PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL
RECORD OF OKLAHOMA

HIRAM S. BARGER

The ancestry of the Barger family is German.  The great-grandparents crossed the seas from the fatherland during the last century and cast their lot with the very early pioneers of Virginia.

 A native of Pope county, Ill., H. S. Barger was born in 1828, and is a son of Simon and Hannah Barger, natives of Virginia.  His youth was unhappily clouded by the loss of both parents, and his schooling of a very limited nature, as public schools were unknown in the locality in which he resided.  In a family of ten children he was the sixth, and is one of the three now living.  Noah, a brother, is living near the old home in Illinois, as is also John, another brother.

 In 1879, Mr. Barger came to Kansas and pre-empted a claim, upon which he lived until 1887, when he took up his residence in the Cherokee Nation.  During the war he served his county as a member of Company E, One Hundred and Twentieth Illinois Infantry for three years, and was discharged at the close of hostilities at Camp Butler.  He was married in 1847 to Adeline TWITCHELL, a daughter of Asa and Orilla Twitchell, of Hardin county, Ill.  Of this union there were three children:  Asa, who was born in Illinois , and died in Oklahoma in 1894; George, who was born in Illinois, and lives in the territory.  George married Mary JONES, of Illinois, and they have the following named children:  Ella, Florence and Willie; and David, who died in Illinois.

 In the Cherokee Nation George Barger leased land from the Indians and entered into the cattle business.  This venture proved to be an unfortunate one, for a fever infested the region, and he lost nearly all that he had invested.  Later he purchased one hundred and sixty acres comprising the southeast quarter of section 27, township 18, range 3, Payne county, and Asa, his brother, secured a claim in the Iowa county.  After the death of Asa, the father proved up on the claim and eventually sold it.  George has improved his farm until it is now a successful and remunerative investment.  He has good buildings, a fine orchard, and running water.  He is greatly interested in the cause of education, and has served as school director and clerk.  In politics he is a Populist.  His father, Hiram S., also supports the People’s party, and while living in Kansas was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Oklahoma (Chicago: Chapman Publishing Co., 1901), 907.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Mary Charles Dodd Hull, February 1999.