My family history in Barber County begins about 1900 and extends through
  the present. My father, Ernest N. O'Brien, came from near Paducah, Kentucky,
  where he was raised on a small tabacco farm. My mother, Margaret Jane Anthony
  Foster, came to the area about the same time as a widow with four children.
  Carry Nation befriended her and moved her into the basement of the present
  Carry Nation Home in Medicine Lodge until two of Mom's brother came from
  Missouri to help.
     Mom moved to Kiowa and supported her large family by taking in wash,
  which is hwere she probably met Dad, who was then working on the Ishmael-
  Rudolph Cattle Ranch. They married and in November 1904 I was born in Kiowa.
  Mom;s sixth child, Dixie, who lived her entire life in or near Barber County,
  was born in Kiowa in 1906.
     After the death of Mom's oldest boy, the family moved from the Ishmael-
  Rudolph Ranch into Kiowa proper, and Dad started a dray business, hauling
  coal, lumber, and freight from Kiowa to other parts of Barber County. 
  Hardtner at the time was growing, but did not have a rail head or lumber
  yard, so Dad hauled most of the building materials for the older buildings
  in Hardtner.
     While living in Kiowa, "Ernie" O'Brien often assisted Marshal Clark
  Bunton and substituted on watch for Jack Middleton. During Independence
  Day celebrations his four-hours bay dray team was often used to pull the
  fire wagon, with him driving, in the Kiowa parades.
     About 1915 the family moved northwest of Hardtner where Dad worked on
  JLB Ellis' ranch. We remained there until after World War I and until Dad
  retired from farming. Mom and Dad, with all their children married and away,
  then moved to Hardtner, where Dad worked at the Bert Parsons' grain elevator
  until his death in 1954.
     Although my husband was not a Barber County resident, I stayed with an
  older sister during the delivery times of both of my children. Gail Gordon
  Meader, born in Medicine Lodge in 1927 and Alan Roy Gordon, born in Kiowa
  in 1929. Gail married Keith N. Meador who lived at Medicine Lodge. Just
  after he was sent to the Pacific during World War II, she returned to
  Hardtner to have her only son, Dan Meador. Alan's oldest son, Neal Gordon, 
  was born at Hardtner in 1956, then twins, Brent and Brenda, were born in
  Kiowa in 1958.
     For the past twenty years I have lived in the small house in Hardtner
  where both my parents finished their days. Barber County continues to be a 
  returning place for children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
                 
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 199 
     Submitted by: Madolin O'Brien Gordon