a three-generation the diary of
Ôohn barry
It was the best of times and the worst of times for the family
of John Edmund Barry between the years 1915 and 1932
when Barry set out to chronicle daily household life.
His handwritten notes on the pages of a ledger are colored
by the family’s highs and lows set against the backdrop of
tragic personal and catastrophic global events, including the
onset of US involvement in World War I in 1917 and the
Great Pandemic in 1918.
Barry, born in Charleston, South Carolina, was employed
in Wilmington as a clerk who worked for the shipyard and
later the railroad. He and his wife would have seven children
between 1916 and 1930 the final two, twins.
In 1918, they moved their family to Wrightsville Beach
where they enjoyed a brief but happy time before tragedy struck.
John Edmund Barry Sr., the author of the diary, 1919.
John Sr.’s wife Isabelle, known as Belle, holding
Lucille, John Jr. and Budd in Indian costumes in
front of the Lumina trolley, Christmastime 1919.
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WBM december 2013