37. A. Sonrel (Boston). George Minot Barrett, ca. 1860. From a carte de visite (source undiscovered).

George Minot Barrett—a great-grandson of Colonel James Barrett of Revolutionary fame and a descendant of Concord founder and first minister Peter Bulkeley—successfully pursued the occupation practiced in Concord by his ancestors. He prospered as a farmer, had a happy marriage (to Elizabeth Prescott, whom he wed in 1821), raised a family (including daughters Mary Barrett Warren—see #25—and Emily Barrett Thompson—see #31), and enjoyed a respected position within the community. He was a member of the Social Circle in Concord from 1848 until 1866. He died in 1873, at the age of seventy-eight.

As quoted in J. Fay Barrett's Social Circle biography of George Minot Barrett (Memoirs of Members of the Social Circle in Concord, Third Series, 1907), the Reverend Grindall Reynolds of the First Parish succinctly summed up the old farmer's character: "He was naturally of a judicial turn of mind, not carried away by his feelings, but looking calmly at both sides of a question. He was a man of more than simple honesty, one who often tended to stand so straight that he leaned backward. He had the courage that enabled him to do what he thought was best, and to say what he thought was true, let come what would. In short, he was a solid, square, John Bull sort of man, with a great deal of sense and spirit, a rare integrity, and no little obstinacy."

Barrett also possessed great physical strength. Even as an old man, he maintained a hands-on involvement with the work of his farm.

This carte de visite image shows George Minot Barrett at about the age of sixty-five. Although dressed up for the camera, he wears clothes (the stiff, stand-up collar and the cutaway coat) fashionable in a somewhat earlier period, suggesting that he was not particularly concerned about his appearance. His big, work-hardened, gnarled hands give away the fact that he was no gentleman of leisure.