Background
He was born on May 24, 1816, near Belfast, Ireland.
He was born on May 24, 1816, near Belfast, Ireland.
He received a liberal education and when eighteen years old became a teacher in the national schools.
In 1836 he came to the United States and worked for four years in the Princes' nurseries at Flushing, where he obtained a thorough knowledge of a large-scale nursery business. He then moved to Rochester, New York, and was associated with George Ellwanger in the founding of the Mt. Hope nursery, which became the largest nursery establishment in this country. Many varieties of fruits and other plants were imported from France and Germany, and tested particularly with reference to their adaptability for use in Western New York. Under Barry's guidance fruit-growing was introduced and largely developed in that region.
From 1845 to 1853 he was horticultural editor of the Genesee Farmer, and later was editor of the Horticulturist until 1855. He was also a frequent contributor to the American Agriculturist and other journals. In 1851 he published The Fruit Garden, an illustrated treatise on the physiology of fruit trees, theory and practise of fruit growing, preserving of fruits, control of diseases and insects, the use of implements. This book was written in a clear and systematic style, with special reference to requirements of small plantations on farms or in villages and towns. With revisions it passed through a number of editions. From 1872 it was called Barry's Fruit Garden.
With increasing wealth he engaged in banking and other commercial activities and was also prominent in the civic life of Rochester.
He was a secretary of the national convention of fruit growers in 1848, out of which grew the American Pomological Society in 1852. As chairman of a committee he helped prepare the society's classified Catalogue of Fruits in 1862, which he revised and enlarged in succeeding years, making it the standard authority on this subject. Under his leadership the Fruit Growers Society of Western New York was organized in 1855 and he was chairman of its executive committee until its name was changed in 1870 to Western New York Horticultural Society. He was also president of the New York State Agricultural Society in 1877 and from 1882 to 1889 member of the first board of control of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva.
In 1847 he married Harriet Huestis of Richfield, Otsego County, New York, by whom he had six sons and two daughters. His son, William C. Barry, succeeded his father in the nursery business and other enterprises.
