The father, a man of marked social qualities, and frank and genial in his bearing, died before the son had reached his majority, and previous to this business had taken the father from home, so that most of the responsibilities of the family rested upon the mother. But it is no idle pun upon her maiden name to say that she was a _power_ in that household. She exercised a healthful and unchallenged discipline. Her intuitive vision saw every material necessity of the family; her unsurpassed executive capacity was equal to every demand; and, what is quite as essential to the formation of a symmetrical character, her moral and religious precepts and example compelled a recognition of the claims of God and man. The sick and the poor of her neighborhood were often greatly indebted to her for the wisdom of her counsels, the abundance of her alms-deeds, and the warmth of her sympathy. Universally venerated and esteemed, she died in Croydon, Sept. 14, 1881, aged 86 years. Inheriting the best qualities of such an ancestry, molded and inspired by such a mother, and in boyhood acquiring his fiber in the severe but practical school of tireless industry, rigid economy, and heroic self-denial and self-reliance, we might anticipate for Mr. Barton a character and a career which would place him among the best and foremost citizens of his state, and entitle him to an important chapter in its history. We hazard nothing when we say that he has made that anticipation a reality, and that he has afforded us another conspicuous example of what the humblest may achieve under the fostering genius of republican institutions. His district-school education, often interrupted by demands upon his manual labor, consisted of ten brief winter terms. At eighteen he assumed the responsibility of his own education and support. He had no money, but he had what is better, courage and muscle. He went to work. His books were always near by, so that, whenever there was a leisure moment, "the horny hands of toil" would grasp and his hungry mind would feast upon them. He would brook no discouragements. No hours were allowed to run to waste. Often on rainy days he would call on his old friend, John Cooper, Esq., to receive instruction. These efforts, supplemented by a term under Dr. Miner of Boston, qualified him to teach in the common schools. But for awile he devoted himself chiefly to farming.