents' names. Apparently, then, Mary and William stayed in Pennsylvania, and it would be Thomas J. Barr, the only of the three Barr siblings that landed in Pennsylvania, then moved on to Iowa and Missouri from there.

While Ireland was unquestionably beautiful in the 1820's, life there was equally difficult, as potatoe famine was claiming lives by the thousands. As young adults, William, Thomas and Mary Barr were ready to move on tho the United States to pursue a better life in America, and the three met up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 1850's.

Cathy Summers (5th generation Barr descendant) sent us an article of unknown origin, that reflects Mary Grant-Barr was engaged to Thomas in Ireland, and that Thomas sent for her once he had established in America. She joined Thomas, but missed her brother Richard (born in 1833 Londonderry, Ireland), who was her only remaining family member. Thomas J. Barr provided Richard Grant's passage money and Richard agreed to work in the coal mine on Thomas's farm to repay the money. Richard then sent money back to County Meath for his fiancee Anna Cooney (born 1832), to join him here. They then had eight children, Mathew, James, Charles, Tom, Mollie, Janie, Maggie, and Katherine Grant. Anna Cooney also had one brother (Charlie), who came to America and worked on the railroad.

Thomas and Mary married in 1856. Some believe that Thomas married his bride Mary Grant-Barr in Pennsylvania, while their granddaughter Gladys Ruff-Barr wrote that the two held their nuptuals in Burlington, Iowa, where they had since located, and had their first children, before ultimately settling in Saline County, Missouri to farm and raise their family. Saline County Seat is Marshall. The county was established in 1820 and named for the region's salt springs.

On June 1, 1847, Arrow Rock, Missouri resident W. A. Beeding wrote to his cousin in St. Charles, Missouri, the following; “There is money to be made in this upper country speculating…Saline County consists of a great deal of wealth it is mostly all well improved and thickly settled by intelligent and respectable people.” Saline County was one of the excessively rich Missouri River counties, along with Boone, Manitou, Howard, Chariton, Cooper, Lafayette, Ray, Clay, and Jackson counties.

Saline County had more miles of riverfront and excessively rich bottomland soil than any other county in the state. Steamboat traffic on the Missouri River facilitated the movement of agricultural produce, manufactured goods and people to and from the county. From March to November when the Missouri River was free of ice the ports of Miami and Arrow Rock were constantly busy. The major east to west trails crossing the state passed through the county further enhancing commerce.

Agricultural produce such as pork, beef, corn and salt were shipped to the Mississippi Delta to feed the slaves working the cotton fields. Missouri mules, whose industry was rooted in the Santa Fe trade, formed the majority of draft animals used for plowing the cotton fields. In the 1850s, Arrow Rock residents Claiborne Fox Jackson and O.B. Pearson formed a partnership to regularly ship these locally produced commodities to the cotton district of Natchez, Mississippi. The economic prosperity of Saline County was thus tied directly to the prosperity of the cotton industry of the South. Slavery was the foundation of the economy for both regions and they nurtured and supported each other.
(By Michael Dickey, Arrow Rock State Historic Site).

Western Missouri had been a difficult place to settle since the "Show Me State" was established in 1821. In the decades prior to the Civil War, residents to the north of Saline County would find themselves in skirmishes with Indians from Iowa.

Largely a slave state during the 1861-1865 Civil War, Missouri was the only dual-govenment state in the Union during the war period. Abraham Lincoln garnered not one single vote from Saline County.

Later, south of Saline County, Mormons were themselves causing quite a stir west of Independence, where, numbering in the hundreds, they entered several thousands of acres of land, established a newspaper, and "prepared to found the new Jerusalem on earth". (Switzler's History of Missouri, page 241). Following the Mormon War of 1883, the Mormons would leave Independence.

The early setting was literally a scene straight out of the Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) story as it unfolded, by the time the Thomas J. Barr and Mary Grant-Barr family arrived in Saline County. The 225 foot, 242 ton steamship Tropic, "rendered somewhat famous by its connection with the great humorist Mark Twain, sunk just west of the confines of Saline County in 1856" (History of Saline County, Missouri Historical Company, St. Louis, 1881). It was snagged and lost on the Missouri River with 12-15 lives lost. Also, the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, conceived in the office of Twain's father John H. Clemens in Hannibal, Missouri, was built between Hannibal and the population and trade center of the area (nearby St. Joseph, Missouri). Its construction began in both towns, and the lines would meet in Chillicothe, Missouri, on February 13, 1859. The rail served the Pony Express, and once carried Abraham Lincoln to a campaign stop in Iowa. Soon after, the Barr farm would establish right between the two Twain (Clemons) landmarks.

Thomas and Mary had moved to Saline County, Missouri (by some accounts), in 1865, where they rented a farm for two years, then bought forty acres of raw land to improve southwest of Shackelford. We think the year 1865 is innacurate, for we have a document dated October 19th, 1864 that speaks to Thomas Barr's petitioning county road commissioners to create a public road to the Barr property. During discussions, Thomas Barr had said that he thought $231.55 "seems" like alot of money to me for the times" for the 3/4-mile road, which would be 20 feet across, and was later laid along the south border of the Barr Farm...

