Philip and Lydia (Koenig) Barton

In 1900 Fulton County, Pennsylvania, Philip V. Barton born November 1879 is a day laborer, living with the Thomas Start family.  On the same page is Owen A. Barton August 1858 and Lydia E. Jan 1862 both born in Pennsylvania, married 17 years.

Philip Barton married Lydia Koenig September 1, 1903, recorded in Weld County.

In 1910 Leroy precinct, Logan County, Philip is 30, born in Pennsylvania, married six years to Lydia 25, Canada.  They have Bertha 5 and Chas. E. 4, both born in Pennsylvania.

Philip proved up  quarters in 27 and 28, 6N 50W in 1914.

  Thanks to the Barton family

Phillip Barton family, circa 1915:

Back row:   Bertha Mae Barton, Lydia Koenig Barton, Phillip Barton

Front row:   Rutherford William Barton (born June 16, 1910) and Charles Erwin Barton

 

In 1920, on South 5th in Sterling, Philip is farming.  He and Lydia have Bertha, Charles, and Rutherford, 8.

In 1930 Philip and Lydia are back in New Haven precinct, with Rutherford.

Barton Family Information - Compiled by C. Kirkstadt, Jan 1997: Phillip Barton - Was about 10 years old when his mother married Philip Hixson. He was 24 years old when he married Lydia. His mother died May 18, 1938. Phillip died Nov. 13, 1938 of a gunshot wound. Phillip was born in Crystal Spring, Pennsylvania.   His gravestone, in Sterling , shows Nov. 27, 1879.
News Article (from Monday, November 14, 1938 newspaper in Sterling, Colorado): PHILIP BARTON, HARDING FARMER, DIES OF GUNSHOT
Philip Barton, 58 years old, well known farmer who has lived for thirty years south of the Harding school, died Sunday afternoon at a hospital in Sterling of a gunshot wound, which Coroner A. D. Jackson said apparently was self-inflicted.
Mr. Barton had been in ill health, having recently been a hospital patient in Sterling, and was despondent, according to statements of members of his family.
Mr. and Mrs. Barton and a son were at home Sunday morning when Mr. Barton went into the front room. Hearing a noise, Mrs. Barton and son entered the room and found Mr. Barton on the floor, a small-calibre rifle under the body. The coroner was called and brought Mr. Barton to a hospital where he died at 2:35 o'clock.
The wound was in the roof of the mouth and the bullet left the head between the eyes, the coroner said.
Mr. Barton, during his long residence in the Harding region, was known as a leading farmer. A large planting of Western Yellow pines was a distinguishing feature of his place.
Surviving Mr. Barton are his wife, Mrs. Lydia Koenig Barton, two sons, Charles E. Barton of Sterling and Rutherford W. Barton, who divides time between Sterling and the home place, and a daughter, Mrs. John Busig of Parkdale, Ore.
Funeral arrangements, in charge of the A. D. Jackson & Son mortuary, had not been completed this afternoon.
 
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Funeral services for former area resident Lydia Ann Barton Anderson, 96, will be held 2 p.m. Monday at Chaney-Walters Funeral Home. Rev. Dennis Sillaman will officiate. Burial will follow in Riverside Cemetery. Mrs. Anderson died Wednesday, May 6, 1981 in Sunnyvale, Calif. She was a resident of Redwood, Calif., at the time of her death. She was born Dec. 29, 1884 in Canada to Pete and Magdalena Heist Koenig. Mrs. Anderson came to the LeRoy community with her parents from Canada, where they homesteaded. On Sept. 1, 1903 she married Phillip Barton. After her marriage, the couple homesteaded in the LeRoy community where they farmed for several years. Mr. Barton died in 1938. In 1949, Mrs. Anderson moved to California where she lived until her death. She is survived by a daughter, Bertha Busig McConnell, Vancouver, Wash.; two sons, Charles E. Barton, Sterling, and Rutherford W. Barton, Redwood City, Calif.; four brothers, Ervin H. Koenig, Portland, Ore., Simon P. Koenig, Sterling, Percy Koenig of Austin, Texas and John Koenig, Greeley; a sister, Elsie Buss, Sterling; 11 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren. Chaney-Walters Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. "Beyond the Sunset" and "How Great Thou Art" were sung at her funeral.

