Eric Miller's Family Tree

Frederick Daniel Barton

Person Chart

Parents

Father Date of Birth Mother Date of Birth
John George Barton ABT 1861 Esther Pilkington 1866

Partners

Partner Date of Birth Children
Mary "Scottie" Taylor 5/17/1906 Mary Barton
Cora "Mike" June Barton

Person Events

Event Type Date Place Description
Birth March 1903 Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Christening 1903 St. Chrysostoms Church (1852-1970), Aubrey Road, Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Marriage 11/3/1927 Toronto, Quebec, Canada
Confirmation St. Chrysostoms Church (1852-1970), Aubrey Road, Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Death 4/8/1966

Notes
Death was due to a stroke (CVA) at age 63.
Walked around England at the age of 16, considered quite a feat at the time.
During WWII, Fred Barton was a volunteer with the Red Cross. He served in London during "the Blitz" and even helped deliver a baby.
Fred Barton liked animals and occasionally brought home strays. He was talkative and his granddaughter Terry Cox Rhodes remembered that he always had a pocket full of peppermints.
Fred Barton was born and raised in England. As a young man, he had been a bantam weight boxer. About 1928, Fred went to Toronto, Canada and worked in a university cafeteria. There he met Mary Taylor at a recreation club for British only (English,Irish, Scottish or Welsh) over a bet about whether or not she was wearing too much rouge or just had red cheeks.

Between the turn of the century (1900) and the second world war (WWII - 1939) there were social clubs in Toronto for each nationality of immigrant
or expatriate resident such as Italian or French or German. The main events at these clubs would be a dance, but they also had lists of openings specifically for immigrants.

Fred Barton and Mary Taylor hit it off well and were married on November 3rd, 1928. Mary Taylor had put her name on the list to move to the United States (USA) before she married Fred Barton. When her name came up on the quota to be admitted to theUSA, Mary was already married and five months pregnant. So both Fred and Mary were allowed into the United States on Mary's name alone.

Once in the USA, Fred Barton wwent to work as a painter for a new hospital being built in Niagara Falls, New York and their first child, a daughter they named Mary, was born in that hospital four months later on May 29th, 1929. Five months later tothe day, the stock market on Wall Street crashed ushering in the Great Depression. Jobs got harder to find and Fred found work spray painting bill boards where he sometimes got paid in food instead of money. To this day there are some foods one daughteror other of theirs doesn't prefer, but at that time that was all there was to eat fro an extended period.

A second daughter, Cora J. was born in 1932 and Mary Taylor, now Mary Barton found work operasting a steam press for clothes. Fred contracted "painter's colic" )lead poisoning causing abdominal cramping) and spent several months recuperating in a sanitorium. The only mony coming in was from Mary's job as a presser which meant that daughter Mary had to drop little sister Cora at the nursery school and pick her up after her own school. The neighborhood thay lived in was very poor and Mary fely it was dangerous. Also there was the threat of war in Europe so Fred and Mary decided to return to England with their children in 1936 or 1939. In England his daughter Mary Barton Goodwin remembered Fred was always providing food for the neighborhood in which they lived as almost no one else had work when Fred did and he had often been paid in perishable goods. He also felt some obligation to help take care of those in need around him as that was part of his personality.

Upon arrival in Liverpool, England Fred had opened a "Sweet and Tobacconist Store" which was short lived with the outbreak of World War II. Both daughters, Mary and Cora, were evacuated to the mountains of North Wales for safety during part of the war. Mary fought to keep Cora's hand and to stay together and not be split up to different homes during the evacuation. She also said that their sponsoring family ate the treats that Fred and Mary were able to send to them during that time.

Fred had to close up the store and went into the Civil Defense Corps and his wife Mary ("Scotty") went to work for the Royal Ordinance Factory (R. O. F.) making munitions because there were no children now at home.

Mary Taylor Barton, "Scotty", stayed working for that company for the next 26 years evan after WWII when the company converted into a battery and small electronics manufacturer. She became an inspector and talked fondly of her good old days in the R. O. F.

Fred had become a "Defense Squadron Leader" working for the Civil Defense Corps in WWII and during that period of the battle of Britian called "The Blitz" (from the German 'blitzkrieg' or 'lightning war' in 1941 in which England and especially Londonwas attacked with the most frequent bombing raids in a failed attempt to demoralize the populace) Fred was called upon to deliver a baby in an air raid shelter. The news media loved the story of the birth of the 8 lb. baby girl named Patricia Burns andshe became Fred's greatest fan until the day he died. This incident was featured in the local newspapers as the 'Red Cross' volunteer who delivered a baby during the worst night of the 1941 Blitz.

Fred was of slight build, very gregarious and well liked by men and women who knew him. He loved animals and people in return and they often brought their hurt children and animals to him for non-emergency medical treatments as the hospitals were filled with was injuries. Fred always had his first aid box handy.

Aftyer WWII was over Fred went to work for the General Post Office (G. P. O.) in England as a postal driver until he had a stroke in 1965. He died one year later in 1966 of a massive cerebral hemorage.

After Fred's death, Mary "Scotty" returnrd to the United States to live with her daughter Cora and her family until before her death in 1977. Mary had moved into an assisted living facility where she suffered a stroke herself in 1976 and died a yearlater of pneumonia.

Mary Taylor Barton's nickname was "Scotty" and she was short, stocky and feisty. She lived for her children and grandchildren Terry and Susan. Scotty was known to have quite a temper in her yoounger days, but she was also very generous and her idleentertainments included light gambling and horse racing.

Both fred and MAry Barton had a love for both England, the country of their birth, and for the United States. However Fred's sense of patriotism was greater for Britain while 'Scotty' preferred the USA.

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Fredrick Daniel Barton