Other Barley Stuff

Here is where I will post information about different Barley stuff that I have discovered.

JAMES LAFAYETTE BARLEY. Death who is always sitting closely by the highways of human existence and removing one by one those upon whom its grim lot falls, selected a particularly conspicuous victim in the late James L. Barley, who died at Denver, Colorado, October 22, 1913. Mr. Barley had long been one of the most prominent and wealthy citizens of Grant county, and there were few men in the community more closely in touch with its affairs. While many of his interests were in Marion, his possessions and commercial relations extended out into Grant county, and to different points in the state and in other states. Mr. Barley had spent two months in a vain endeavor to restore his health in Colorado climate. Both before and after his death it was recognized that the city had in him a splendid man, one who did much to build up Marion, and give the city its high standing in the business world. While foremost in business enterprise, he was also a true friend, a kind neighbor, and a man liked by all who knew him.

James Lafayette Barley was born in Lugar Creek in Center township of Grant county, April 5, 1851, and was thus in his sixty-third year at the time of his death. On October 2, 1872, he married Miss Louisa J. Gordon of Virginia, who was visiting relatives in Indiana, at the home of her uncle David Bish. The young couple began housekeeping in Jalapa, and after six years moved to Pleasant Valley. The old millsite and adjacent lands at Pleasant Valley were a part of the estate of Mr. Barley until his death. In 1880 the family came to town, and in 1904, moved into the Barley home on South Adams street, one of the finest residences in Marion, and a center of much social life.

While Mr. Barley was one of eleven children born to Henry and Mary (Snyder) Barley, his father was one of fourteen children born to the German emigrant, Nicholas Barley, who in 1784 first established the house of Barley in America. J. L. Barley was in the third generation of Barleys in this country, and the second generation in Grant county. His brother Jacob S. Barley, and two sisters, Mrs. Aletha Blackman, and Mrs. Christiana Shira, are all that remain of his father's family.

While his ancestry had large families, Mr. and Mrs. Barley had only four children: Charles G. Barley, who married Miss May Harwood; Albert C. Barley, who married Miss Mayme Brodrick; Miss Edith Barley, who married J. W. Stephenson; and Fred L. Barley, who married Miss Eva Shell. There are also some grandchildren. In the family of A. C. Barley are two, Albert C. Barley, Jr, and Anna Louise Barley. In the Stephenson family are four grandchildren, Helen, Dorothy, Mary Louise, and Mildred Verne Stephenson. The children and grandchildren all live near the Barley residence on South Adams street.

The late Mr. Barley spent his entire life in the vicinity of Marion, only for temporary absences, and as the community advanced he advanced with it. He was always fortunate in his investments, but his good fortune was due to his persistent energy, and his exceptional judgment in all business matters. While his interests were concentrated in town for a number of years, for forty years he never missed a season operating a threshing machine, starting out July 4, 1872, and finishing the season of 1912, part of the time as chief owner, and part of the time with a partnership arrangement with others. Elihu J. Oren of Glen-Oren in Monroe township, had been operating a threshing machine several years when Mr. Barley began, and at the latter's death the two were the oldest machine men in the county.

In 1886 Mr. Barley entered into partnership with R. J. Spencer in the Barley & Spencer Lumber Company, and few partnership arrangements had a longer or more profitable duration in the county. Sawmilling is an old business in the Barley family. The mill property—Barley's Mill, because Mr. Barley always owned land about it—was built in 1846, and in 1912, it was razed, the material being utilized again in a cattle barn on the farm in Franklin township. Samuel Campbell, who is now a nonagenarian, and his brother ‘‘Sash" Campbell were the millwrights when that old land mark which stood there sixty-six years ago was built, and thus an early flouring mill went out of local history. Mr. Barley owned the bottom land along the Mississinewa at that point, and men employed in the Pleasant Valley garden occupied the houses there. Mr. Barley was extremely fortunate in his southern investment, the timber country at Bay Minette, Alabama. Time was when the old Barley Mills in Grant county were designated as the "Coffee-Pot," but the firm of Barley & Spencer became recognized as one of the strongest engaged in the timber business anywhere in the country.

