The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1918-01-11
TRIBUTE, PAID TO
DEPARTED BAKER
By CLOSE FkkEOS
THE LATE j. n. BARR OF BiRM.
INGHAM LAID TO REST AT
ROSE HILL CEMETERY.
HIS SERVICE. IN CRISIS
Helped to Clear the Dark Financial
Clouds that Gathered in South I'm.
medately After Outbreak of the
European War.

AtLenued by q most VI CLOSE per
sonal and business friends from Birm-
ingham and relatives and friends Of
Columbia, the funeral Sunday after
! noon at o'clock at the home of the
deceased s sister. Mrs. Eugene Ander-
son on Garden street, was an impress
siye and most solemnly beautiful tri.
Dute to the late j. H. Barr who GUS
stumbled to long illness Saturday
morning. The burial followed immed-
lately afterward at Rose Hill ceme-
terry, the services at the homo and
at the grave being conducted by DIR.
~. C. Molloy, pastor of the First Pres
byterian church, assisted by DR., S. D.
Logan OF the Garden street Presby-
terrain church.
The business associates and friends
from Birmingham Of the late Mr.. Barr
who attended the funeral and acted as
honorary pail bearers were: Oscar
! Wells, president of the First National
Bank; Knox Fleming, yice-president;
Thomas Hopkins, cashier; Erskine
Ramsey, director; Alfred Carpenter,
Fred Jackson and Donald Conner. The
floral offerings from these and other
friends were magnificent in their
solemn beauty and impressive express
sion of the love and esteem in which
Mr.. Barr was held by those who knew
him best.
lengthy accounts Of the life and
death of Mr.. Barr. From the Birmins-
ham Ledger is reproduced the follow,
ing:
"In the time of stress which marked
the opening days Of the European
conflagration, it was to Mr.. Barr that
all eyes were turned. Regarding Mr..
Barr at this period, Sixty-One4One,'
the publication of the First National
bank says: 49, So
Tribute of sisty-one-cnc.
Upon his election to the presi-
. dency. one of his Presbyterian friends
remarked that Mr.. Barr was born and
predestined to be banker, and the
. manner in which he handled the ar
duous and difficult problems that al,
most hourly confronted him in those
strenuous days lends color to this
theory. Handicapped at the outset by
/, insufficient assistance, with charac'
Iteristic soundness of judgment and
executive ability amounting to posi-
tive genius he patiently worked his
way through difficulties that again
and again seemed overwhelming. His
aversion to publicity largely explains
, why the scope of his work at that
time was so little appreciated locally;
a reference to newspaper files, now
ever it, indeed, anyone has forgot
ten the hideous nightmare following
the war, wildly recall the abnormal
conditions instantly reflected in our
own country-the closing OF stock ex
changes, depreciation of securities
utter decentralization in financial and
business circles, demands that scrip
be issued, or a moratorium be dc
clared, or both, while the south stiflee
under bumper cotton crop for which
There was no market, with panic as
the keynote.
Local conditions became complex
more so daily, but the conviction tina
somehow each problem would bt
taken care of was occasionally voiced
in a complacent, oh. well, we are al
right as long as Barr sits tight on tht
lid these complacent ones like
dreaming that the silent man whit
smiled rather mirthlessly at the fire.
= uuent advice to cut out business II i
was interfering with golf, was some
times driven to such lengths Of ply
steal endurance that only his sterI
sense of duty held him to his post"
Helped Save Cotton Crop.
Besides directing the affairs of thu
hank, Mr.. Barr took a hand in the sal
walton of the south through the pre-
: servation of the cotton crop. Whel
the government set in motion ma
chinery for issuing emergency cur
lrency under the Aldrich-Vreeland act
E Mr.. Barr was chosen president Of tn
Alabama branch. Eastern financier
had interested themselves in the cot
ton situation and had polled fun
for distribution through banking chan
nels, and Mr.. Barr was named chair
Imam Of the Alabama Cotton Loan com
nittee. The many duties connecte'
With these posts Mr.. Barr discharges
the nrice OF his health, and Ehel
comparative tranquil times cam
Israir he asked tn he relieved Of tn
1 -. H. ,,oestfav. ~ oh /,