Butte County
Biographies
SAMUEL A. BARROW
SAMUEL A. BARROW.--An early
settler, and a prominent and successful rancher near Gridley, Samuel A. Barrow
was born at Columbus, Platte County, Nebr., January 3, 1865. His father was
John Barrow, a native of England, who came to the United States and soon after
his arrival crossed the plains with ox teams to Salt Lake, in the late forties.
He helped to make the first adobe bricks that went into the construction of the
first houses in Salt Lake City, and there he married Martha Galley, also a
native of England. Soon thereafter they went to Columbus, Nebr., where they
farmed until the death of Mr. Barrow, in 1878. Mrs. Barrow died in Salt Lake
City, in 1908, at the age of seventy-six years. Of their eight children, Samuel
A. was the sixth.
He was educated in the schools of
Columbus, Nebr., and was reared to farm work there until he was seventeen. On
January 1, 1882, he located in Salt Lake City and was employed in the Continental
Hotel for a year, then secured a position in a grocery and commission house and
delivered goods for them for three years. In the spring of 1886, he arrived at
Rigby, in the Snake River Valley, Jefferson County, Idaho, and there in the
sage brush he built a log cabin, with a dirt roof, on his preemption claim of a
quarter section of land, and here he pioneered with other settlers. He
developed a good farm on which he raised grain, sugar beets and live-stock for
the ensuing twenty-three years and met with fair returns. He was one of a
company that built a canal from Snake River, which brought a large area under
irrigation, and he served as a director of the company one term. Three years
after he located his preemption claim, September 26, 1888, he was married at
Logan Temple, Logan, Utah, to Miss Lydia J. Call, born at Willard City, Boxelder County, Utah.
In December, 1908, on account of the ill
health of Mrs. Barrow, they came to California to see the country and try to
find some place where she would find relief. They stopped in Gridley and soon
found that this place was blessed with a climate that soon brought back the
bloom of health to her and they concluded to make it their home. Returning to
their former home, they sold their land and in the following May he came to
Gridley and bought a house in the town and returned to Idaho for his family in
June, 1909. This has been their home ever since. Interested in farming, Mr.
Barrow bought a tract of thirty-eight acres in Colony 4 and Colony 9, and began
improving it. He set out a twenty-acre orchard of peaches and prunes, and also
raised grain, beans and garden truck. This tract yields bountiful returns as it
is all under irrigation. He has made all the improvements on the ranch and has
a comfortable house and such outbuildings as his needs call for. From five
acres of peaches he marketed thirty-four tons in 1916. The receipts from his
acreage of fruits average from six hundred to seven hundred dollars annually.
He has a young orchard of prunes which is very promising. His sons sold over
one thousand dollars worth of fruit and vegetables in the mountains in the fall
of 1916. Mr. Barrow has ten head of horses and the sons do teaming for the
various ranchers in their community, and they also have a small auto delivery
truck; a dairy on the ranch adds to the yearly income. Taking it all in all the
ranching venture in Butte County has been a successful one for Mr. Barrow.
Mrs. Barrow has been an able helpmate to
her husband and comes from pioneer stock, her parents, Omer and Sarah M. (Ferrin) Call, natives of Springfield, Ill., and
Springfield, Ohio, respectively, having been pioneers in Salt Lake. They
crossed the plains as children, with their parents, and the journey with ox
teams and push-carts was made without mishap. They forded rivers and built
roads over which they pushed and pulled their carts, and were pioneers of that
section. They grew to manhood and womanhood in Utah and attended the early
schools, and it was in that state that they were united in marriage. In the
vicinity of Willard City, Utah, they were among the pioneers in irrigation and
were prominent in the Mormon Church. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Call eleven
children were born, of whom Mrs. Barrow is the fourth youngest; and her
education was obtained in the public schools of Willard City.
Ten children have blessed the marriage of
Mr. and Mrs. Barrow, namely: Omer S., who married
Emily C. Nielsen and has a daughter, Maurine; Martha S., deceased; Iva Lavaun, who is the wife of
J. R. Papa, now serving in France with the American Expeditionary
Forces, and who has a son, Harold; Orlean Lydia, who
married G. A. Dewsnup and has a daughter, Eva; Albert
J., Orvil E., and Lella
Agnes are at home; and Lloyd, Lowell, and Joseph are deceased. The children
were all born in Rigby, Idaho. While Mr. and Mrs. Barrow have always been
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Rigby, Mr. Barrow
is now an officer in the church, serving first as secretary and then as
president of the Young Men’s Mutual Society of that church, in Rigby, Idaho. He
also served as clerk of the ward of the same. Since coming to Gridley he is
still active in the church, in which he holds important offices. Mrs. Barrow
has been equally prominent in church circles and has held offices in the
different ladies’ auxiliaries of the same, at Rigby and at Gridley. She is at
present president of the Ladies’ Relief Society and is also active in Red Cross
work.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
02 November 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages
1056-1057, Historic
Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies