My Genealogy Hound

Dr. Alfred Barter, a practicing physician and surgeon, also a successful fruit-grower of Virgil City, was born in London, Ontario, Canada, in 1845, and is the son of J. E. and Sarah (Jones) Barter, natives of England and Canada, born in 1818 and 1825, respectively. When eleven years of age J. E. Barter emigrated with his parents to Canada, lived for some in Montreal, and then came to London, where he married and resided until 1870. He them moved to Virgil City, Mo., and here Mrs. Barter died in 1872. A few years since Mr. Barter went to Los Angeles, Cal., where he is living at the present time. He is a man of no little intelligence and ability, and has been traveling salesman for different wholesale establishments of various kinds nearly all his life. He did military service during the trouble in Canada in 1837. He has one son and two daughters now living, the Doctor being the eldest. One daughter, Clara, is the wife of Hon. W. B. Lewis, who represents Cedar County in the Legislature, and the other daughter, Annie, now in Los Angeles, Cal., is a celebrated portrait artist; one of her most elaborate works adorns Bucking ham Palace, in England. The Doctor received a good practical education in the common schools of Canada, and in 1867 came to North Missouri, where he was engaged in the nursery business one year. He then came to Virgil City, was occupied in the drug business for several years, and in 1877 graduated from the St. Louis Eclectic Medical College. Since then he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession. For the last ten or twelve years he has been successfully and extensively interested in fruit growing, and has one of the finest fruit farms in Cedar County. He has 200 acres in all, fifty acres in orchard, peach and apples. In 1870 he married Miss Anna Swartz, a native of Illinois, and the daughter of Owen and Rebecca Swartz. Her father died in Illinois, but her mother is living, and is a resident of Vernon County. To the Doctor and wife were born six children, three sons and two daughters living. In politics he has been a Democrat until recently, since which time he has allied himself earnestly with the Prohibitionists, and is an active worker in the cause. He is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, and is secretary of Hesperian Lodge No. 286. He and Mrs. Barter are faithful members of the Church of Christ.