When Mr. Barley first engaged in the lumber business at Japala he went into the woods with an ax and saw, and for twelve years drove a team, and he knew conditions when timber was on the market for miles around. In later years Mr. Barley left his home for business in a seven-passenger Lexington car with a chauffeur—quite a contrast to his days on the log wagon, but he was the man to come to the rescue if a driver had trouble with his load or a mishap of any kind befell him. He never forgot how to rig up "block and tackle" in an emergency, and if his automobile needed attention, the chauffeur was not the only man who understood its mechanism.

Mr. Barley was always a busy man, and identified with many large organizations. He was one of the promoters and organizers and a large stockholder in the Marion Ice and Cold Storage Company, was identified in a similar capacity with the George W. Steele and Company, flour manufacturers, and had an interest in the manufacturing company of Haas, Spencer & Barley at Vincennes. Mr. Barley was one of the directors in the Boston Big Store Corporation, and within the year preceding his death became owner of the Glass Block, one of the finest business and office buildings, of Eastern Indiana. The Franklin township farm remained as an investment and source of food supply to the family, furnishing vegetables and other articles fresh from the garden. When the Marion Commercial Club went out of active service, so many of the stockholders having been called from earth, Mr. Barley was chosen president, and through that organization and in other ways he interested himself personally in the community development. When the Rutenber Motor Works were located in Marion, the Barley family had just disposed of its large southern timber interests, and therefore invested heavily in the factory stock. A. C. Barley who was then president of the Marion Chamber of Commerce had been instrumental in securing the motor plant for this City. The late Mr. Barley always was actively connected with the Barley organized family affairs, although most of the meetings are held elsewhere, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, to the number of one hundred and seventy-five persons coming together annually, and at one time or another he served the family organization as president. Mr. Barley was a stalwart Democrat, though never in politics for office. While Dr. Stoner, a Marion druggist, was the first man in town to own an automobile, the Barley family came in second, and in later years there were from one to half a dozen cars in use by the family all the time. When Mr. Barley went to San Antonio, Texas, for the winter of 1911, he shipped his car there and left it for the 1912 season. When W. J. Bryan visited Marion in the 1908 campaign, the Barley car was at his disposal, Mr. Barley driving it himself, and when President W. H. Taff was here in 1911, Mr. Barley carried the secret service men accompanying the party. For more than forty years Mr. Barley had as his companion and counselor, a wife who performed well her many duties as manager of the household and as a unit in social affairs. Mrs. Barley is of domestic nature, and like the woman in Proverbs "She looketh well to the things of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness."

"BLACKFORD AND GRANT COUNTIES INDIANA, A CHRONICLE OF THEIR PEOPLE PAST AND PRESENT WITH FAMILY LINEAGE AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS"; Complied Under the Editorial Supervision of BENJAMIN G. SHINN; vol. II ; THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY; CHICAGO AND NEW YORK; 1914

Submitted by:Peggy Karol and Karen Overholt

CHARLES G. BARLEY. One of the most telling enterprises located in the city of Marion and one that gives regular employment to more than two hundred men, is the Harwood & Barley Manufacturing Company, of which Charles G. Barley is treasurer and general manager. It is no small matter to be responsible for an enterprise that means so much in dollars and cents to the city wherein it is established, and the man who directs the destinies of such an establishment can not fail to be a power for good in any community where his labors are expended.

Charles G. Barley was born near the city of Marion, on April 5, 1874, and is the son of James L. and Louise J. (Gordon) Barley. The father, a native of Grant county, this state, also claims April 5th as his natal day, his birth occurring on that day in the year 1851, and the family may well be said to be one of the best known in the county, where members of it have for three generations been more or less prominent in business and social life. The mother of the subject came to Grant county when she was sixteen years old, in company with David Bish, who was her guardian and who reared her from childhood to young womanhood.

Charles Barley received his education in the public schools of Marion and later attended the Marion Business College, graduating from the commercial department of the latter, and upon emerging from that institution he entered the employment of the Barley & Spencer Lumber Company, with whom he was connected for a year. The next three years he spent with the old Sweetser & Turner Elevator, as manager, and for five years thereafter he was manager of the Marion Ice & Cold Storage Company. In all these positions, in his managerial capacity, he gained much of valuable experience that has been of invaluable help to him in his own business, and gone far toward making it the splendid success that has marked it since its organization. It was in 1898 that with George C. Harwood he organized the Harwood & Barley Manufacturing Company, a close corporation organized for the manufacture of iron and brass beds, bed springs and motor trucks, and their growth has been exceptional from the start. Today their annual output aggregates seventy-five thousand beds, twenty-five thousand bed springs, and their output of motor trucks last year was one hundred and fifty. The firm employs two hundred men and the weekly payroll of the concern reaches $2,500. After fifteen years of life, the concern has reached a place of considerable importance in the industrial world of Marion and is counted among the solid and worth-while enterprises of the city and county.