 

 
My Life (complete) (Written by Bertha in 1966 when she was 62, edited):
 Lydia Koenig and Phillip Barton met in Greeley, Colorado and September 1, 1903 they were married. After their marriage they went to Crystal Spring, Pennsylvania, my father's home. Then on December 3, 1904, I, Bertha, was born. Fifteen months later on February 28, 1906 my brother Charles was born.
 In 1907 my parents left Crystal Spring for Sterling, Colorado, my mothers home town. I don't remember the trip, which was by train, but although I was only three I can yet recall my first Christmas in Colorado. We were living on my grandfather's (Peter Koenig) farm just east of town, between the railroad tracks and the Platte River (I believe the house is still there.)
 A year of so later my parents acquired some homestead land about 20 miles southeast of Sterling. There was nothing on the land except a dugout, with a dirt floor, but we lived in it for several months, until, with the help of friends and neighbors (which were few and far between), Dad managed to put in a cement floor. Later he added a room above ground, which served as our kitchen and living room. My dad plowed the land with a one horse plow, bought some adjoining land and became a very successful farmer.
 June 16, 1910 my brother, Rutherford, was born. I was six by then, had never enjoyed playing will dolls, but liked anything that was real and alive, especially babies, so helped a great deal in caring for the new arrival, but i still had to carry on with my share of the farm and household chores.
 By the time I was eight my parents had acquired some cattle, so i learned to milk cows. Charles and I would drive the herd out to free pasture. Tired of walking two or three miles a day we broke a yearling steer to ride, and rode it one entire summer. The next season Dad bought us a pony, i guess the steer went to market.
 After I finished grade school my folks moved to town. I lived at my uncle and aunts, Ed and Simon Koenig, most of the time I attended Sterling High School, as my parents went back on the farm. After graduation, I went back to school another year and took a post graduate course. In the meantime I had met a young man who lived west of Sterling. His name was John Busig.
 It was January 18, 1925 that John and I were married and on October 17 that same year I became a mother. Our son, Harold Wayne was born at Mrs. Busse's maternity home. Ten months, a week and a day later on August 25, 1926 another boy arrived. We had hoped for a girl this time, so we didn't have a name for him, but finally decided on Kenneth Eugene. We were living on a dry land farm about eight miles west of Sterling and crops were not always good, but that didn't scare the stork away. On July 19, 1928 I went back to Mrs. Busse's for the third time. This time it was a little auburn haired girl, Ruth Evelyn, who we called Ruthie. She is now Mrs. Jack Lander. Again we hung out our white flag, but I guess the stork just didn't see it, because thirteen months later, August 21, 1929 I was back at Mrs. Busse's. This time another girl. We named her Delores Mae. She is now Mrs. Donald Helton. She is known as Lorry and she is still our baby. Mrs. Busse had told me if I were the first one to come back to her for the fifth time she would take care of me free of charge. Dr. Latta was the pediatrician for all four of our babies. (Here all four are on two horses, the four playing with a sled, Ruthie and Lorry.)
 In the fall of 1934, when Colorado became part of the Dust Bowl we packed up our few belongings and moved our family to a place near Parkdale, Oregon, Oregon. Then later to Parkdale, Oregon near Mt. Hood.
 It was while we were living at Parkdale that I lost my Dad. Phillip Barton died November 13, 1938 at the age of 58. Sometimes the death of a loved one, we sorrow at the blows life has dealt him and we wish he might have had a second chance, and so it was with him. I like to think that where ever he may be, I am still his one and only girl. My mother Lydia is living 20 miles south of San Francisco near Rutherford and his family and is a very young great grandmother of 82. 
 Pearl Harbor changed the face of the earth, and so it changed our lives too. The next fall (1942) we moved to Vancouver, Washington where John, Pop as we now call him, went to work in the shipyards and it wasn't long until Harold and Kenneth joined the Navy. After the boys left for war I went to work in a shopping center as manager of the bakery section. The girls were in high school and they helped in the bakery after school and on Saturdays.
 It wasn't long after the war ended before the kids were all married. The grandchildren were arriving, about two a year, until there were twelve, nine boys and three girls. They are all near us except Lorry's family of two boys and a girl. They live in Auburn, Washington where Don has a mortuary and Lorry works part time in the hospital as a nurse. We usually manage to get them all together at Christmas time, what a time with ten teenagers. I have ceased trying to prepare big Christmas dinners (Christmas dinner 1949), instead we have cold meats, salads, snacks and desserts, with coffee and cranberry punch, usually on Christmas Eve or when the gifts are opened.
 I have never had much time for hobbies and I don't like hobbies that cut us off from the world. I like sports and the competition they entail, so about ten years ago, when women all over the country began bowling, I too joined a bowling league. I'm still trying to maintain more than a 136 average. I also like to swim, but I'm no bathing beauty. I have always had a secret desire to try my hand at the easel, but as for my secret vices, I would rather keep them a secret.
 Pop has retired, so now I have twice the man on half the income and as for him, instead of wine, women and song, it is fishing, social security, and television. When life gets monotonous we load up our little travel trailer and go to the beach or to the hills. Sometimes in the fall we go to Colorado and in the winter to Arizona or California. We like trailer traveling, especially when we can travel with friends and relatives, and hope to continue our journeys, but we intend to maintain our home in Vancouver, because we enjoy living near the children and grandchildren.
 I have resolved to try to adjust myself to the fact that i am now 62 years old. There may be other resolutions I should make, and there are probably mistakes and personal faults I haven't mentioned, but this is a synopsis of the life I have lived thus far.
 
