Musician William Barker of Company B

 

Waynesburg (PA) Messenger     July 17, 1867

          The subject of the unfortunate accident mentioned in the news article above is a former member of the 85th Pennsylvania regiment, William J. Barker. The accident highlights several ironies in Barker's life.

         Barker enlisted into Company B of the 85th Pennsylvania as a 16-year old drummer boy in the fall of 1861, He was a musician in the company along with 18-year old fife player Eli Crumrine.

Unidentified Civil War Drummer   LOC

Although a great majority of the soldiers from Company B came from Washington County, Barker was one of a handful of men in the unit from the town of Brownsville in Fayette County.
       Barker's date of enlistment is October 11, 1861. This relatively late date may be the reason he had not joined the already established Company C of Captain John C. Wilkinson, which was composed of boys and men mostly from Brownsville and the surrounding area.
      Barker survived the war and returned home to Brownsville three years later while still in his teens at the end of 1864.
         Barker had been born in Chester County, PA in 1845 to parent Matthew and Jane. At some point prior the outbreak of the war, the family moved across the state to Brownsville. Following the war, Barker returned to Brownsville and worked as a glass blower but soon headed to Pittsburgh where he spent most of his life. He was engaged in various artistic professions for the next several decades, including work in glass art and editing an art publication. In the last few decades of his life, he found work as a machinist.
        Barker died in 1910 and is buried in the Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

   

Mexican War six-pound cannon     LOC

The first irony surrounding the Fourth of July accident in 1867 shortly after the war had to do with the cannon itself. It had been brought back to Brownsville as a war prize confiscated during the Mexican War (1846-1848).

    Another news article of the accident, this from a Pittsburgh newspaper, offers more information about Barker's mishap.

Pittsburgh Daily Commercial      July 15, 1867

         Although this article states that Barker's injuries were potential fatal, he survived the event and lived another 53 years. Also, his partner in the event, William Norcross, is mistakenly mentioned as a former member of the 85th Pennsylvania. Norcross was 50 years old at the time of the accident and may have been a Mexican War veteran,but he was not a former member of Barker's regiment. 

       The end of this article mentions that a similar explosion occurred 18 years earlier on the same spot of ground. That accident killed Samuel Austin, a Mexican War veteran and a former member of the Second Pennsylvania Volunteers. 

         James Hadden offered more information about Austin's war record and this first accident in his history of his hometown entitled A History of Uniontown (1913).  It is not stated, although perhaps probable, that the same cannon was involved in both accidents.

          This article mentions the site of the accident as Brubaker Hill. At this location was a tavern that was a stopover for travelers along Route 40. It is located near the present site of a Dairy Queen and Dollar General store. It is also close to the Redstone Cemetery, where several veterans of the 85th Pennsylvania are buried. 

        The second irony involves the manner of Barker's death in Pittsburgh in 1910. After surviving the war and the cannon accident, Barker died as the result of another accident at the age of 65. The manner of his death is recounted in the following obituary.

Pittsburgh Daily Post   2-10-1910