Lawson E. Barber was born around 1835 in Mount Holly, Vermont, to Hoxey and Nancy Barber. His father was a farmer who owned $350 of real estate in 1850. He grew up and attended school in Mount Holly, and by 1850, he was working as a laborer on his father’s farm. By the early 1860s, he was living in Ira, Vermont.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on September 10, 1862, and mustered in as a private in Company H of the 14^th Vermont Infantry on October 21. The regiment took part in the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, and Barber mustered out in Brattleboro, Vermont, on July 30, 1863. He reenlisted several months afterward and mustered into the 1^st Vermont Light Artillery on January 2, 1864. The army transferred him to the 2^nd Vermont Light Artillery on July 13, 1864, and he mustered out on March 1, 1865.

 

He returned to Mount Holly after the war, and he married a woman named Aurora there around 1866. They had at least two children: Bertha, born around 1867; and Eliza, born around 1869. By 1870, Barber was working as a farmer, and he owned $200 of personal property. They moved to New York around 1870, and Aurora died there on January 1, 1871. Barber married Maria L. Merrill around 1873, and they had at least two children: Charles, born around 1874; and Hoxey, born around 1879. He applied for a federal pension in 1875 but never received one. He died sometime before 1886.

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