Captain Samuel E. Barrett
Samuel E. Barrett of Chicago was a 1st Lt. of the Battery in May of 1861. He was promoted to Captain in October 1861, commanding the battery after Ezra Taylor had been promoted to Major of the entire regiment. Captain Barrett was in command of the battery at Shiloh in April of 1862. In February 1863 Barrett was promoted again to Major of the 1st Regiment of Artillery. He retained that rank until he resigned in February of 1864.
In the great manufacturing interests of a country undoubtedly rest the stable foundations upon which commercial prosperity is built, and the successful development of enterprises In the manufacturing field determines a country's importance both at home and abroad. Opportunities may lie on every hand and the time may seem ripe for the launching of concerns in many directions but without men of power, foresight and business acumen to take advantage of conditions, no progress is made, no results are obtained. On the other hand, through the efforts of men who seem naturally qualified for leadership, possessing with other necessary qualities, the courage which leads them to undertake and the patience which enables them to foster and nourish, enterprises are developed from small beginnings into vast aggregations of capital and efficiency. Such a man was the late Samuel Eddy Barrett, who for many years stood at the head of the Barrett Manufacturing Company, and also of the American Coal Products Company, both important factors In the great manufacturing world.
Samuel Eddy Barrett was born at Boston,Samuel Eddy Barrett received his educational training in the public schools of Boston, after which he gained some insight into business in a mercantile house in his native city during his first year out of school. He was ambitious and the opportunities of the great West, to which some friends had already gone; attracted him, so that about the age of twenty-one years he joined them at Milwaukee, Wis., from that city coming to Chicago, which continued to be his field of business activity from that time until his final retirement from active commercial life. It was in 1857 that Mr. Barrett came the head of the manufacturing firm of Barrett, Powell & Arnold, manufacturers of roofing material, with which concern he remained connected for over forty years. In 1859, he reorganized the business and at that time the firm style became the S. E. Barrett :Manufacturing Company, which was succeeded in 1896 by the Barrett Manufacturing Company, of which be continued the head and front until his retirement in December, 1903.
At the outbreak of the Civil war, Mr. Barrett
found himself, as did other young business men, in a dilemma. Through care and
industry his business prospects had grown promising but the firm needed his
discretion and business sense to guide its further progress, while, on the other
hand, he was so loyal and patriotic that a call for volunteers seemed to him so
urgent a demand of duty that he dared not ignore it. As may be inferred, it was
a submission to high principle that made him put aside for a time his hope of
business progress and enter the army as a private volunteer soldier in Company
B, First Regiment Illinois Volunteer Artillery. During his term of enlistment,
be participated in many of the greatest battles of the war, including Shiloh,
Russell House,
Upon his return to Chicago, in 1864, he again assumed charge of the business, finding that his absence of three years had brought about a deplorable state of affairs, but his energy and native business capacity soon again brought improvement and subsequent remarkable development. Mr. Barrett had what is known as the business "sense," that combination of qualities which is found in all men who, through their own efforts and individuality, win in any field of commercial endeavor. He largely confined his efforts to the Barrett Manufacturing Company's concerns, but, when, in February, 1903, the American Coal Products Company was organized, consented to become the head of the executive board of this corporation, of which he was a large stockholder.
On May 20, 1868, Mr. Barrett was united in marriage with
Miss Alice D. Brush, of
The entire family is well
known in the social life of