BARKER. BARKER. 37 Having been elected governor of Massa- chusetts in 1857, he resigned his seat in Congress. He served three years as gover- nor — 1858, '59 and '60. In 1S60 he accept- ed the position of president of the Illinois Central Railroad, succeeding Captain (sub- sequently General) George B. McClellan. When the civil war opened, Governor Banks was commissioned a major-general of volunteers, and assigned to the command of the 5th corps in the army of the Poto- mac. General Banks's corps was ordered to the front August 9, 1862, and immedi- ately participated in active service in the battle of Cedar Mountain, where it held its position against a largely superior force. Later, in the same year, General Banks was placed in command of the defenses of Washington, and subsequently assigned to the command of the expedition to New Orleans, and succeeded General Butler in the command of that department. During his command of the department of the Gulf, he endeavored to re-organize the civil government of Louisiana. The Red River expedition, undertaken in opposition to his remonstrances, proved a disastrous enterprise, but some of the best military critics exculpate General Banks from all blame for the result. He was relieved of his command in May, 1864; resigned his commission, and returned to Massachusetts, and was again elected to Congress from his old district. He was re-elected to the suc- cessive Congresses until 1877, failing only in 1872, when he allied himself to the for- tunes of Horace Greeley, the nominee of the Democratic party for the presidency for that term. In Congress he served a long time as chairman of the committee on foreign relations. Since his retirement from congressional service, he has served as United States marshal, having been appointed by President Arthur, and served until the administration of President Cleve- land. In 1 888 he was once more elected to Congress from his old district. General Banks is now over seventy-three years of age — the oldest living ex-governor of Massachusetts. The Commonwealth has a warm place in her heart for her former chief magistrate — for his ability displayed in his long service has been as conspicuous as his integrity has been untarnished. BARKER, HENRY, son of Asa and Nancy (Jones) Barker, was born in North Chelmsford, Middlesex county, September 16, 181 1. His educational advantages were quite limited, and left him a thirst for knowledge which it was a pleasure to him to gratify in after years, gradually adding to the stock he had acquired in the too brief at- tendance at a country school. His father was a practical stone-cutter, as well as contractor, enjoying the confi- dence of Boston capitalists of that day, and the son was called when quite young to render such assistance as was possible in a boy who had just entered his teens. He commenced as a tool sharpener, and fol- lowing through the various gradations of the trade of stone-cutting, at the age of eighteen he had left home and entered the employ of Richards & Munn, in Boston, HENRY BARKER. at that time one of the leading firms in the granite business in that city, and also in Quincy, and soon became one of the most expert workmen of the day. He was always foremost in originating and adopt- ing new and improved methods in connec- tion with the business in which he had grown up, persevering in some instances, notwithstanding determined opposition that would have discouraged a man with less faith in his work, and without confidence that truth would in the end prevail. Under such circumstances, he was the first to dis- cover and apply to the manufacture of granite paving-blocks, the shapes and sizes substantially the same as in use at the
