156th Children's Fair (Retrospective)
New Ipswich Historical Society
A Look Back at the 156th Children’s Fair
August 19, 2017
NOTE that the 162nd Children’s Fair will take place TODAY at 10 AM on Church Grounds at 150 Main Street, New Ipswich, NH
Newspaper Clipping
March 29, 1933 - MRS. LALLA BARR
Former Boston society woman divorced in Manchester, N. H., by James C. Barr.
With a divorce decree for the husband, finis has been written to the many chapters of the marital troubles of Mrs. Lalla E. Barr, New York and Boston society woman, and James Cummings Barr, former steel manufacturer and salesman of railroad equipment, it was revealed here today.
Barr, who makes his home at New Ipswich, N. H., was granted the decree here month ago by Judge Peter Woodbury, the grounds being that her treatment of him had been injurious to Barr's health. Mrs. Barr, who from time to time has appeared as her own lawyer in suits in New Hampshire and New York, contested the divorce suit.
Strict secrecy was maintained about the latest proceedings in the Barr case, which was featured four years ago with assertions by Mrs. Barr that a Broadway blackmail gang broke up her home.
Two years ago she brought a suit in the Superior Court at Nashua, naming Mrs. Anne Sanders Rogers, wife of a Boston clubman, and Margaret C. Dana as co-respondents.
In a cross petition Barr asserted that his wife deserted him in 1927 and refused to live with him and that she was extremely cruel to him.
Mrs. Barr, who is about 55 years of age, is now living at Wilton, N. H. No specification regarding alimony was made in the decision of Judge Woodbury, and it is understood satisfactory arrangements have been made out of court.
James Roger diary entries
19th August 1912
Cloudy, warm, showery in evening; wind W to SW. David painting at No. 1 school house. I picked 3 fowls in forenoon and tossed hay in afternoon. Got letter from Hamish who has caught cold and his shoulders and legs ache.
If the former Mrs. Barr was indeed cruel to her husband, and it sounds as though she may well have been, why does she get alimony?
In 1952 I asked my father: "Who owns the adjacent parcel to our property?" He said the "Barrs". They've always been a mystery to me. Never met a Barr. Lalla sued first for being deserted, actually sought reconciliation, James countersued for a divorce. After the divorce Lalla sues Laura, James's sister, for $50.000 for ruining her marriage. James was having affairs with a couple of actresses. I don't think James spent much time in New Ipswich, he had properties in Boston and Long Island.