Posted on: Henry Co. In Obituaries
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Surname: BARNARD, BALLENGER, MYER
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From Mary V. (Ballenger) Barnard scrapbook:
In the death of Sylvester Barnard, which occurred at the home of his son
Dr. Pliney C. Barnard, on the morning of January 27, 1914, another of the
worthy pioneers of Eastern Indiana has passed from this life.
He had been in about his usual health on the day and evening before his
death and during the day before went about the village visiting and conversing
with the people as on former occasions, and when he retired at night it
seemed that his life might be prolonged for many days. About 5 o'clock
in the morning, he was heard up and about his room and not hearing any
more of him for an hour or more, his son went in and found him lifeless
on his bed, and to all appearances his death had been peaceful and without
struggle.
He was born in Union County, Indiana, March 31, 1828 and was near his eighty-sixth
birthday at the time of his death.
He came of sturdy Nantucket Quaker stock and was related by blood to the
Macy's, Coffins, Folgers, Gardners and Worths, who were the first settlers
of the Island.
On April 10, 1850, He was married to Lavina Myer, daughter of Jacob and
Sarah Landis Myer, at their home in Fayette County.
This union was of two lives well adapted to promote the happiness of each,
and the death of his wife after a union of fifty-eight years, left a void
in his life nothing else could fill.
All of his active life was spent upon the farm and when he gave up this
vocation he and his wife removed to Middletown to spend their remaining
days.
While he gave up the active pursuits of a farmer he continued to look after
his farm and he also continued until and including last summer to employ
himself in gardening and cultivating flowers and was planning for the coming
summer a garden to be tended by his own hands.
After the death of his wife he spent a portion of his time at Middletown
and the remainder with the families of his sons, Isaac M. and Pliney C.,
who did all they could do to make his old age comfortable and enjoyable.
He and his wife were members of The Society of Friends until their removal
to Middletown and there being no meeting of that denomination in or near
that place they united by letter with the Methodist church there and their
membership continued until the death of each.
He entertained broad and liberal views on the subject of religion and wished
in his heart a better and more abundant life for all, and oftimes expressed
the hope that no one might perish.
He became a member of the independent Order of Odd Fellows when a very
young man and was at the time of his death the oldest member of Ivy Lodge,
that order at Dublin, Indiana.
In politics, he was first a Whig and than a Republican and was an ardent
supporter of the policies of his party and boasted of the fact that he
voted for every candidate of his party from its organization to its last
campaign.
He was strikingly fond of children and young people and was familiarly
known to the children of Middletown as "Grandpa Barnard."
Sylvester and Lavina Barnard were the parents of six children, one daughter,
Edna A., who intermarried with John Meckel of Anderson and who died in
1895, bringing to them their first great sorrow, and five sons, William
O. of Newcastle, Indiana, Jacob N., Daleville, Indiana, Lawerence C., Winfield,
Kansas, and Pliney C., Parker, Indiana, who together with the son-in-law
survive him.
He left also thirteen grandchildren and many other relatives and a host
of friends to mourn his departure.
Tho the years allotted to him were far beyond the three score and ten,
yet they cover but a span in the ages that come and go recalling the lines
of Longfellow.
"The battle of our life is brief;
The alarm, the struggle and relief;
Then sleep we side by side."