John Barr was born in Liberty township, Trumbull county, (now Mahoning,) Ohio, June 26th, 1804. His ancestors, on both sides, were from Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, though on his father's side they originally came from the north of England, in the days of William Penn; and his mother's, from Germany.

His grandfather, Alexander Barr, was killed by the Indians, in 1785, on the Miami, a short distance below, where Hamilton, in Butler county, now stands. His parents removed from Westmoreland county, Pa., to Youngstown, in 1800; and his father settled as the Presbyterian pastor of a church in that place, and resided there till 1820, when he removed to Wooster, Wayne county, in this State. The subject of this sketch was raised on a farm, literally in the woods, and experienced the usual privations and vicissitudes attendant on pioneer life. The new country and poverty of his parents prevented his receiving a common English education, and it was not until after he was of age that he mastered Murray's syntax and Daboll's arithmetic.

On leaving home in 1825, he repaired to the Ohio canal, (then in process of construction,) where he labored for two years, at various points between Boston and Tinker's creek; where, with hundreds of others, he was prostrated by the malaria of that unhealthy valley.

In 1828, he settled in Cleveland, and acted as deputy for the late Edward Baldwin, sheriff. He took the census of the county in 1830, and was elected sheriff that year, which office he held till 1834. Cleveland city at that time, contained one thousand and seventy-one inhabitants; its northern boundary was the lake, Erie street on the east, and the Cuyahoga river on the west.

In 1835, when the idea of connecting Cleveland with other places by means of railroads, was conceived by John W. Willey, James S. Clarke, T. P. Handy, Edmund Clark, R. Hilliard, O. M. Gidings, H. B. Payne, Anson Haydn, H. Canfield and others, Mr. Barr joined in and spent a good deal of time in furthering the project. Late in the Fall of that year, he visited Cincinnati, distributing petitions along the line of a proposed route to Cincinnati from Cleveland, and spent most of the Winter at Columbus, during the session of the Legislature. A charter for that road, and one for a road to Pittsburgh, being granted, Mr. Barr brought the first copies of them, duly certified under the seal of the State, to this city.

During 1836 and 7, Mr. Barr devoted a good deal of time in collecting statistics of this port, the business of the city, its population, &c., &c., and also of the west generally, and laying them before the public in the papers of Philadelphia and other eastern cities. In company with Mr. Willey and the late Governor Tod, he visited Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, endeavoring to enlist the attention of capitalists to aid in those enterprises. But the crash of 1837, and the general prostration of business, that followed all over the country, rendered it unavailing. In the Winter of 1838, Mr. Gidings, S. Starkweather, Frederick Whittlesey, Wm. B. Lloyd and Mr. Barr were appointed a committee to attend a railroad convention at Harrisburgh, Pa., to promote the project of the railroad from Cleveland to Philadelphia, by way of Pittsburgh. In 1838 and 9, at the request of John W. Willey, he still spent much of his time in sending a series of articles on the importance of the project, that were published monthly in the North American, a paper in Philadelphia devoted to such projects.

Through the disastrous state of the times, these various measures had to yield, and become, for the time being, failures; but time has shown that those who were engaged in them were only in advance of the spirit and means of the age. In 1844, when this subject again arrested the attention of the Cleveland public, Mr. Barr, although crushed by the storm of 1837, again resumed the subject with his pen, and gave to the public in the National Magazine, published in New York, quite a history of the city, its early settlement, &c., together with a full description of the shipping on their lakes, tonnage, trade, &c., that cost weeks of hard labor and patience, more particularly to place our city in a favorable view before the eastern public.

In 1846, a friend of Mr. B. sent him a petition to circulate and send to the Hon. Thomas Corwin, one of Ohio's Senators, asking Congress for aid to survey and establish a railroad to the Pacific.

In circulating this petition, Mr. Barr was gravely inquired of by one of our citizens, "if he expected to live to see such a road built?" Mr. Barr replied, "if he should live to the usual age of men, he did expect to see it commenced, and perhaps built." The reply was, "If you do, you will be an older man than Methusalah!" Both have lived to know that great work has been achieved.

Mr. Barr procured over six hundred names to his petition, which was duly presented by Mr. Corwin. Cleveland has now reason to be proud of the interests she manifested in that great work, at so early a day.

In 1857, Mr. Barr brought the first petroleum to this city, made from cannel coal, to be used as a source of light. This was new and regarded as utopian. The article was very odorous, and failed to be acceptable to the public, but as time rolled on, improvements in refining were made, and now the largest manufacturing business in our city is that of petroleum.

Few, if any, of citizens have spent more time and pains in collecting and giving to the public reminiscences of early days and early settlers--those who located in this region, and who under such privations, trials, hardships and sufferings commenced levelling these mighty forests, erecting log cabins, and in due time made this formidable wilderness "bud and blossom as the rose." In that respect Mr. Barr has done much to preserve and lay before the public from time to time, brief histories of many of those brave men and women who left their homes and friends in the east, and comparative comforts, to settle in the western wilderness, to build up homes for their children and future generations. Howe's history of Ohio, and Col. Chas. Whittlesey's history of the city of Cleveland, bear witness that his generous heart and gifted pen have furnished tributes of respect to the memory of the noble pioneers, after the battle of life with them was over, and thus supplying links to our historic chain that makes it comparatively perfect.

Among the many reminiscences of early times related to us by Mr. Barr, there is one we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of relating, and preserving: William Coleman, Esq., came to Euclid in 1803, selected a lot of land and with his family settled upon it in 1804. For several years the few settlers experienced a good deal of inconvenience in having only the wild game of the country for meat, and which, at certain seasons of the year, was unfit for the table. In the Spring the streams that put into the lake abounded with excellent fish, and the season lasted about four weeks. The question arose, "could these fish be preserved in salt for future use?" The universal answer was No! The idea of preserving fresh water fish in salt seemed incredible; the red man was appealed to, but he shook his head in contempt at the idea, and in broken English said, "put him on pole, dry him over smoke." One Spring Mr. Coleman repaired to Rocky River, famous for its fine pike and pickerel, and laid in his stock, carefully laid them down in salt, which cost him over thirty dollars a barrel, (at a great risk, as his neighbors thought,) and watched them carefully from time to time till harvest. Much to his own and his neighbors' satisfaction, he found it a success, and proved not only a happy change of diet for health, but also a luxury, unknown before. From this circumstance, small at that time, originated a new source of comfort, which proved, in time, a mine of wealth to the West, and a luxury to the persons who located in the interior of the State. Well was it said by the school boy of Massachusetts about those days, "Tall oaks from little acorns grow, large streams from little fountains flow."

Mr. Barr says he made this circumstance a matter of much research and inquiry, and fully believes that to William Coleman belongs the credit for so useful and important a discovery.