Major John Roaf barber Sr.

John was born in Georgetown in 1841, the second son of James Barber and Hannah Patrick. He was educated at Georgetown Public School, Streetsville Grammar School and Georgetown Academy. He planned to attend the Royal Military College in England, but stayed home to lend a hand in the family run paper milling business, which his father and uncles had established in 1845. John became plant manager in 1861 under the watchful eye of his father, and upon the death of his father in 1880, he took over the Barber Paper Mills. One of his initiatives was the creation of the first dynamo to generate hydroelectric power for use in industrial production. Barber was a founding director of the Dominion Paper Making and Staining Co, he held executive positions in both the Spanish River Pulp and Paper Co and Nepigon Pulp and Paper Manufacturing Co and he took over the Canada Coated Paper Mill at Georgetown in 1903-1904. In addition to his paper operations he was director of the Dominion Consolidated Mines, and the Ango-American Insurance Company and president of Floral View Greenhouses in Georgetown, Leadville Mining in Colorado, Canadian Brass and Tube Works in Toronto and Inter-Ocean Mining and Prospecting.

Between 1861 and 1905 he served in the militia, first in the Georgetown Volunteer Militia Infantry Company and then in the 20th (Halton) Battalion (the Lorne Rifles). He saw active service in 1866 at Ridgeway against the Fenians. He achieved the rank of Major in 1876, holding an officer’s commission for 42 years and for many years was Paymaster for the 20th Battalion, eventually becoming the Regiment’s 8th Commanding Officer.

A president of the Mechanics Institute in Georgetown, he rose to become master of Credit Masonic Lodge No. 219 in 1874. He chaired the first meeting of the board of high school trustees in 1886. Two years later property was purchased for a separate high school at his initiative. He was on the Roll of Knox Presbyterian Church until his death, he sat on the local council and was Reeve of Georgetown from 1867 to 1876 and again in 1882, when he also served as Warden of Halton County. From 1898 to 1904 he was the Liberal MPP for Halton.

John married Mary Barclay in 1868 and the couple had four children (Frank, Charles, Rene Raoul and Hazel) Mary died in 1899 and John then married Alberta Bessey. Alberta gave birth to a son John Roaf Jr. prior to passing in 1906. Barber built and lived in Berwick Hall at 139 Main St. South Georgetown, named after his mother’s birthplace….one of the largest and finest mansions in Georgetown. A garage, the first one to be built in Georgetown for an automobile, was erected in 1911.

John retired in 1912 after suffering a heart attack and died in Georgetown in 1917. He passed away in his 76th year and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Georgetown following what the Acton Free Press described as “one of the largest funerals ever seen there”. John was the father of Major Rene Raoul Barber and Colonel John Roaf Barber Jr. both of Georgetown.

Truly a Canadian Hero *Taken from Barber, John Roaf in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol 14 by Robert T. Royal