Samuel Hugh Barr, an esteemed citizen of Caney, and treasurer and local manager of the Caney Gas Company, was born at Virginia, Cass county, Illinois, April 16, 1861. He is a son of Robert and Jane (Lord) Barr, both of whom were born in Ireland and were married in the Emerald Isle before coming to America in 1858. They first located at Virginia, Ill., from whence they removed to Beardstown and then to Rock Island, Ill. In 1878 they came to Kansas and settled on a farm, one and a half miles west of Independence, where the mother still lives, at the age of seventy-seven years. The father died there in 1890, when fifty-eight years of age. Robert Barr was a farmer by occupation, but a machinist by trade. To him and his wife were born eight children—seven of whom grew to maturity and of whom Samuel H. is the eldest of those living.

Samuel H. Barr was seventeen years of age when his parents came to Kansas and has made this state his home since that time. He obtained a high school education at Rock Island, Ill., and began teaching in Kansas when twenty-two years of age, his service in that profession continuing six years. This was but an initial step to other professional labor, however, for it was his intention to become a member of the bar and to this end he read law in the office of S. C. Elliott, then county attorney, and was admitted to the bar in 1889. That same year he located at Caney, Kan., where he was an active and successful practitioner at the bar until 1901, when he became treasurer and local manager of the Caney Gas Company, of which he was an organizer. In community affairs he is deeply interested, giving his hearty coöperation to all movements for the general good, and for fourteen years he has been a member of the Caney board of education, and is now its president. He has also served as city attorney of Caney several terms. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party and he has been an active worker in its behalf, having served as chairman of the Montgomery county central committee from 1888 to 1900, and as a member of the Kansas state central committee of his party from 1900 to 1902. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Masonic auxiliary, the Order of the Eastern Star. He further affiliates fraternally as a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Barr is also president of the Caney Brick Company.