Mr. Barley is a stanch Republican, but not a politician, and he is an earnest member of the Civic Assembly. He and his wife are prominent in social and other circles in the city.

Mr. Barley has membership in the Mecca Club, an exclusive social affair, and is a member of the Elks Lodge at Marion.

The marriage of Mr. Barley to Miss Mae Harwood, the daughter of his partner, took place on October 16, 1902, and they live in their new home on Spencer avenue, this city. They have no children.

Submitted by:Peggy Karol and Karen Overholt

Albert C. BARLEY

BARLEY MOTOR CAR COMPANY

The most ambitious car made in Kalamazoo was the Roamer, a high-line luxury car made from 1917-29. It was founded by Cloyd Y. Kenworthy in association with Karl H. Martin and Albert C. Barley. The grille was a copy of the Rolls-Royce grille and the name was suggested by Kenworthy's chauffeur, after a famous race horse of the day.

The Roamer was a high-line luxury car built in Kalamazoo from 1917-29

The Roamer used Continental, Duesenberg and Lycoming engines and its slogan was "America's smartest car." Sales literature quoted Oscar Wilde and used such phrases as "a certain insouciance." Among its owners were Mary Pickford and Buster Keaton, but the company folded shortly before Wall Street crashed in 1929. The museum has 1920 Roamer Roadster and Touring Cars on display.

Albert Barley built and marketed a car with his name on it 1922-24. It was a middle-price car, filling a slot below the Roamer. The museum has a 1922 Barley Touring Car on display.

The 1922 Barley was a middle-price car produced in Kalamazoo by Albert Barley.

It filled a slot below the Roamer.


