(1) Biography extracted from History of Sauk County, Wisconsin Chicago: Western Historical Company, published 1880.

Baraboo:

John Barker, attorney at law; born in the village of Sand Bank, Oswego Co., N.Y., March 29, 1839; educated in Oswego and Jefferson Counties; engaged in clerking near Ironton, Ohio, from 1861 to 1865; then returned to Oswego Co., N.Y.; studied law before and after going to Ohio, and was admitted to the bar at Syracuse N.Y., in October 1865, and came to Baraboo the same month, where he engaged in the practice of his profession; taught school in the winters of 1865-66; has held various offices - Town Clerk, Town Treasurer, County Judge and District Attorney. Mr. Barker was married in New Haven, Oswego Co., N.Y., Nov. 29, 1870 to Alice A. Druse; she was born in Oswego Co. N.Y.; they have three sons - Ralph, born Nov. 27, 1872; and twins born Aug. 7, 1880.

(2) Biography extracted from A Standard History of Sauk County The Lewis Publishing Co. Chicago and New York 1918 [pg. 267]

When Judge Remington resigned from the Probate Bench in April, 1873, the governor appointed John Barker to fill the vacancy, who continued to hold the position until his successor was elected in the following year. When Judge Barker died in 1889 he was in partnership with one of Judge Remington's sons, Arthur Remington, now a resident of Olympia, Washington. While an able and most honorable member of the profession, the deceased was not a brilliant one. But, as stated by one of his friends: "A lawyer who turns away a client and makes him go home and shake hands with his neighbor across a disputed land line, shows that the man in him is greater and of more worth than all his learning and his talents; and that sort of practice marked the career of this attorney and made him rich, too- rich in the only true wealth- wealth that does not rust, that cannot be stolen, that alone possibly may be carried out of the world, the love of his fellow man." A native of New York, Mr. Barker came to Baraboo from Ohio in 1865. Before entering active practice he taught for awhile as principal of the local schools, and, at various times in the course of his practice served as town clerk, town treasurer and district attorney. Everyone had confidence in him and be might have held other public offices had he so desired.

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