Lou’s View – March 17, 2016
Catherine Barrows
by Lou Bernard
Have you ever visited one of Lock Haven’s parks? We have some great parks here. Have you ever just gone, and relaxed in one? Just hung around? Ever fell in a park and twisted your ankle, and had to go to the hospital?
In any of these cases, you have Catherine Barrows to thank.
Catherine Barrows was the perfect subject for my series of columns during Women’s History Month. She was one of those people who is into everything in a community. You know the type—You can’t help but know the type. If you’ve ever attended any community event, they’re always the one making sure it gets run right and stressing over whether there’s enough jello. It doesn’t matter if they’re not even serving jello; this person will stress over it anyway. But the event will be phenomenal, and it will be due to this person’s work.
That was Catherine Barrows.
She was born Catherine Carter sometime during the Civil War. She was born in Lockport—Lockport, New York. Who knew there was another one? And in 1888, she met Ross Barrows, the son of William and Elizabeth Barrows, who lived at 303 West Main Street—I can see their home from the library’s windows. Ross Barrows was a banker, one of the people who ran the Clinton Trust Company. For a brief time, he and Catherine lived in Cameron County, and then moved back to Lock Haven. When William died in 1893, they inherited the house, and moved into it.
1896 came, and with it, good news. Catherine was pregnant—She and Ross were going to have a baby.
Unfortunately, the good news turned into tragedy. Little Katy Barrows was stillborn on October 19, 1896. She was buried in the family plot, up in Highland Cemetery.
Catherine grieved for poor little Katy, but she was strong. And sometimes, good things come from bad things. Catherine Barrows wasn’t the type of person to be stopped, to curl up and feel bad. She threw herself into her community, took her grief and did something good with it, and helped create a better community.
She was the president of the Lock Haven Civic Club, which she also helped to create. And she worked to build parks and beautify the city. She made the riverbank attractive and a nice place to walk. She almost singlehandedly created Canal Park, making it a pleasant place to spend some time.
She was a member of the Playground Association, the Lock Haven Community Service Association, the Needlework Guild, and the Catholic Daughters of America. It wouldn’t entirely surprise me to find out that Catherine Barrows was a member of the Justice League. She was also the treasurer of the Ladies’ Aid Society, which was affiliated with the Lock Haven Hospital.
When the hospital burned down in 1908, the plans were made to rebuild. And that takes money. And who do you think was in the forefront, raising the money for the project? You guessed it—Catherine Barrows.
Catherine died on November 7, 1925, very suddenly. She was on her way to a Penn State game. She’d eaten lunch with her husband, Charles Dunn and his wife, and Elizabeth Peale, and they were headed to the game when she fell, dead.
She was buried in Highland Cemetery, beside her baby. The obituary said, accurately enough,”Her unexpected death has cast a gloom over the entire community as her interest in all work for the welfare of the community, combined with her unflagging zeal in the assistance of all progressive movements, and a handy disposition made her a favorite with all classes of people with whom she was brought in contact.”
You have to respect the woman. She took her pain and did something good with it, becoming a hero to the city. And when tragedy comes into my life, I hope I have the strength and courage to suck it up and take it like a woman—Specifically, like Catherine Barrows.