	Other Barley Stuff Other Barley Stuff Here is where I will post information about different Barley stuff that I have discovered. JAMES LAFAYETTE BARLEY. Death who is always sitting closely by the highways of human existence and removing one by one those upon whom its grim lot falls, selected a particularly conspicuous victim in the late James L. Barley, who died at Denver, Colorado, October 22, 1913. Mr. Barley had long been one of the most prominent and wealthy citizens of Grant county, and there were few men in the community more closely in touch with its affairs. While many of his interests were in Marion, his possessions and commercial relations extended out into Grant county, and to different points in the state and in other states. Mr. Barley had spent two months in a vain endeavor to restore his health in Colorado climate. Both before and after his death it was recognized that the city had in him a splendid man, one who did much to build up Marion, and give the city its high standing in the business world. While foremost in business enterprise, he was also a true friend, a kind neighbor, and a man liked by all who knew him. James Lafayette Barley was born in Lugar Creek in Center township of Grant county, April 5, 1851, and was thus in his sixty-third year at the time of his death. On October 2, 1872, he married Miss Louisa J. Gordon of Virginia, who was visiting relatives in Indiana, at the home of her uncle David Bish. The young couple began housekeeping in Jalapa, and after six years moved to Pleasant Valley. The old millsite and adjacent lands at Pleasant Valley were a part of the estate of Mr. Barley until his death. In 1880 the family came to town, and in 1904, moved into the Barley home on South Adams street, one of the finest residences in Marion, and a center of much social life. While Mr. Barley was one of eleven children born to Henry and Mary (Snyder) Barley, his father was one of fourteen children born to the German emigrant, Nicholas Barley, who in 1784 first established the house of Barley in America. J. L. Barley was in the third generation of Barleys in this country, and the second generation in Grant county. His brother Jacob S. Barley, and two sisters, Mrs. Aletha Blackman, and Mrs. Christiana Shira, are all that remain of his father's family. While his ancestry had large families, Mr. and Mrs. Barley had only four children: Charles G. Barley, who married Miss May Harwood; Albert C. Barley, who married Miss Mayme Brodrick; Miss Edith Barley, who married J. W. Stephenson; and Fred L. Barley, who married Miss Eva Shell. There are also some grandchildren. In the family of A. C. Barley are two, Albert C. Barley, Jr, and Anna Louise Barley. In the Stephenson family are four grandchildren, Helen, Dorothy, Mary Louise, and Mildred Verne Stephenson. The children and grandchildren all live near the Barley residence on South Adams street. The late Mr. Barley spent his entire life in the vicinity of Marion, only for temporary absences, and as the community advanced he advanced with it. He was always fortunate in his investments, but his good fortune was due to his persistent energy, and his exceptional judgment in all business matters. While his interests were concentrated in town for a number of years, for forty years he never missed a season operating a threshing machine, starting out July 4, 1872, and finishing the season of 1912, part of the time as chief owner, and part of the time with a partnership arrangement with others. Elihu J. Oren of Glen-Oren in Monroe township, had been operating a threshing machine several years when Mr. Barley began, and at the latter's death the two were the oldest machine men in the county. In 1886 Mr. Barley entered into partnership with R. J. Spencer in the Barley & Spencer Lumber Company, and few partnership arrangements had a longer or more profitable duration in the county. Sawmilling is an old business in the Barley family. The mill property—Barley's Mill, because Mr. Barley always owned land about it—was built in 1846, and in 1912, it was razed, the material being utilized again in a cattle barn on the farm in Franklin township. Samuel Campbell, who is now a nonagenarian, and his brother ‘‘Sash" Campbell were the millwrights when that old land mark which stood there sixty-six years ago was built, and thus an early flouring mill went out of local history. Mr. Barley owned the bottom land along the Mississinewa at that point, and men employed in the Pleasant Valley garden occupied the houses there. Mr. Barley was extremely fortunate in his southern investment, the timber country at Bay Minette, Alabama. Time was when the old Barley Mills in Grant county were designated as the "Coffee-Pot," but the firm of Barley & Spencer became recognized as one of the strongest engaged in the timber business anywhere in the country. When Mr. Barley first engaged in the lumber business at Japala he went into the woods with an ax and saw, and for twelve years drove a team, and he knew conditions when timber was on the market for miles around. In later years Mr. Barley left his home for business in a seven-passenger Lexington car with a chauffeur—quite a contrast to his days on the log wagon, but he was the man to come to the rescue if a driver had trouble with his load or a mishap of any kind befell him. He never forgot how to rig up "block and tackle" in an emergency, and if his automobile needed attention, the chauffeur was not the only man who understood its mechanism. Mr. Barley was always a busy man, and identified with many large organizations. He was one of the promoters and organizers and a large stockholder in the Marion Ice and Cold Storage Company, was identified in a similar capacity with the George W. Steele and Company, flour manufacturers, and had an interest in the manufacturing company of Haas, Spencer & Barley at Vincennes. Mr. Barley was one of the directors in the Boston Big Store Corporation, and within the year preceding his death became owner of the Glass Block, one of the finest business and office buildings, of Eastern Indiana. The Franklin township farm remained as an investment and source of food supply to the family, furnishing vegetables and other articles fresh from the garden. When the Marion Commercial Club went out of active service, so many of the stockholders having been called from earth, Mr. Barley was chosen president, and through that organization and in other ways he interested himself personally in the community development. When the Rutenber Motor Works were located