[1] While he was young, the family moved to Rockingham, Vermont, where he worked on his father's farm and received an education in the local schools.

In 1834, Barry moved to Constantine, Michigan, and opened a general store in that village's first frame-built building.

In 1840, Barry became deeply interested in the cultivation of the sugar beet and visited Europe to obtain information in reference to its culture.

During Barry's first term, the University of Michigan first opened for students in 1841 in Ann Arbor after moving there from Detroit.

Throughout his career, he was a supporter of the Wilmot Proviso, intended to stop the spread of slavery, but he remained a member of the Democratic Party, becoming sympathetic with the "ultra" wing during the Civil War.

Barry retired to private life after the beginning of the ascendancy of the Republican Party during Reconstruction, and carried on his mercantile business at Constantine.