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Guy CARLETON BARCLAY.
Noteworthy among the active and valued citizens of Carlyle is Guy Carleton Barclay, who was widely known to the traveling public as agent for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, a position for which he was eminently fitted, and in which he gave the utmost satisfaction to all concerned during the years of his service, which he terminated in March, 1912. A son of James Barclay, Jr., he was born May 28, 1859, in Weston, Platte county, Missouri, of Southern ancestry.
His grandfather, James Barclay, was for many years a prominent resident of Paris, Kentucky, where he carried on a thriving business as a dealer in live stock, making frequent trips with boat loads of horses from Louisville to New Orleans. On one of his business journeys he was stricken with yellow fever, which caused his death in 1830. His widow died three years later, in 1833, during a siege of cholera which in that year devastated the country.
Born in Paris, Kentucky, October 10, 1821, James Barclay, Jr., was left an orphan in boyhood. He was educated principally in Georgetown, Kentucky, and after his graduation from Georgetown Academy, at the age of sixteen years, he began teaching school, and followed that profession for several years. He was afterwards manager and proprietor of the Georgetown Hotel for some time. Migrating to Missouri in 1859 with his family, he spent a brief time in St. Louis, and then went to Weston, Missouri, where he represented a large mercantile house, having charge of its branch store at that place. Coming from there to Carlyle, Illinois, in 1860, he was the first publisher of the Carlyle Constitution, and for a number of years was superintendent of the Carlyle schools, a position that he also filled in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1873 and 1874. He was a noted educator, especially brilliant in mathematics, a branch that he often taught in county institutes. He died in 1900, just one week after the death of his loved wife. He was a Democrat in politics and a member of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons. He married in 1842 Miss Elizabeth Jones, of Georgetown, Kentucky,
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and to them five children were born, as follows: Sarah, the wife of Edwin Fink; May, now a physician in Carlyle; Guy, of this sketch; Lina, living in St Louis; and Lalee, deceased.
Spending his earlier days in Carlyle, Guy Carleton Barclay acquired his preliminary education in the public schools of this city, completing his studies in the normal school at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. On returning with the family to Carlyle, he was for a time in the employ of Lafey Brothers as bookkeeper, but he afterwards engaged in the railroad business, in February, 1880, being appointed agent for the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, now known as the Southwestern branch of the Baltimore & Ohio. As stated in a previous paragraph, Mr. Barclay severed his connection with the Baltimore & Ohio in March, 1912.
Politically Mr. Barclay is a Democrat. He is especially interested in advancing the educational interests of city and county, and for the past eighteen years he has been a member of the Carlyle board of education. He has labored wisely in the interests of the public schools, and was largely instrumental in securing the site for the present beautiful school building of the city, and in causing its subsequent erection.
Mr. Barclay married in 1886 Miss Annie Lietez, a daughter of Hon. Frederick A. Lietez, of Carlyle, and to them five children have been born, namely: Guy C., Jr., Anna Lietes, Emma E., Robert H. and Paul C. Fraternally Mr. Barclay is a member of the Masonic order.