The Story of Joseph Barry
If you ever have the opportunity to walk into the main lobby of the Middle School on Jerusalem Avenue look for the inscribed plaque commemorating the school clock tower to the memory of three young Hicksville men who gave their lives in World War I. The Hicksville Choral Society undertook the project and on Memorial Day 1925, just a year and a half after the opening of the school the dedication took place. Previously these men were honored by community groups who took their names for their own in naming their local organizations for them. They were Charles Wagner, whose name was taken by American Legion Post no. 421, Walter Wheeler, whose name was given to the Hicksville Lodge of the Royal Arcanum, now defunct, and our own Joseph Barry, who a year before was chosen as the patron of our council of the Knights of Columbus.
Joseph was born on Pacific Street in Brooklyn on June 13, 1894. Later the family moved to Astoria and then in 1914, James and Eileen Barry took their family, Joseph the eldest, Edmund and Eileen, to Hicksville. Joseph received his early education at the Holy Name of Jesus School on Amsterdam Avenue. He was employed by the Hicksville Lumber Company later the Mc Keon Lumber Company which was situated at the location on Old Country Road now used as the entrance to the Delco Plaza at Broadway and Old Country Road. He later worked for the state as a chauffeur. He was a member of St. Ignatius Holy Name Society, Westbury Council of the Knights of Columbus (with his brother Edmund) and Company 2 of the Hicksville Fire Department. Both he and his brother took their Columbian degrees together in 1917.
When the United States entered the war in 1917, Joseph attempted to enlist in each of the services but was turned down because of poor eyesight. For the time being he contented himself with an enlistment in the Militia, a local home guard unit organized under the office of the County Sheriff to do patrol work in sabotage sensitive defense areas. When a notice from his draft board came, he was accepted for active service in the Army.
He was assigned to Motor Transport Company 461 as an ammunition truck driver and later as its company clerk. He saw action at Chateau Thierry in September 1918. Then, suddenly, on October 25th he was taken seriously ill with cerebrospinal meningitis. On November 3, 1918, after nine days in agony, he died in the Army Hospital at Bordeaux, France, after receiving the last rites of the Church from his Chaplain.
His commanding officer, Captain J.D. Southwick, wrote a long letter to Mrs. Barry relating in glowing terms what kind of a man her son had been. He said, "I believe that every man of the company felt a distinct loss at his death." Sergeant Joseph Barry's body still rests in the American Military Cemetery at Contrexville, France.
We have always had the distinct honor of having relatives of Joseph Barry as member of the Council. Edmund, his brother was a charter member of the council, James Barry, his son was a member until his death, and Heinz and Philip Baumgartner are nephew and grandnephew by marriage.
Arthur A. Schreiber, PGK
Advocate Historian
December 1, 1993
