{"id":8505,"date":"2015-09-14T08:05:42","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T12:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/?p=8505"},"modified":"2026-02-10T15:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:25:18","slug":"charles-barker-mr-barclay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/archives\/8505","title":{"rendered":"Charles Barker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early De Smet grocer. His store was just south of Royal Wilder’s building on Calumet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr. Hinz recalls hauling for E.M. Harthorn, the first store keeper here, and for Charley Barker, another early merchant. – Kingsbury County Independent, June 15, 1890<\/em><\/p>\n

     
\nC<\/span>harles Barker was one of the first merchants in De Smet; his first building was a “knock-down” type that was replaced early on by the building circled in the photo at right. Originally one story, Barker added a second story in 1883, dividing the upstairs into hotel rooms to rent as well as rooms for his own family residence, and he operated a restaurant and store below. In the summer of 1884, the De Smet Leader <\/em>reported that Barker had changed the awning in front of his hotel into a porch, and that he gave the use of it to the cornet band to use as a band stand, where they played music in the evenings. He advertised lemonade and soda water for sale, and served ice cream on Wednesdays and Saturdays. <\/p>\n

The building to the north of Barker’s (to its right in the photo) was not Royal Wilder’s feed store, which was on this lot next to (north of) Barker’s Grocery during the Little House years. The feed store was torn down by a later owner and replaced with the garage building shown on the lot in this photo.<\/p>\n

Laura Ingalls Wilder mentions Mr. Barker (his first name is not given) and his grocery store in The Long Winter<\/em> and Little Town on the Prairie<\/em>. She also mentions a “Mr. Barclay” as one of the townsmen who participated in the spelling bee in Little Town on the Prairie<\/em>, and she may have been referring to Mr. Barker.<\/p>\n

Charles Philip Barker<\/strong> was born in Canada on August 4, 1844; he came to the United States in 1865. He married Elizabeth Dunnett in Olmsted County, Minnesota, in February 1877, and they had two sons born in Minnesota: Fred (December 1877) and Earl (January 1880). The Barkers came to De Smet in 1880, Charles building on Lot 16, Block 1, and opening a grocery store there. The family lived in De Smet during the Hard Winter of 1880-1881, and Fred Barker was a student in the De Smet school beginning in 1885, a classmate of Grace Ingalls. In August 1885, Charles Barker sold his hotel and restaurant to Aaron Price, and the Barkers moved to Willow Lake in Clark County, later moving to a farm in Cedar County, Nebraska. Mr. Barker opened C.P. Barker & Son, General Merchandise, in Aten, later moving the building to Crofton. Charles and Elizabeth had nine children, three of whom were born in Kingsbury County and two in Clark County.<\/p>\n

In 1909, Charles and one of his sons preempted homestead claims in the Black Hills, but Charles died the following year in August, with his widow receiving the patent on the South Dakota land. Charles was buried in Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln. Elizabeth was buried beside her husband after her death in November 1918.<\/p>\n

     
\n
\nCharles Barker<\/strong> (LTP 6)
\n     Barker’s grocery (TLW 9-10; LTP 6)
\n     Mr. Barclay (LTP 18)
\n     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early De Smet grocer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[645],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8505"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8505"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17837,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8505\/revisions\/17837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}