560. Oscar Bradford⁹ BARBER (Rev. Bradford Kenyon⁸, Benjamin B.⁷, Thomas⁶, Thomas⁵, Moses⁴, James A.³, James T.², Thomas¹) (#5490) was born in Northville, Fulton Co., NY ca 1847. Oscar died CA 1910 WI, at age unknown. Probably died before 1910.

He married Jennie H. HAMILTON 18 NOV 1867 in Marquette Co., WI. 1:80 586 (Jennie H. HAMILTON is #5491.)

Jennie was born DEC 1846 in Defiance Co., OH. Jennie was the daughter of Orthneil HAMILTON and Mary GRANT. Jennie died 1910 in Monroe Co., WI, at age 63. The 1900 Census, Lincoln, Monroe Co., WI, page 11, Jennie Barber is shown as divorced, and head of family. This information was provided by Donna Ryan.

When Oscar was age 22 and Jennie H. HAMILTON was age 22 they became the parents of Ellwyn Clarence BARBER SEP 1869 in Monroe Co., WI. also have seen 1868

When Oscar was age 26 and Jennie H. HAMILTON was age 26 they became the parents of Elizabeth Barodell "Lizzie" BARBER AUG 1873 WI. When Oscar was age unknown and Jennie H. HAMILTON was age unknown they became the parents of Flora Evelyn BARBER ca 1878 in Lincoln Co., WI. When Oscar was age 32 and Jennie H. HAMILTON was age 33 they became the parents of Estelle BARBER FEB 1880 in Linclon, Monroe Co., WI. When Oscar was age 41 and Jennie H. HAMILTON was age 41 they became the parents of Clara K. BARBER SEP 1888 WI. Oscar was divorced from an unknown person BEF 1900 in Monroe Co., WI. Occupation listed as Farmer on the census. Was also listed as in prison during the 1870 Census and as a carpenter there? Why was he in prison? Later in life he was listed as divorced.

He enlisted from Fox Lake, Wisconsin, and served in the 18th Regiment Infantry, Company B as a Private. 1850 Census, Galway, Saratoga, NY 1860 Census, Douglas, Marquette, WI 1870 Census, Waupun, Dodge, WI (State Prison) 1880 Census, Lincoln, Monroe, WI 1870 Census: Prisoner, State Prison 1900 Census Chicago, listed as divorced and employed as a Lawyer

Some have listed a child Frederick bn after 18??? I cannot find supporting data?

Tomah Journal, March 3, 1888

FORGER AND BIGAMIST Some of the Record of the Renegade O.B. Barber, as told by a business Partner and a Brother

Mention was made in the JOURNAL a few weeks ago, of the arrest, conviction, and sentence to the Illinois state penitentiary for two years, of Oscar B. Barber, an Eau Claire pension attorney, his offense being the forgery of a notary public's name to a pension certificate which in business in Quincy, Ill. Mr. Barber was until recently a resident of Warren Mills, this county, and his character has doubtless become quite well known in this vicinity since about a year ago, when he deserted his wife and family and went to Illinois with a young girl as his wife, although through regard for family and friends of the culprit, his most outrageous conduct and greatest crimes have not been heretofore published. The same considerations would now present our giving further particulars as to his record, were it not for the fact that an attempt to defend the man, based upon ignorance or perversion of the facts, has been made by an Eau Claire paper, the Leader. Any attempt to justify or excuse crimes of such a flagrant nature as his, demands a plain statement of the facts, and a defense of the innocent ones so grossly wronged by his outrageous conduct. This can best be done by the publication of two letters…one written by the man with whom he was in partnership when he committed the forgery, L.D. Simmonds, of Quincy, Ill, and another by his own brother, W.A. Barber of Warren Mills. A brother, even, who has always stood by him, rendering him financial and other aid, lending him the influence of his good name and reputation, and shielding him in everything except his crimes, now feels that he is absolved from shielding him further, and justice and fair play demand that he speak out.

Office of George Warren & Co…Jan. 30, 1881 to L.D. Simmonds, Quincy, Ill Dear Sir, I take the liberty to enclose a clipping from the Eau Claire Leader of the 28th inst. Truth compels me to plead guilty of being a brother of the sufficiently notorious character referred to. In your brief acquaintance with him, you may not understand how it can be possible that one so at first sight, prepossessing, can be absolutely without friends of any kind in a community he has lived in sixteen consecutive years. But such is the case. He commenced an out-breaking, scandalous career at the age of sixteen, trying by all the devilish arts he was master of, to compel father to drive him from home in self-defense. Failing in this he ran away the same fall and circulated the most scandalous reports about our parents among esteemed friends fifty miles distant, succeeding for a time in getting his slanders believed. But naturally after a time he got to scandalizing the friends he had gone to, and they cast him out. After he had come back from the army (he was in the service about six months, going by perjury as to his age unnecessarily, as father would have consented, and I had been in the army since he winter previous,) and having spent his money he came home, father tolerating him, although he never confessed his wrong nor offered by any overtures. Father, who was a minister in the Baptist church, after our return from the war, left the farm in my care, and Oscar worked about, sometimes for me, and more generally for others at some distance away until he married. Not many months after that, he being hard up, although getting several hundred dollars by his wife, he asked me for work, and I offered him what I thought was a first-rate lay in clearing some of my land. He swore he would not grub, and declared in so many words that he would deal first. Soon after that he moved to Reedsburg, Wis., (our old home was near Westfield, Wis.) where his first child was born, and the following fall he stole a horse near Evansville, Wis. He was caught, plead guilty, and served his time in Waupun. While there he professed conversion, worked on the sympathies of all of us, and when released, we all did all possible to start him right. His wife having blindly refused to think him guilty, took him back, and has since borne him five children, one some months since he left with the woman he lived with while with you. After leaving his true wife in the condition to become a mother again, he wrote her that he had been divorced from her for many months previous to leaving, although living with her all the time, and she unsuspicious of even any effort to be divorced. We tried to trace the fraud by which the so-called divorce was obtained, but as yet found no record of it. At the very time father was about taking what proved to be his death bed, Oscar was cavorting with other women than his wife. And soon after the funeral, and he had got the few hundred dollars his share, his conduct became practically unendurable, trying with his wife when he was 39, the same kind of a game he had with his father when he was but 16 years old. Like father, and to use his (father's) expression, she "had grace or folly to endure it without giving him the slightest pretext." Being thus informed of his early career, will you give the particulars of this last escapade? And if you feel like writing it up for publication, may add any or all the above if you like, and I will hold myself responsible, with much more in reserve. I have nothing in malice, but the daily sight of his innocent children and terribly wronged wife, forbid overlooking some justice, and I cannot but feel to thank you for giving him a chance to reflect in solitude awhile. ...W.A. Barber

