Died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. A.C. Shepardson, in Coventry [Chenango Co., NY], near Wilkins Settlement, Dec. 23, 1905, William N. Barber, aged 85 years and 6 months. He was born in the town of Maryland, Otsego Co., June 26th, 1820. Mr. Barber was a man of remarkable ingenuity, becoming an expert millwright at an early age. Many saw mills and grist mills and other machinery on the streams of upper Delaware Co., and parts of Otsego and Schoharie counties bore witness to his skill in that direction. In 1841 he married Miss Lucena Barnum, of North Harpersfield, Delaware county, by whom he had eleven children, one son and ten daughters, of whom the son and six daughters are now living. For a while after his marriage he resided at East Meredith where he owned a saw mill, from there he removed to West Oneonta. In September 1862 he enlisted in Company G 152 Regiment, N.Y.S.V., and after serving about one year was honorably discharged for disability and returned to North Harpersfield, to which place his family had removed during his absence. Recovering his health in some degree he took up his trade of mechanic and builder, becoming famed far and near for his skill, being able to build anything that could be made of wood and in the most perfect and workmanlike manner. He was also an expert workman in iron and steel, being able to make any tool he needed in his work if he chose to do so. In 1880 his wife died and not long afterward he removed to Cameron county, Pa., where he resided most of the time until about ten years ago when he came to live with his daughter in Coventry, Chenango county, where he remained the greater part of the time till his death. He was a great marksman and during the latter years of his life he spent a portion of each summer in an effort to exterminate the woodchuck tribe, killing many hundreds; for several years his record was more than one hundred killed in a single season. His remains were taken to North Harpersfield for burial. [Bainbridge Republican, Jan. 11, 1906]
News has been received in Bainbridge of the death of Mrs. Barber, wife of Rev. J.T. Barber, a former pastor of the Baptist church of this village. Mr. Barber is now pastor of the Baptist church at Northfield, N.Y. Mrs. C.M. Priest, of this place, and daughter, Mrs. Geo. Whitman, of Morris, attended the funeral of Mrs. Barber yesterday (Wednesday). Besides her husband she is survived by one child, a daughter Mrs. Andrew Sill, of St. Petersburg, Florida. It has been about fifteen years since Mr. Barber left Bainbridge. He was called from here to Madrid, N.Y. The Baptist society of that place having lost their church by fire and being informed of Mr. Barber's enthusiasm and energy he was solicited to go thither. In the course of one year and a half a new church was built. Later he took charge of the Frist Baptist church of Walton and caused an old structure through reconstruction to become the most beautiful modern edifice over a large section. Upon urgent requests Mr. Barber went some few years ago to his present location, Northfield. The Baptist society was despondent, their church had just burned down, but the new pastor infused new life into the members and in course of time another church was built. This is only a portion of the grand work Mr. Barber has done. [Bainbridge Republican, Jan. 18, 1906]
Last Sunday morning while the church bells were ringing the herald for that day's services, the life of Rev. William Frisby, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church of this village [Bainbridge, Chenango Co., NY], ebbed away. The sadness which had come from his pathetic illness deepened into gloom, and sorrow became universal. On Wednesday, the second week in January, he was taken ill with the grippe which developed into pneumonia. His debilitated condition led the disease to take a critical form from the start. The best medical care and nursing were applied and it was thought that while his life was hanging by a thread, for the past few days, he possibly might summon sufficient vitality to bridge the crisis. His struggle to live was heroic. During the past summer care and anxiety resulting from the extreme illness of his only child, a daughter, had come to him. Besides the usual routine of pastoral work, enhanced by sickness and death in his church, was added the extra labors necessarily entailed by conducting evangelistic meetings nightly. All this tended to lessen his strength and brought about a weakened condition susceptible to disease. Though impressed that death was hovering near, he clung to the hope that he might live to carry out the plans he had formed for the advancement of the church here; but last Thursday he became resigned to what seemed inevitable and requested that Presiding Elder Griffin, of the district, visit him that he might confer about the church and his family. It was a solemn meeting and parting between the dying minister and his official brother. He gave directions about his funeral over which Mr. Griffin was to preside and when the interview was closing he assured the Presiding Elder that "It was well--all well with him." In the pastor's church Sunday morning the services were extremely sorrowful. It was the quarterly meeting--Presiding Elder Griffin was present who made a brief address to the grief stricken congregation who were greatly attached to their pastor. In the other churches the pastors made touching reference to the deceased and the particular sadness of the event extending profound sympathy to the family. Rev. Wm. Frisby was born on September 29th, 1852, at Cottesmore, Ruthlandshire, England. He gained his early education by attending the Huntington Preparatory school, the Stamford Academy and Belfast Collegiate school in England. Later he pursued a course in engineering at Evesham under Fredrich Pace, C.E. Finishing his studies he came to New York city and entered business, but mission work attracted him to which he gave considerable time, and through its influence he became convinced that his mission in life should be ministerial work. He professed Christianity in New York city in 1881, received license orders for local preaching from the Hedding Methodist Episcopal church of New York in 1884, and the following year he joined the Wyoming conference. His pastoral record is as follows: 1885-86, Stoddartsville; 1887-88, New Berlin and Columbus; 1889-92, Guilford; 1893 Whitney's Point; 1894-96, Oxford; 1897-09, Taylor; 1899-02, Sidney; 1903-04, Clinton street, Binghamton; 1905, Bainbridge. Mr. Frisby was an excellent preacher. Her sermons were always of high order, indicating that he was a man of thought. He had prepared himself for his calling by becoming a thorough Biblical scholar and a student in all fields of literature. He was successful as a pastor. His influence and efforts tended to build up the parishes committed to his charge and caused large accessions to his church. He was constructive religiously, and formed foundations in his field of work which were lasting. Though modest and reticent, he was always the gentleman and commanded the greatest respect. In the death of Mr. Frisby the uncertainty of life has been forcibly demonstrated. There lay before him the prospect of many years of usefulness and the descent to the grave seemed far away, when Fanny Crosby, the blind poetess, who is now 86 years old, in meeting the sympathetic preacher, made the request that when death came to her, he should conduct her funeral services. But the preacher dies in the zenith of his powers while the aged hymn writer is spared years beyond the four score span of life. The deceased is survived by his wife whom he married May 4, 1882 in New York city, and whose maiden name was Miss Jennie L. Norris. The daughter above mentioned also survives. The funeral services of Rev. William Frisby were held in the M.E. church, at 2 o'clock, Wednesday afternoon under the supervision of Presiding Elder Griffin.....The burial was in Prospect Hill cemetery, Sidney, nearly all the officers of the church, with the clergymen, accompanying the family and the remains. The bearers were four of the attending ministers. [Bainbridge Republican, Feb. 1, 1906]
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