in Marion, the Barley family had just disposed of its large southern timber interests, and therefore invested heavily in the factory stock. A. C. Barley who was then president of the Marion Chamber of Commerce had been instrumental in securing the motor plant for this City. The late Mr. Barley always was actively connected with the Barley organized family affairs, although most of the meetings are held elsewhere, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, to the number of one hundred and seventy-five persons coming together annually, and at one time or another he served the family organization as president. Mr. Barley was a stalwart Democrat, though never in politics for office. While Dr. Stoner, a Marion druggist, was the first man in town to own an automobile, the Barley family came in second, and in later years there were from one to half a dozen cars in use by the family all the time. When Mr. Barley went to San Antonio, Texas, for the winter of 1911, he shipped his car there and left it for the 1912 season. When W. J. Bryan visited Marion in the 1908 campaign, the Barley car was at his disposal, Mr. Barley driving it himself, and when President W. H. Taff was here in 1911, Mr. Barley carried the secret service men accompanying the party. For more than forty years Mr. Barley had as his companion and counselor, a wife who performed well her many duties as manager of the household and as a unit in social affairs. Mrs. Barley is of domestic nature, and like the woman in Proverbs "She looketh well to the things of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness." "BLACKFORD AND GRANT COUNTIES INDIANA, A CHRONICLE OF THEIR PEOPLE PAST AND PRESENT WITH FAMILY LINEAGE AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS"; Complied Under the Editorial Supervision of BENJAMIN G. SHINN; vol. II ; THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY; CHICAGO AND NEW YORK; 1914 Submitted by:Peggy Karol and Karen Overholt CHARLES G. BARLEY. One of the most telling enterprises located in the city of Marion and one that gives regular employment to more than two hundred men, is the Harwood & Barley Manufacturing Company, of which Charles G. Barley is treasurer and general manager. It is no small matter to be responsible for an enterprise that means so much in dollars and cents to the city wherein it is established, and the man who directs the destinies of such an establishment can not fail to be a power for good in any community where his labors are expended. Charles G. Barley was born near the city of Marion, on April 5, 1874, and is the son of James L. and Louise J. (Gordon) Barley. The father, a native of Grant county, this state, also claims April 5th as his natal day, his birth occurring on that day in the year 1851, and the family may well be said to be one of the best known in the county, where members of it have for three generations been more or less prominent in business and social life. The mother of the subject came to Grant county when she was sixteen years old, in company with David Bish, who was her guardian and who reared her from childhood to young womanhood. Charles Barley received his education in the public schools of Marion and later attended the Marion Business College, graduating from the commercial department of the latter, and upon emerging from that institution he entered the employment of the Barley & Spencer Lumber Company, with whom he was connected for a year. The next three years he spent with the old Sweetser & Turner Elevator, as manager, and for five years thereafter he was manager of the Marion Ice & Cold Storage Company. In all these positions, in his managerial capacity, he gained much of valuable experience that has been of invaluable help to him in his own business, and gone far toward making it the splendid success that has marked it since its organization. It was in 1898 that with George C. Harwood he organized the Harwood & Barley Manufacturing Company, a close corporation organized for the manufacture of iron and brass beds, bed springs and motor trucks, and their growth has been exceptional from the start. Today their annual output aggregates seventy-five thousand beds, twenty-five thousand bed springs, and their output of motor trucks last year was one hundred and fifty. The firm employs two hundred men and the weekly payroll of the concern reaches $2,500. After fifteen years of life, the concern has reached a place of considerable importance in the industrial world of Marion and is counted among the solid and worth-while enterprises of the city and county. Mr. Barley is a stanch Republican, but not a politician, and he is an earnest member of the Civic Assembly. He and his wife are prominent in social and other circles in the city. Mr. Barley has membership in the Mecca Club, an exclusive social affair, and is a member of the Elks Lodge at Marion. The marriage of Mr. Barley to Miss Mae Harwood, the daughter of his partner, took place on October 16, 1902, and they live in their new home on Spencer avenue, this city. They have no children. "BLACKFORD AND GRANT COUNTIES INDIANA, A CHRONICLE OF THEIR PEOPLE PAST AND PRESENT WITH FAMILY LINEAGE AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS"; Complied Under the Editorial Supervision of BENJAMIN G. SHINN; vol. II ; THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY; CHICAGO AND NEW YORK; 1914 Submitted by:Peggy Karol and Karen Overholt Albert C. BARLEY BARLEY MOTOR CAR COMPANY The most ambitious car made in Kalamazoo was the Roamer, a high-line luxury car made from 1917-29. It was founded by Cloyd Y. Kenworthy in association with Karl H. Martin and Albert C. Barley. The grille was a copy of the Rolls-Royce grille and the name was suggested by Kenworthy's chauffeur, after a famous race horse of the day. The Roamer was a high-line luxury car built in Kalamazoo from 1917-29 The Roamer used Continental, Duesenberg and Lycoming engines and its slogan was "America's smartest car." Sales literature quoted Oscar Wilde and used such phrases as "a certain insouciance." Among its owners were Mary Pickford and Buster Keaton, but the company folded shortly before Wall Street crashed in 1929. The museum has 1920 Roamer Roadster and Touring Cars on display. Albert Barley built and marketed a car with his name on it 1922-24. It was a middle-price car, filling a slot below the Roamer. The museum has a 1922 Barley Touring Car on display. The 1922 Barley was a middle-price car produced in Kalamazoo by Albert Barley. It filled a slot below the Roamer.