Meanwhile, Quantrill's Raiders were conducting Confederate ambushes on Union troops at the Missouri/Kansas border to the West of the Barr Farm. After the Civil War, former members of the Raiders would form the outlaw Frank and Jesse James Gang. The James Farm is close to the Saline County Barr Farm, in the gentle slopes of neighboring Clay County. Jesse James would become famous, 7 December 1869, when he and (most likely) Frank robbed the Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri, and Governor Thomas T. Crittenden would set a reward for his capture.

Daviess County Savings Association

The 1869 bank robbery marked the first time Missouri proclaimed Frank and Jesse James as outlaws. The building, located on the southwest corner of the Gallatin business square, is shown shortly before it was demolished. Standing second from right is J.J. Mettle, who owned the building when this photo was taken. Courtesy Daviess County Historical Society.

While the James Farm would be used as a hideout, the Thomas J. Barr farm would be used for more agricultural pursuits. The elder, wiser Thomas Barr would survive Jesse James by almost thirty years. Both the Barr and James farms remain today.

In 1867 a consortium of Charles E. Kearney, Robert T. Van Horn, and Kersey Coates persuaded the railroad to build a cutoff at Cameron to Kansas City, Missouri. The railroad, through its subsidiary Kansas City and Cameron Railroad, built a shortcut with the 1,371-foot Hannibal Bridge over the Missouri River to downtown Kansas City. The bridge established a direct link between Chicago and Texas. It was the first rail bridge across the Missouri River when it opened July 3, 1869, and established Kansas City rather than Leavenworth or St. Joseph as the dominant city in the region. (Wikipedia). This would have numerous implications to Saline County farmers such as Thomas Barr, who over time bought several tracts of land totalling over five hundred acres, amongst the most valued in the area.

After construction of the Hannibal Bridge, the Kansas City population would boom.

One century later, a 1967 Missouri Historical Society book recognized that early numbers of the Barr family in the Shackelford, Missouri community, would "far outnumber those of any other family". Thomas J. Barr was proud to have been recognized as one of the most "prominent and substantial men in the area", always investing his surplus money in land, farming, and stock raising. He was a life-long member of the Catholic faith, and raised his family in his faith. It is said that his character was "beyond reproach".

Mary Grant-Barr's parents lived and died in Ireland. She was born there in February, 1828. Other than the aforementioned Richard Grant, we don't know if she had any more siblings. Thomas and Mary enjoyed full and useful lives, both living past eighty years of age.

Published works have said that Thomas and Mary had eight children, however our research reflects that they had ten, two of which died at a very young age. Their first children were born in the log cabin they had built 1/4-mile from the county road, yet their hard work eventually allowed them many comforts, including a "beautifully located home, many outbuildings, and everything to make a life in the country desirable and pleasant". The Thomas J. Barr farm is still in the family, and is one of ten Missouri farms that have been designated "Saline County Century Farms".

Thomas J. Barr died in 1910, a year before Mary Grant-Barr passed, both in Shackelford, Missouri.

The Barr farm as it appears today.

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CHILDREN:

Richard "Dick" Barr b. 5/15/1857 Bulrington, IA. d. 11/11/1935 Shackelford, MO. m. Catherine Holmes 3/05/1889 in Shackelford, MO. b. 10/24/1859 or 1861 d. 1938 Shackelford, MO. (parents Mr/Mrs Patrick Holmes).

Mary Jane Barr b. 1859 Burlington, IA. d. 1940 Norman, OK. m. Bailey Carlton Belt 1884 in Marshall, MO. b. 7/10/1848 Faquier, VA. d. 1939 Norman, OK.

Anna "Annie" Barr b. 1860. d. 11/08/1934 Glasgow, MO. m. Dennis L. Lynch in Shackelford, MO. b. 1859 d. 9/20/1936 Glasgow, MO.

John Barr b. June, 1863 Burlington, IA. d. 1942 Marshall, MO. m. Bettie Sims 9/24/1189 in Kansas City, MO. b. 6/11/1869 Herndon, MO. d. 6/11/1934 Napton, MO.

William "Will" Barr b. 1864. d. Norman, OK. m. Agnes King b. 1869. d. 1928. Remarried Annie Kellett

Catherine "Katie" Barr b. 6/25/1866. d. 1946 Kansas City, MO. m. Charles Ludwig Castle 2/22/1889. b. 9/16/1862 Wisconson. d. 4/30/1944 Shackelford, MO.

Thomas Barr b. 5/17/1868 d. 1870

Charles Thomas Barr b. twin 3/30/1870 Shackelford, MO. d. 1947 Marshall, MO. m. Harriette Catherine Thompson 1/20/1903 in Shackelford, MO.

Rosa "Rose" Lee Barr b. twin 3/30/1870 Shackelford, MO. d. 2/21/1952 Shackelford, MO. m. Frank John Castle 11/17/1897 in Shackelford, MO. b. 1/14/1868 d. 3/01/1953 Shackelford, MO.

Cecelia Barr. b. 1874. d. 1875.