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From December 6, 1928 issue of the Fulton County News, McConnellsburg, PA. - "Brush Creek - Mr. and Mrs. Phil Barton of Colorado have been visiting friends in Fulton and Bedford counties. His mother, Mrs. P. D. Hixson will accompany them to their home."

 

Charles is farming in Rock Creek, Washington County, in 1930, 24, married to Florence L., 21.

In 1940 Washington County they have Mardell 9, Maurice 7, and Marilynn 1.

In 1940 Sterling Lydia is widowed, operating the Gem Hotel, (five lodgers in the census) and Rutherford is a coal hauler.

Rutherford W. Barton, born Jun 16, 1911 in Colorado, died Sept 20, 1992 in Contra Costa County, mother's maiden name "Konig."

Charles Erwin Barton, 88, of Sterling, died July 23, 1994 at his home.
Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 26 at the Chaney-Walters Funeral Home. Services are scheduled for 10 a.m., Wednesday, July 27 at Faith United Methodist Church with burial at Riverside Cemetery. The Rev. Dave Moorman will officiate.
Mr. Barton was born Feb. 28, 1906 in Crystal Spring, Penn., to Phillip P. and Lydia Koenig Barton. From there he moved to the LeRoy Community.
He attended the Harding School before marrying Florence L. Ruth on June 29, 1929 in Greeley. He farmed in the Kelly community, retiring in 1964. His wife died in 1974 and on Oct. 10, 1976, he married Lois Rife Sonnenberg in Sterling.
He was a member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, Logan Lodge 69; Sterling Encampment 37; Olive Branch Rebekah Lodge 27; Canton Victory 7; the past Grand Master of the State of Colorado Oddfellows and a retired Colonel in Patriarchs Militant of the Department of Colo. Canton. He was of the Methodist faith.
Mr. Barton is survived by his wife; four sons, Maurice and wife Verna, Jerry and wife Norma and Ronald, all of Sterling and Mardell of Berthoud; daughter Marilynn Knothe and husband Gary of Grand Junction; and six step-children, Gene Sonnenberg of Boulder, Byron Sonnenberg, Nina Young and Elaine Tribelhorn, all of Sterling, Wynona Holloday of Englewood and Iola Armour of Estes Park; sister-in-law Margaret Barton of Byron, Calif; 14 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and several nieces, nephews and step grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by brother Rutherford and sister Bertha Busig.
Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association.
 
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Note: In a document entitled Railroad, it states, Fall 1934, Bertha & John Busig moved to Oregon, Charles & Florence (and Mardell and Maurice) also went to Oregon, but returned to Sterling the next spring.
 
