DAVID WRIGHT BARKLEY, editor and publisher of the Fairfield Press, was born May 21, 1842, in the village of Fairfield, Ill., and is therefore entitled to all the honors of a pioneer.
His early education was obtained under the circumstances which characterized the pioneer schools, and to draw a pen picture of the old log schoolhouse, with its puncheon floor and split log benches, broad, deep fireplace, long, narrow window, would be only refreshing the memory of a great portion of our readers with their own experiences a few decades gone by. Mr. Barkley, however, enjoyed the instruction of Dr. Daniel Wright, a man of no mean ability and surpassing far the average teacher of his day, and who taught at that time to what is now known as the Shiloh District, three miles south of Fairfield, from where it drew a large delegation of students indeed it was the Wayne County High School. Allowing the imagination a little scope, we can see them seated upon those wooden horses, after the fashion of a clothes-pin, their dinner basket before them, while with a relish they partake of their noon day meal, comprised in part of wild meats; this exercise completed, the next and not less interesting, was their games of foot racing and "bull pen," which invariably followed. Then when came that day for which, to the mind of the school boy, all other days were made, and the day when every debtor expects to be rich when Christmas came we see those same wooden horses brought to bear in barricading the door on the venerable teacher until the promise to "treat" is obtained, said treat often consisting of a whisky stow, or eggnog, for the larger, and apples and candies for the smaller ones. Those days are gone, as are also many of those early teachers, but it is refreshing to know that they performed their mission, and that very many of those tutored in these humble institutions of learning have filled and are now filling many of the important positions in the government of our States.
Later in life Mr. Barkley spent a few months as a student in MoKendree College, and for several years was employed as a salesman in Fairfield and in Xenia, Ill., after which he became associated with E. A. Johnson in general merchandise, and for some time conducted a similar business alone.
In 1865 he spent several months as a salesman in a wholesale clothing house in Cincinnati but finding that it was not congenial to his tastes, he came home and in December of that year he purchased the War Democrat, which name, in January, 1866, was changed to the Wayne County Press, of which he has since been the publisher.
He had served several years as a member of the town council, and in 1872 was elected to a seat in the Lower House of the Twenty-eighth General Assembly from the Forty-fourth District. We desire in this connection to preserve a fact, famous in the history of minority representation, and remarkable for the even division of votes between Mr. Barkley and his colleague, Hon. I. N. Jaqueas, the former receiving a majority of four votes from a poll of 18,385.
Space will not permit us here to perform the pleasant task of reviewing Mr. Barkley's legislative record, but suffice it to say that he was an active member of some of the most important committees, and his influence was always exerted in support of what he deemed the common good of the State at large.
He is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for several years past has been the Superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School.
He was married at Claremont., Ill., March 16, 1870, to Miss Bell Gowdy, daughter of William E. Gowdy, formerly of Miamisburg, Ohio. Their union has been blest with three children, viz.:
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