Hunt, Herbert and Floyd C. Kaylor.  Washington: West of the Cascades. Vol. II.
Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1917.  p. 564-565.

LAWRENCE BARR:  The business activities of Lawrence Barr constituted a valuable
contribution to the upbuilding and commercial and financial development of
Centralia, where for many years he made his home, taking an active part in
promoting the progress of that city.  His life at all times commanded the
respect, confidence and good-will of those who knew him and was the
exemplification of many splendid traits of character.  He was born in Germany
but was only six years of age when his parents crossed the Atlantic to the new
world with their family and became residents of the state of New York, where the
period of his boyhood and youth was passed.  He was twenty years of age when he
removed westward to Minnesota and there he engaged in teaching German in the
schools.  He also spent some time as a clerk and afterward engaged in the boot
and shoe business in Minnesota.
	In the meantime the country became involved in civil war and in response to
the call of the Union Mr. Barr enlisted as a member of the Third Minnesota
Regiment and took part in many of the fiercest engagements in that long contest
of arms, making a most creditable military record by his valor and his fidelity.
He then returned to his Minnesota home and for a considerable period was a
valued resident of Spring Valley.  He left that place in 1890 to come to the
coast and after spending a winter in California he arrived in Centralia in the
spring of 1891 and became identified with its commercial interests as a dealer
in shoes and clothing, conducting business under his own name.  After a few
years he admitted his son William to a partnership under the firm style of L.
Barr and Son, and the business was successfully continued until the death of the
senior partner, when the store was closed out.  In 1902 Mr. Barr erected the
building now occupied by the Grand Theater and in the conduct of his mercantile
interests he displayed the most progressive methods, building up a business of
large and gratifying proportions. In 1911 he became one of the organizers of the
Farmers and Merchants Bank and was elected to the presidency.  A few months
afterward a masked bandit entered the bank and when Mr. Barr resisted his demand
for gold,attempting to protect the interests of the depositers, he was shot
down, his death occurring January 31, 1911, when he was seventy-three years of
age. It was in Spring Valley that Mr. Barr was united in marriage in 1876 to
Mrs. Harriet Parsons, a native of Chautauqua county, New York, and a daughter of
Cordella and Harriet (Huston) Wilkins, who were natives of New York and Vermont
respectively. In 1855 they removed with their family to Minnesota and there Mr.
Wilkins invested in farm property.  He laid out the town of Spring Valley,
became its first postmaster and also filled the office of justice of the peace
there.  To Mr. and Mrs. Barr was born a son, William L., whose birth occurred in
Minnesota in 1881.  He completed his education in the Stanford University of
California, in which he spent three years as a student, after which he joined
his father in commercial pursuits as a member of the mercantile firm of L. Barr
and Son of Centralia.  With the organization of the Farmers and Merchants Bank
he became assistant cashier and has since occupied that position.  He was
married in Centralia to Miss Harriet E. Wright, of Portland, Oregon, and they
have one child, Lawrence Wayne.  Like his father, he has made for himself a
creditable and enviable position in business circles and is as well a most
public- spirited citizen, contributing in large measure to general progress and
improvement.
	Mr. Barr was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic at Centralia and
thus maintained pleasant relations with his old army comrades.  He was also a
member of the city council, on which he served for two terms.  He was ever
greatly interested in the welfare and development of his section of the state
and contributed in substantial measure to its upbuilding, cooperating in all
practical plans and measures for the public good.  His life in every relation
was honorable and upright, his business methods would bear the closest
investigations and scrutiny and he held friendship inviolable. A contemporary
biography said: "As long as a written history of the city of Centralia endures,
so long will kindly memories of the late Lawrence Barr endure.  He was one of
the pioneers of this city, one of its builders,a man of great abilities,
boundless sympathy, and a splendid standard of public spirit.  He was a MAN."

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Transcribed by Jenny Tenlen for the Lewis Co., WA GenWeb Project. Unless
otherwise stated, no further information is available on the individual featured
in the biographies.    
-----------------------------

Editor's note: Shirl Barr Phillips added the following information to Lawrence
Barr's biography: "Thank you for the great biography of the brother of my great
grandfather. However his last name is spelled with one 'r. Althouugh the rest of
the brothers did change and add the extra 'r', his great grandson still spells
his name 'Bar'. It is also 'Bar" on his and his wife's tombstones in the
cemetery in Centrailia."