Sometimes the bar is set high and other times the bar is set low. In this case, the Barr set out to a small western settlement.
The life and times of Rev. Isaac Montgomery Barr are quite an oddity. I’ve written about the feud Rev. George Exton Lloyd had with Barr. That was in the past and today, armed with far more research, I wanted to talk about Barr’s life.
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He could be described in many ways. It was often said he was attractive to the ladies, which perhaps lead to his three marriages, with zero recorded divorces, but we’ll get to that. Biographers also said when the going got tough … well I think we know Barr was pretty good at getting going.
What can’t be denied was his talent as a preacher, but he also held some questionable views, which led to him getting going, more often than not.
Our good reverend was born in Hornby, Canada West, now part of Halton Hills in Ontario. His father was a preacher and the young Barr emulated his father pretending to be a preacher in his early life.
His mother died in childbirth when Barr was just 10 years old. Barr’s early education was in a school where his father was the teacher. His father wanted to buy the boys a farm when they came of age so they could properly settle down, something they both promptly sold off.
It was college where Barr began pursuing his dream of becoming an Anglican cleric, attending Huron College in London, Ont., between 1868 and 1871. Eventually, he moved his studies to the University of Toronto and soon began his ministerial career as a curate in Exeter and Woodstock, Ont.
He would marry his first wife, Eliza Weaver, in 1870. They had three children, Dora, Harry and Gertrude.
If there was anything undeniable about Barr, it was his talent for preaching. He was described as having words flow through him with a thundering conviction.
It was in 1875 when Barr was appointed by the Bishop of Saskatchewan to serve the Prince Alberta settlement. His time in Prince Alberta wouldn’t last long as he left, apparently without permission, due to his daughter and wife falling ill.
It’s also important to note, Barr was a man of the cloth, but he had some questionable beliefs at the time. I’m not talking about a flat-earth kind of belief; Barr believed in evolution and would talk about it, he said he was 50 years ahead of his time. This got him into hot water with his superiors and other holy men.
He was also described as a man of little humour, another trait that didn’t help his case.
He bounced around in Canada before making the trip across the border starting his ministerial stint in the United States. His American years saw him holding a steady set of jobs in Lapeer, Mich., East Saginaw and Midland, Mich., and Harriman, Tenn., before moving to New Whatcom, Wash. He even filed for citizenship in 1895.
Cecil Rhode’s colonizing efforts in South Africa caught his attention and Barr wanted to be a part of it. Unfortunately for Barr, Rhodes would die in 1902 before Barr could make it to the colony. Barr remained in England, securing a position as curate-in-charge at St. Saviour’s Church in London. It also put him in the right place to, as Barr put it, “Exchange the poverty of Britain for an estate in Canada.”
Barr would lead colonization efforts in Western Canada, bringing hundreds to Lloydminster. This column is more focused on his early years and I’d like to take a step back to talk about the various women Barr married.
To start off, Barr married Eliza Weaver in 1870, He would then marry Emma Williams in 1900 before marrying his typist, Christina Helberg. Barr became interested in a scheme in Victoria Australia, so he moved Helberg and their two young sons down there. He remained in Australia up to the day he died, with his relatives still remaining in the country.
Now, getting married a bunch of times is nothing extraordinary, it happens all the time today. What bumped me regarding the whole situation, there’s no record of any divorces or anything freeing him from his marriages.
There are a few facts that I’ve gathered while trying to figure out how it all happened. An interesting theory is that due to him getting married in Ontario, Washington and Nebraska, the records didn’t carry over so he never legally had to file for divorce.
I believe reality is likely less exciting than my above theory. Barr admitted his first two marriages when he was getting married for the third time. There’s also records of his second wife getting remarried in 1909.
The most likely scenario is he did get divorced, or the marriages were annulled and the records aren’t that easily accessible.
Barr’s early life saw him moving around a lot, understanding his beliefs he likely was ahead of his time and that probably got him in some hot water with other church officials. Of course, there’s another major part of his journey, the colonization efforts in Canada that I’ll leave for another time.
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