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Charles E. Barton, in 1963, was the Grand Master of the Colorado Grand Lodge of the IOOF.
 Charles Barton's project in 1963 as Colorado Grand Master was the building of the Memorial Chapel at the Odd Fellows Home of Colorado. It was completed in 1964.
 
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Charles Barton Eulogy (complete):
 
From the stories I gathered, Charles Barton was the most even-tempered fellow you'd ever be likely to meet. Nothing seemed to faze him. Somewhere, way done deep, he had a peacefulness that let the hazards and heartbreaks of life just ease on by.
Charles came to the Kelly area with his parents when he was only one or two years old. They had rented a boxcar in Pennsylvania, and brought everything they owned in it. When they arrived, the family lived in the boxcar on a siding while the root cellar was being dug. To say life was hard is an understatement by today's reckoning. Charles told of hitching up the wagon full of wheat early in the morning to make the long trip down to Hyde - and be back just in time for evening chores.
Hard work was to be expected - and Charles was constantly in the field. With 14 quarters to care for, farming took every waking hour. Often, the summer fallow had to wait - but he took it in stride. He also observed the Sabbath, that one day each week set aside for God and family and enjoyment. Sunday was time for a family picnic and fishing and relaxing.
Charles also enjoyed traveling with the family, and their journeys carried them to all the states of the Union, save three. His boys remember one trip into the mountains. They had been sleeping in the car parked by the side of the road, and had just woke up and got out when the car started rolling. Unoccupied, it rolled down the side of the mountain and into the creek bed. And Charles took it in stride.
In the fall, he enjoyed hunting - elk and deer in the mountains, antelope closer to home. These were special time with his sons. And he would do anything for them.
One time, the boys were driving back home after taking lunch out to Charles in the field, and they rolled the pickup on the country road. No one was hurt, though everything in the cab wound up someplace else. And Charles didn't get upset. Didn't complain. In fact, he took the rap for the boys, telling the insurance company that it was his fault.
Through it all, he never complained. Through droughts that just leave a person hopeless, and through a flood that floated rental houses off their foundations, tethered only by their power lines.
Charles was very active in the Odd Fellows, and always helped with the booth at the Fair. In the mid-60's, he was Colorado Grand Master and traveled the state attending to the office.
And in retirement, Charles and Florence wintered in south Texas - enjoying dances and card games and fishing. Fishing
 was a passion. Usually, he was pretty cautious - but on one fishing trip to Lake McCanaughy - Charles, Jerry, and a friend from the lodge arrived just as a fierce storm was blowing in. Over the objections of the staff there - who were trying to get boats OFF the water, they put in anyway. And rocking in four foot swells, they started pulling big walleye out of the lake as quickly as they could throw in their lines. In an hour, they caught their limit - just in time to get off the water before the storm hit in earnest. The next two days were just as fruitful. And when they came home with their big catch, they discovered that the crops had been completely hailed out.
Charles took it in stride. It had been great fishing. And the hail would have come anyway. He was never ruffled.
Well, almost never. There WAS the time he backed the new pickup into the farm truck - and came forth with a word or two no one thought he knew. The instance was so rare, the family razzed him about it ever since.
But, in fact, he chose a life of forthright clean living - no use for drink or smoke, and always a civil tongue. After heart surgery, he recovered quickly because of what the doctor called "healthy mindedness."
His years with Lois were a delight for both of them. Charles was always willing to help - clear the table, wash the dishes, whatever needed doing. And he enjoyed working in the garden, working the soil, in the summer. He went out to Jerry's and drove the big, four-wheel-drive tractor, and couldn't believe a tractor would ever be so large. It was a real appreciation for how different farming had become since the all-day wagon trips to Hyde.
The say anyone can be sad or disappointed, but misery takes real work. Charles never wasted time working at being miserable. There was so much more of life to be lived. And as we remember Charles, God seems to be saying, "Calm down. Getting upset never solves the problem. Work hard at the task you love, and work hard for the people you love. Setbacks are just setbacks, unless you make them worse by brooding on them."
Life is to be lived in Joy - the joy of trusting God. And now, in Christ, Charles' trust is fulfilled.

 

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