Biographies
EDWIN L. BARRETT, publisher of specialties, Springfield. Mr. Edwin L. Barrett is a New Englander, having been born on Aug. 20, 1827, in Worcester Co., Mass; his family on both sides was long lived; his mother, who now lives alternately with her children, being 78; her family name was Lawrence. His father was among the early cotton manufacturers of Massachusetts; owned a cotton-factory in Mr. Barrett's native county. On Jan. 4, 1849, he married, at Ashburnham, Mass., Miss Sarah B. Petts, a native of New York, daughter of Dr. John Petts and sister of Quincy A. Petts, Clark County Auditor, both residents of Springfield, the former being in his 84th year; by this union he had eight children — six sons and two daughters of whom only three sons are living now, viz.: Edward L., aged 30, and Fred W., aged 22, partners in business with their father; and George Lawrence, aged 19, now in Wittenberg College. Having lost his wife in 1865, Mr. Barrett married, on March 18, 1867, Miss Clara D. Hulsey, a native of Milledgeville, Ga., by whom he has had a son and a daughter now respectively 8 and 11 years old. At the age of 21, on account of failing health, Mr. Barrett went to North Carolina, living alternately in Franklin, Halifax and Warren Counties, where he remained until 1856, spending his time in teaching, having, in the meantime, charge of a female seminary at White Sulphur Springs, and one also at Warrenton; he went from North Carolina to Oxford, Butler Co., Ohio, where, in connection with Rev. J. H. Buchanan, he conducted the Oxford Female Institute, continuing until 1801, from where, at that time, he came to Springfield, Ohio; here he went into the book business with Charles L. Petts, under the firm name of Barrett & Petts, later becoming associated with G. W. Hastings (now of the Springfield Republic), under the firm name of Hastings, Barrett & Petts, together carrying on, with their former business, book-binding and printing; this was in 1862, and continued several years; his brother-in-law and partner, Charles L. Petts, is now no more. On the dissolution of this firm, Mr. Barrett was for several years out of active business, his health again failing him; in 1865, he bought him a little farm a few miles out on the Charleston road, more, as he says, to die upon than anything else, and spent the intervening years between 1865 and 1867 in maturing legal and other forms, subsequently utilized in business, and, his health in the meantime becoming re-established, he commenced, in 1867, the business of his present firm of E. L. Barrett & Sons, for the manufacture of specialties in the line of legal, election and other blanks and forms and conveniences, which, under his thorough and careful management, has grown to be quite extensive and profitable. In 1872, he took his eldest son into partnership, and on Jan. 1, 1880, his second son was admitted to the firm; on the 27th of April, 1875, his eldest son, Edward L., was united in marriage with Miss Flora C. Lyon, of Cincinnati, and has now two sons and one daughter. Mr. Barrett, Sr., and his married son and their families, live in adjoining houses in the same farm he purchased in 1865. Most of Mr. Barrett's family are members and all attend the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. Barrett is one of those excellent, even-tempered men who go so largely to make up the most worthy part of all communities — kind, exact, careful, moderate, temperate, earnest and honorable; the influence of such men, while not sensibly pervading and aggressive, is only felt for good.
From History of Clark County, Ohio, W.H. Beers & Co. 1881. Page 787-788