When about four miles from Lawrence, on the California Road, they saw a party of 14 horsemen approaching, two of whom rode on in advance of the others for the purpose of holding a parley with Barber and his companions. These two men were George W. Clark, agent of the Pottawatomie Indians, and a merchant of Weston, Missouri, by the name of Burns. They tried to induce the Barbers and Pierson to join them, and meeting with a positive refusal, one of them drew his revolver and fired twice, mortally wounding Thomas W. Barber. He concealed the fact that he was shot until they had ridden about a hundred yards, when he informed his brother, who at first thought such a thing impossible, but a few minutes later the wounded man was seen to reel in his saddle. His associates eased him to the ground, where a little later he breathed his last breath.

At once he began active operations in Missouri and Arkansas, distinguishing himself for bravery and military skill in the battles of Cane Hill, Prairie Grove, Boston Mountains, Fort Van Buren, Honey Springs and Newtonia. After the war, he settled in Leavenworth and engaged in business, spending a large part of his time in Washington, D. C. About 1878 symptoms of softening of the brain appeared and he was taken to an insane asylum in Washington D.C., where he died on August 3, 1881. General Blunt was not a brilliant man, but he won and retained the confidence of the men under his command and rendered Kansas important service as a soldier.

Justin De Witt Bowersock (1842-1922) - U.S. Congressman and businessman from Lawrence, Bowersock was born at Columbiana, Ohio on September 19, 1842. He was educated in public schools, after which he went to Iowa City, Iowa, where he engaged in business as a grain merchant. In 1877 he moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where he saw the possibilities of water power. He built a dam across the Kansas River, and with the power thus developed established several manufacturing plants. He was later made president of the Kansas Water Power Company; organized the Douglas County Bank (later the Lawrence National) in 1878, and was elected president of the bank 1888. He was also president of the Bowersock Mills & Power Company, the Kansas Water Power Company, the Griffin Ice Company, the Lawrence Iron Works, the Lawrence Paper Manufacturing Company and the Kansas & Colorado Railroad Company. He always took an active part in municipal affairs and in 1881 was elected mayor of Lawrence, which position he filled until 1885.  On September 5, 1886, he married Mary C. Cower, of Iowa City, Iowa and the same year was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives. In 1894, he was elected to the State Senate. In 1898 he was nominated by the Republican Party of the Second District for Congress, and in November was elected. His record during his term commended him to the people of his district, who honored him with four re-elections. He was not a candidate for re-nomination in 1906, and returned to his banking and manufacturing business in Lawrence. He died on October 27, 1922 and was interred in Oak Hill Cemetery.