L.D. Simmonds letter to Eau Claire Leader Editor …As the article casts reflections upon me during Mr. Barber's sojourn in our city, and while he was a member of this firm, justice to myself and justice to the wronged wife and children of Mr. Barber compels me to reply to the article in question, and show the other side, and to show it is not so much of a trumped up case as one would imagine; and I do not propose to utter one word but what can be substantiated by an overwhelming amount of proof. In the first place, Mr. Barber was admitted as a member of this firm in January, 1889. He came to Quincy in March, 1887. Our contract was that all claims prior to our forming the co-partnership, where there was no evidence filed subsequent, should remain as individual property, and vise versa. Now you claim, as I was a notary, Barber asked me for my seal and signature, and upon that demand of Mr. Barber, I claimed that the transaction belonged to the company, consequently was a company claim by right of our contract. The truth of the matter follows: On the 27th day of June, 1887, I took the acknowledgement for him in an application of his own claim for an increase of pension, and upon that same day he signed my name as notary to the agent's acceptance and attached my notorial seal. At 5 o'clock that same day he locked his desk, taking with him the mail to the postoffice, which was an unusual thing, as that was part of my duties to stamp and mail our correspondence. Suspecting that something was wrong, I went to the postoffice and called for our Washington mail that had been mailed that evening, and upon receiving it returned to the office and opened it, and in one of the envelopes was his application for an increase, and the fee agreements of Ida J. Grout, of Black River Falls, Wis, made payable to him as the attorney in the case, and my forged signature, and my notarial seal attached to the agent's acceptance. The agreements were turned over to Mr. T. F. Hensley, special examiner for this district, which he forwarded to Washington with his report. This was the last hair that broke the came's back, as he had succeeded in embezzeling the checks made payable to him, as attorney in claims, which by right were company property, and in addition to this he had written to our clients in Wisconsin to direct their mail to him personally, and not to the company, in order that he might still further defraud the company out of the money our clients remitted to us to defray postage expenses in their claims. On the 11th day of July last, we called Mr. Barber into my office, (as each member had a separate office) and laid before him his transactions, and there and then Mr. Barber retired from the firm. We signed back to him all the claims he brought with him to the company, with the exception of a sufficient number to cover his indebtedness to the company. He left Quincy and leased a hotel at Clarence, Mo., and while there he wrote me that the department had given him a certain length of time to answer the charge made by me, and asking me to come to his rescue. He plead for his wife, not for himself. I did come to his rescue, not wishing to kick him and send him still further down. I enclosed his letter written to me, in the one written by me to the honorable commissioner of pensions, withdrawing the charges, and supposed my request had been granted, until the United States marshal stepped into our office, subpoenaing us before the grand jury. He was afterward arrested and brought to Springfield. The case was not tried, as he plead guilty to the charge, and was sentenced for two years, one year for his crime and one year for his intelligence. Ever since I informed him that I had withdrawn the charges, he commenced a tirade of abuse, slander, and insults. I kindly forgave him all, and do not now, as God is my judge, hold any malice or ill-will towards him, and I would not now adopt this measure of placing his true character before the public, were not in self-defence, knowing as I do that he has unscrupulously slandered and abused me in the minds of many of my old comrades I arms.

L. D. Simmonds

Oscar Bradford BARBER and Jennie H. HAMILTON had the following children:

729 i. Ellwyn Clarence¹⁰ BARBER (#5492) was born in Monroe Co., WI SEP 1869. also have seen 1868 Ellwyn died 1907 in Monroe Co., WI, at age 37. His body was interred 1907 in Monroe Co., WI. Warren Mills Cem. Also seen in a letter as Clarence Ellwyn Barber, and was listed as Clarence Bradford Barber in the 1870 census as age 1 yr.

730 ii. Elizabeth Barodell "Lizzie" BARBER (#5493) was born WI AUG 1873.

+ 731 iii. Flora Evelyn BARBER was born ca 1878.

732 iv. Estelle BARBER (#5495) was born in Linclon, Monroe Co., WI FEB 1880.

733 v. Clara K. BARBER (#5947) was born WI SEP 1888.

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