Biography - Elisha Barnard
ELISHA C. BARNARD, who, engaged in farming, is making a specialty of the raising of pure white Shanghai chickens and Duroc hogs, has spent his entire life in Greene county. He was born November 2, 1849, upon a farm one mile west of Athens, in Athens township, his parents being Elisha and Mahala (Mayberry) Barnard. His father died in 1877.
In the common schools of the county Elisha C. Barnard acquired his education and in his youth was trained to farm labor, which he has always followed. He has been connected with W. H. Barrow and his son, A. H. Barrow, for the past ten years and has resided in a fine farm residence near Roodhouse. Here he carried on general agricultural pursuits, the fields giving every evidence of his careful supervision, while everything about the place indicates the manager to be a man of business discernment and thrift. He is now raising some fine pure bred Shanghai fowls and also Duroc hogs.
In 1872 Mr. Barnard was married to Miss Lou Ella Pope, who was born in Scott county, Illinois, near Manchester, December 15, 1854. Her parents were Thomas M. and Mary Jane (Billings) Pope, who still reside in Manchester. Her maternal grandfather was Abraham Billings. Mr. and Mrs. Barnard never had any children of their own, but reared an adopted daughter, Berdie Ann Nichols, who was born November 20, 1880, and whose mother, Mrs. Jane Nichols, died when her daughter was very young. Her father, who worked for Mr. Barnard, is now living near Kane. She is a niece of George Witte, now representative from this district in the state legislature and formerly sheriff of Greene county. Berdie Nichols was married, in March, 1900, to Orrin Doyel, a nephew of L. C. Doyel, of Roodhouse township, and they reside on the E. L. Kemp farm. They have one son. Mrs. Doyel is a graduate of the high school of Roodhouse, of the class of 1899.
Mr. Barnard has been a life-long Democrat, supporting the principles of the party since age gave to him the right of franchise. He affiliates with the Modern Woodmen of America and is a member of the Christian church. His life has been a busy and useful one and whatever success he has enjoyed has come as the direct result of his own labors.
Extracted by Norma Hass from Past and Present of Greene County, Illinois, by Ed Miner, published in 1905, page 606.
