Arizona republican., 1912-08-05
FIFTY YEARS
 IN ARIZONA
George W. Barnard One of the States Oldest Citizens and Earliest Residents Died Last Night at Home
 of Relatives.

| 1 died at the home of his only surviving l near relative, a nephew and niece, | Frank A Barnard and Miss Ellen May 1 Barnard, 6N East Roosevelt street | The funeral will be held this afternoon l at o'clock in the parlors of Moore and Mcclellan on West Adams street | Due only to the environment of early 1 days, the pioneer citizens of Arizona I themselves and greatly in contrast with 1 those Wno are today regarded as men | of affairs In them were developed l the highest type of manly virtues,
 mingled often with the petty vices, ! and the roll of them is good to look I upon for they were men of good deeds | and strCh2 action that far outweighed | their weaknesses. It is a rapidly l shrinking list and when the name of 1 George w Barnard was scratched ! from it by the stroke of death it was ] lessened by one who died in compara- 1 tive obscurity and who was never 1 famous, but who had played a large l part in the affairs of his adopted coun- | try at time when men were few, lit | tie things were big and the manner of ] their doing led to those conditions from 1 which were evolved the big things of 1 the present. George Barnard belonged
 to a generation of men who fought In- 1 dians ant bandits, conquered the des- erts and opened the treasure vaults of mineral wealth. On occasion, they
 drank whiskey but without swilling it,
 and gambled but without cheating, about the only diversions available in 1 those rigorous days. but they stood al
 ways fo~ Law and order and the pro | tection of the weak against the de 1 signing strong.
 l Born in Michigan, before he had
 scarcely reached his majority, Barnard 1 heard the call of the west. answering
 it's echo from the gold coast. Travel i ing via the isthmus he reached San 1 Francisco during the ruch of '49 and | 30 There he participated in the eX- periences of the California pioneers of | that period until 1863 when he came | across the deserts to Arizona, return ] ing again the same year and in 1864 l coming Lack to Arizona for his per l marent residence, his travelling com panion being the Late James Gison. He was in Prescott at the very be- ginning of things, having attended the first town meeting which it is said was | held under q tree. About that time. perhaps before. he filled the position | of post saddler at Fort Whipple for | he was l saddler by trade and in those l days good saddler was an important | functionary around an army post. | When Prescott was properly laid out 1t | is said that Barnard opened the first public house naming it the Juniper ho- | tel A Juniper tree afforded shelter | ard the guest rooms were the open plain divided by tent canvas and equipped with coarse blankets on mat | tresses of brush.
 little later when Prescott was re- 1 cognzed by the government postal au- l thorities Barnard became it's first post | master. II is said by his friends that | he always took great pride in the fact | that an humble effort of his in the remote hills of Arizona way back in the sixties. resulted in a new postal regulation that has since become a | fundamental, namely the cash prepay ment of hostage on newspapers or sec 1 Ond class matter. instead of stamping l it. He got Arizona's delegate to In troduce the bill which resulted in the | law. that though changed in detail and rates is essentially the one that stlll governs second class matter.
 | Thoueh he never owned of sold any 1 big bonanza mines so far as can be ] learned. Barnard spent much time in prospecting and it is said was the orig | iraI locator of what is now known as | the Senator mine. He lived at Tip Top when that camp was one of the larg- l est mining towns in the territory and
 was for a time in the saloon business there. Altogether he spent about i twenty years in northern Arizona most
 of the time in Yavapai county and
 about thirty years ago he came to 1 Phoenix
 He served this precinct for some
 time as justice of the peace which was regarded as TO small achievement, for he was always a radical republican l and the settlement was strongly demo- | cratic. It meant something to be 1 republican office holder in those days
 no matter how humble the office Lat
 CT he was in the saloon business here
 and then he filed on a piece of land
 near were the cement plant is now
 urdr construction just west of the Tempe bridge. There he built llttle
 house ant opened a wayside station for supplying the needs of travellers
 on the dusty roads. He lived there
 until advanced age and ill health mace it advisable for him to be alone no | longer. and then he moved to Tempe and stopped for a time with friends.
 | About two years ago MT. Barnard | was admitted to the Pioneers home Tn Prescott and lived there quite content
 ly until recently, when the altitude l seemed t0 be too great for one or his age and physical condition and he came to the home of his niece and nephew Tn | Phoenix. He was never marrleo'