Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1911-04-26
In Memoriam-J. E. Barnett.

/ you who seem to be an exquisite
architect, forever building up the
castle of happiness out of all the
losses and crosses and wrecks and
ruins that fate may throw about you
to you who can always see the silver
lining to every cloud, who can
poniard your sorrows, share your joys,
and laugh and be content, and still
keep up the fight till lifes rugged
journey ends. =
The air is full of tarewells to the
dying.
And MORNINGS for the dead. :"
Among the many and the sad reap
ings Of Death s relentless harvest in
and around our fair city the past week
none is more regretted than the pass
ing of our esteemed friend, the veneer
able Jed" Barnett. Could we find
anywhere a tribute more fttingly
i expressive of his genial, sunshiny,
home loving nature than the exquisite
ly beautiful quotation that opens this
sketch His was one of those rare
and blessed souls that can laugh and
never grow old. He heard the songs
that live. If there were Earring notes
he tried not to hear them, remember
ing the melody, forgetting the dis
cord. He faced the sunlight, turn
ing his back where shadows grew,
bearing the burden and heat of the
day with courageous front and counted
his blessings with joyous heart. He
must have early learned the art of
being kind, because he made and
kept, through long, changing years,
such hosts of congenial trends. And
creeping age only evolved in him more
love and a deeper sympathy with kin
dred souls. Even when the keenest
sorrow of life time came into his
! home and he found how hard the soil
tary ways Of life can be. he did not
make miserable by gloomy repinings
the lives Of those associated with his
own.
That the kind old heart was rent
with lasting grief over the sever ed ties
Of his life's love can any doubt W no
know with what tender care he cher
ished the things his wife had loved :?
One day, not long ago, in answer to
one of the pleasant greetings we often
exchanged upon the street, Mr.. Bar
nett replied, II am we'll, quite we'll,
and comfortable, faring better indeed
than do most men Of my age, but
with pathetic gesture) I'm so
lonesome going on without her. =
When asked if he did not find comfort
in the thought of the reunion not far
away in that better home where joys
do not perish, he answered. with
yearning tenderness, Oh, it must be
SO; it must be SO. Though his heart
was oft-times heavy within him, he
let the bright light of his genial
nature shine even through the latter
ed tent Of grief. and found that 1T
is good to lengthen to the last sunny
mood.
The sentiment of the whole city is
voiced in the remark of one of her
business men. ''How gladly would
we nave made sacrifices to have kept
with US little longer good old Jed
Barnett!'
Jared Evans Barnett was born Feb
nary %, 1881. at Brookteld, Pa. He
was one Of the ten children who came
with their parents to Lancaster in
1874. In Editor Pollock's story of
the celebration of the eighteeth birth
day of our now lamented friend, tissue
of March 2nd) he gives a most in
teresting account of the arrival by
boat of the big family at the hotel in
Cassville. then kept by the editor s
father The sketch Of the progress of
the family fortunes, their long resi-
dence in the county, the different
places Of their abode so recently
written and SO we'll told needs no
repetition here, The mother who died
! from cholera was the first for whom a
grave was made III the now beautiful
Hillside cemetery: July s, 1857 Jared
Barnett was married to Miss Harriet
Fisher. For a time they lived in
Boscobel where the young man was
united with his father in hotel keep
ing, aud was also appointed postmaster
there under Buchanan administra
ton. The hotel burned and was re-
built but the junior partner sold his
interest and returned to Lancaster and
began teaming. The nearest railroad
was BcscUbel leaning to these and
to Potosi and Galena, and sometimes as
far as Warren, Ill, made a good bust