Bristol Prankster Spent His Life Having Fun

Though he was considered to be “touched in the head” by all who knew him, and that included about everyone in the old town of Bristol, there were those who envied Chadwick Barr.
For you see, this “Bristol character” of long ago spent his life mostly having fun. That may have been something to envy in a town where most men had to spend their days in dreary toil just to make a meager living. 
Chadwick’s parents brought him to Bristol from South Carolina when he was but a small child.
His father, a railroad worker, was killed in a tragic railroad accident soon after moving here (1877-1878). His widow finished raising Chadwick as best she could in a little shack in upper Buford Street near the western edge of what is now East Hill Cemetery. They were objects of charity.
C.C. Campbell, who operated a large milling concern at the Goodson Street crossing of Beaver Creek, kept them in meal and flour by taking an extra toll of one pint from every run from the mill. Other kind citizens of Bristol helped them the best they could. Mrs. Barr also took in washings to help them in their meager existence. 
Chadwick never went to school. He couldn’t hold a job. He mostly just loafed about the town largely spending his time on Loafer’s Glory (that portion of State Street between the railroad and Pennsylvania Avenue). 
But his mind, as weak as it may have been, wasn’t idle. He was always playing a prank of some kind. By the time he reached maturity, he had considerable reputation as a practical jokester.
When I arrived in Bristol, there were a few old timers who well remembered him and told me many stories of his pranks. They were always interesting and oftentimes hilarious.
But none do I better remember than the one concerning the time he made the dead to speak.
Chadwick grew up with a boy named Willis Warren. By the time Willis was 21 years old, he had a reputation of being one of the wildest young men in town. However, he did manage to become a carpenter working with local contractor John M. Crowell.
But he soon got into trouble with the law and fled to West Virginia. A short time later, he was killed in a fight with a fellow worker. He was cut and stabbed, and his throat was slashed from ear to ear.
His parents had him brought back home to Bristol for burial. Some young men friends of his decided that they wanted their pictures made with him standing up under an oak tree in the family yard.
Chadwick Barr was among them and, unknown to them, he had learned the art of ventriloquism.
The boys had engaged Phillip Painter, who was then apprenticing under the photographer G.B. Smith, to make the picture.
The men lifted the body from the coffin and as they were carrying him across the yard to the oak tree and the waiting photographer, Chadwick suddenly thought of a prank he could work on them.
Willis Warren had a shrill voice that sounded much like a woman, and Chadwick Barr was able to imitate that shrill and unmistakable voice.
He made the corpse to cry out, “Boys, handle me a little easier. I’m still mighty sore from being cut up so bad.”
Well, they didn’t handle him easier. They yelled out in terror, roughly dropped him to the ground and fled in all directions.
Some of them didn’t take time to go through the gate but jumped the fence and took off in whatever direction they faced when they hit the ground.
The crowd that had gathered at the home was also terrorized. Several of the women fainted, and one man in the crowd jumped backward off the porch and landed flat on his back in a rose bush!
He was torn up considerably trying to free himself to run.
All the while, Chadwick Barr was down rolling all over the yard in fits of hysterical laughter.
If it can happen, it has happened here in Bristol.

BUD PHILLIPS is a local historian and author. He can be reached at (276) 466-6435.