Getting ahead of the calendar by about two hours:
Walter Scott Gould Barrett, my great-uncle, was born on 8th March 1868 in Rodborough, Gloucestershire. He emigrated with two of his brothers, Algernon Hurley Barrett and Douglas Graham Barrett. Coincidentally Douglas' sister-in-law, Mary Lydia Rheinfrank was also a March 8th baby, in New York in 1880. I know next to nothing more about Mary.
The brothers were involved in Barrett Brothers, a company in New York.
His obituary fills in so much detail:
MR BARRETT'S SAD DEATH
One of Our Young Businessmen Succumbs Today
DIES OF PERITONITIS
Sketch of a Life Which, Though Brief, Had Abundant Promise and Plenty of Sunshine
Walter S G Barrett, of firm of Barrett Bros. Co., whose illness has been mentioned in the Times-Press, died at Thrall Hospital, at 2 o'clock this morning, of peritonitis.
Mr Barrett was taken ill on Friday, 20th November and on Monday, 3rd December was removed to Thrall Hospital, where an operation was performed that day for appendicitis. The case was a very bad one, but he withstood the operation very well, and was getting along nicely until Sunday, when peritonitis developed and he failed rapidly until the end came this morning.
Walter Scott Gould Barrett was a son of the late William Parish Barrett, of Her Majesty's East India Company's Service, who resided in Cheltenham, England, and was born on 8th March, 1868 in England. He received his education at Cheltenham College, and came to the United States in 1887, going west, but a few months later he returned east, where he became engaged in business, and was, at the time of his death, the senior member of the firm of Barrett Bros. Co., manufacturers of preserves, etc., on West Main Street, this city.
Mr Barrett married the only daughter of the late Captain Francis Telfer, I.N., of London, England, and leaves her a widow with three young children.
Also surviving are four brothers and five sisters, all living in England, with the exception of Algernon H and Douglas G Barrett, residing in this city.
This death is a particularly sad one. Mr Barrett was an enterprising and alert young man, with keen business instincts, and was an expert in his line of trade - preserving fruits and the making of jellies. His goods of the first quality and admired by all who were ever used them. He had built up quite an extensive trade, selling to the large hotels and the institutions, the Pullman dining cars and the ocean liners and steamships. His trade had prospered, being founded upon merit, and he had taken several prizes at exhibitions of foodstuffs and confectionery, while the US government had set the seal of its approval upon his products as being absolutely pure. He was beginning to make money and build up a big trade, when he is suddenly cut down in the flower of his youth. It is indeed a cause of mourning, and the bereaved family and brothers have the sincere sympathy of all our people.
Personally, Mr Barrett was most affable and genial and won many friends by his frank and hearty manner. Everyone was glad to see him prosper and hoped that the full measure of success might be his.
He was a man of handsome physique, strong and athletic, and, before his illness, was the picture of health. He was never ill, and was a healthy, hearty, happy man.
He was a member of Grace Church, and there the funeral will be held on Friday afternoon.
Had Mr Barrett lived to carry out all of his ambitions suggested, we verily believe he would have become one of our leading citizens, and this fact renders still more sad and death in which the prop and support of the little family is taken away, business success interfered with and that the loved brother laid low.
Transcribed from a cutting from the Middletown Times-Press
An obit in the Cheltenham Looker-on:
Mr. Walter S. G. Barrett, whose death occurred at Middletown, U.S.A. on December 12th, and which we recorded last week, was a son of the late William Parish Barrett, of Her Majesty's East India Company's Service, who resided in Cheltenham, and was born on March 8th, 1868, England. He received his education at Cheltenham College. The Middletown Times-Press of December 12th contained an appreciative obituary notice from which we learn that [..... quotes the US obit verbatim....] Mr. Walter Scott Gould Barrett, whose obituary we print above, entered as a pupil at Cheltenham College in 1877, under the Principalship of the Rev. Herbert Kynaston, D.D. He was a brother of Mrs. Cardew, wife of Mr. G. A. Cardew, M.R.C.S., of Cheltenham, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Gloucestershire Engineers (Volunteers). [Editor, Looker-On.]
