James Barker, 1818-1888

THE OLD SEXTON'S SHOVEL NOW STANDS IN THE CORNER--HE WILL USE IT NO MORE. "One morn I missed him on the 'customed hill, Along the heath, and near his favorite tree." On the morning of the 11th day of February, just before the morning sun began to shed his bright rays over the landscape, the venerable James Barker, aged 69 years, 7 months and 23 days, surrendered his soul to his God, and all that was mortal to the green earth in Walnut Grove Cemetery, which he loved so well, and which his hands did so much to beautify. Almost every morning, until disease struck him down, (--When spring was putting forth her wares,") you could see him wending his way down the turnpike road, and everybody who met him knew where he was going, and if you were to straggle into this City of the Dead you would see, here and there, a fresh sod upon this grave and some shrub planted upon another, to blossom and bloom with the approach of the warm spring rains; and if you, perchance, should find time to go to his own beautiful lot you would see some fresh evidence of the sweet tenderness he bore for the loved ones of his heart, whom he had laid away softly until the coming in of the Eternal Day, and one of whom we loved very much, and who died very early in life. Death had no great terror for this old sexton. He would rather have had a log cabin in this cemetery than to have had the home of the Vanderbilts on Fifth Avenue.

Last Leaf:

"I saw him once before,
As he passed by the door,
And again
The pavement stones resound
As he totters o'er the ground
With his cane.
They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning knife of time,
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found
By the Crier on his round
Through the Town."

Cemetery Note: James Barker owned three lots in Section A, 165, 166 and 167. There is no monument to signify where he and his wife Isabella are buried. They are believed to be buried next to their daughter Elizabeth on 165-A.