Fred C. Barr
Fred C. Barr, chief electrician in charge of the electrical equipment of the three power houses of the Dayton Power and Light Company in Dayton, also the power houses owned by that company in several other towns, including the electric power plant at Xenia, is a native son of Greene county and one of the products of the scholastic and industrial training given at the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home who points with pride and pleasure to the early instruction he received in that institution. In passing, it is but fitting to say that Mr. Barr's wife also received her early schooling in that institution and both remain firm friends and supporters of the noble work that is there being carried on. Mr. Barr was bom at Cedarville and was but a small child when his mother died. His father died when he was but five years of age and he later was placed in charge of the Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home at Xenia, his father having been a veteran of the Civil War. In that institution he remained until he was sixteen years of age, acquiring there the rudiments of the mechanical and engineering training which he later put to advantage in perfecting himself as an electrician, and it is noteworthy that he later was called back to his old school and was there installed as assistant chief engineer, a position he occupied some time, or until he was called to wider fields of endeavor.
On both his mother's side and that of his father, Mr. Barr is of old Greene county stock, the Barrs and the McHattons and the Mitchells—his mother having been a Mitchell—having been here since pioneer days. He was born at Cedarville on December 17, 1877, son of Samuel and Lizzie L. (Mitchell) Barr, both of whom also were born at Cedarville, the latter a daughter of John Mitchell and wife. Samuel Barr was born on March 14, 1843, son of James A. Barr and wife, the latter of whom was a McHatton. a daughter of Col. John McHatton, who was a son of Gen. Alexander McHatton, both of which officers held commissions under General Washington during the Revolutionary War and who were the recipients of considerable grants of land in Ohio by reason of their service in behalf of the patriot cause. James A. Barr was born in this state and became a resident of Cedarville. Of the children born to him and his wife three are still living, Albert Barr, of Cedarville; James Barr, of Dayton, and Mrs. Sallie E. Mitchell, wife of the brother of Lizzie L. Mitchell.
Samuel Barr grew up at Cedarville and was living there when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted for service and went to the front as a member of the Tenth Ohio Light Artillery. While serving with that command he was severely wounded and was given an honorable discharge, but upon recovering from his disability he re-enlisted and again went to the front as a member of the Army of the Potomac. Upon the completion of his military service he returned to Cedarville and there became engaged in the contracting business. He also served for some time as town marshal. His death occurred at that place on September 16, 1882, the subject of this sketch at that time being under five years of age. On November 12, 1868, Samuel Barr was united in marriage to Lizzie L. Mitchell, of Cedarville, who predeceased him two or three years. She was a member of a considerable family and of the children born to her parents, John Mitchell and wife, two are still living, Mrs. Nellie Bishop, of Dayton, and Frank Mitchell, of South Charleston. Samuel Barr was a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Cedarville and of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic at that place. He and his wife are buried at Cedarville. They were the parents of three children, one of whom, a son, died in infancy. A sister of the subject of this .sketch, Maude M, married Henry Denny and died on August 9, 1890.
As noted above, the mother of Fred C. Barr died when he was but a small child and his father died when he was under five. For a year thereafter he was cared for by his grandmother and then was placed in charge of the Ohio State Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home at Xenia, where he remained until he was sixteen years of age, when he went to Dayton, where he became employed as a stationary engineer and where, a year or two later. he took up the study of electrical engineering. When twenty years of age he returned to his childhood home at Cedarville and was there charged with the construction of the old electric-light plant, which he operated for a year after its installation. He then was appointed assistant chief engineer at the Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home and while thus engaged was married, remaining there until in November, 1900, when he was made the electrician for the Xenia Light and Power Company, continuing thus engaged for a vear, at the end of which time he was employed to install the equipment for the Hollenkamp ice plant at Xenia. He then went to Somerset, Kentucky, where he installed an electric-light plant and upon his return to Xenia installed there the first large gas-engine-driven electric plant set up in the state of Ohio, and was thereafter, until 1905, employed in that city as the superintendent of the plant for the Peoples Gas and Electric Company. Mr. Barr then accepted employment with the Westinghouse Electric Company of Pittsburgh and for some time traveled for that company out of New York and Boston, engaged in erection and "trouble" work. He then returned to Ohio, having been given the position of superintendent of the electric plant at Salem and was there thus engaged until his return to Xenia in 1907 as superintendent of the two electric light and power plants in that city, and has ever since been connected with that service, for the past three years or more serving as station electrician in charge of equipment of all plants of the Dayton Power and Light Company.
In October, 1889, Fred C. Barr was united in marriage to Ruth Alberta Given, who was born at Birmingham, Alabama, daughter of William A. and Martha S. (Sparks) Given, the latter of whom died when her daughter was but a small child. William A. Given, who was a native of Ohio and a veteran of the Civil War, returned to Ohio after the death of his wife and later placed his daughter in the care of the Ohio State Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home, where she completed her schooling and where she was in residence at the time of her marriage to Mr. Barr. To that union eight children have been born, namely: Margaret, born on November 10, 1900, who died on May 26, 1916; Mildred, July 18, 1902; Frederick, July 7, 1905; Helen, March 21, 1907; Frances, March 31, 1909: Russell, November 18, 1910; Ruth, February 12, 1915, and Richard, December 16, 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Barr are members of the Second United Presbyterian church. Mr. Barr is a member of the local lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons and both he and his wife are members of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. He also is a member of the local lodge of the Woodmen of the World. He is independent in his political views.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918