I have published an outline of the Barr family on another page.
A mutual friend gave Barr a letter of introduction to James McDowell of Upper Oxford Township in Chester County probably in the early 1780's. McDowell was running wagon trains to the frontier town of Pittsburgh, and, while staying with McDowell, Barr met some gentlemen from the west and learned of a dire shortage of Presbyterian ministers there. Even while sporadically preaching at the Christiana, Delaware and the New London, Pennsylvania churches, Barr apparently made at least one trip to reconnoiter Pittsburgh and to preach at a few churches there.
In 1785, Barr was invited to minister at the New London Presbyterian Church, but he felt his ministries were more urgently needed in the west and he accepted another offer from a Pittsburgh congregation. Immediately following his marriage to Mary McDowell on 10-27-1785 in Chester County (probably at the New London Presbyterian Church), they struck out for Pittsburgh where Barr began his ministry at the Redstone Presbyterian Church (he also tended to a couple of smaller chapels nearby). After a few years out west, Samuel, Mary, and their two children moved back east where, on August 9, 1791, Samuel was installed as pastor of the Christiana Bridge and New Castle Presbyterian churches in New Castle County, Delaware.
Samuel and Mary had 12 children, the last 10 of whom were born in Chester County, or New Castle County, Delaware. Following Mary's death on April 25, 1814, Samuel remarried, to Eliz. Bird. They were not married long, for Samuel died four years after his first wife, on May 13, 1818. Samuel, Mary, several children and at least one grandchild are all buried in the old Presbyterian cemetery in the town of New Castle, Delaware.
Of the twelve children born to Rev. Samuel and Mary (McDowell) Barr, only four had issue.
Mary McDowell; The oldest child of James and Elizabeth McDowell, Mary was born on November 25, 1765 probably in Chester County, PA. Her future husband, Samuel Barr, born on February 4, 1750/1 near Londonderry, Ireland, the son of Robert Barr and Elizabeth Hamilton, studied theology at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and emigrated to America prior to 1776. A Presbyterian minister, Samuel was ordained by the New Castle (Delaware) Presbytery.