Los Angeles County
Biographies
BARKER FAMILY
Three generations of the Barker family in Southern California have been active in the conduct of the great Los Angeles furniture house of Barker Brothers. O. T. Barker, founder of the business had a genius for merchandising. “It was his singular good fortune,” said an earlier biographer, “not only to establish a large and profitable business in this part of the state, but also to have in his own family worthy successors, capable of developing and carrying on the business to realize fully the opportunities he created during his own lifetime.”
Obadiah Truax Barker was born at Scotland, Indiana, March 10, 1828, a grandson of Thomas Barker, who was a pioneer in Kentucky, and a son of Obadiah T. Barker, Sr., who moved from Kentucky to Cincinnati, Ohio, and subsequently to southern Indiana where he followed his trade as blacksmith and was also a merchant. O. T. Barker of Los Angeles was the last survivor of a large family of six sons and six daughters. His own determined efforts enabled him to supplement his common school advantages with the opportunities of Indiana University, and as a young man he successfully engaged in merchandising in his native state, arising from a clerkship to proprietor. For a number of years he conducted a prosperous business at Owensburg, Indiana, and while there was elected and served a county auditor. In 1872 he went to Colorado, establishing the first general merchandise store in Colorado Springs, most of his trade being with the Indians and miners. This business he sold in 1880, and coming to Los Angeles, engaged in the
furniture and carpet business under the name of Barker & Mueller. Their store was at 113 North Spring street, outside of the business district, and was soon moved to the vicinity of the Pico House. Mr. Barker bought out his partner and established the firm of O. T. Barker & Sons. In 1887 he practically retired from business, and in 1898 the business took the name of Barker Brothers, by which it is still identified. O. T. Barker died at Pasadena in July, 1912. His business achievements proved him a great merchant, and his many friends also esteemed him for his courage and integrity.
In 1854 O. T. Barker married Miss Nancy Arreen Record, a native of Indiana, who died January 31, 1917. She and her husband were active members and liberal contributors to the Baptist Church and its various institutions. Mr. and Mrs. O. T. Barker were the parents of six children, three of their sons becoming prominent in the business of Barker Brothers: O. J. Barker, who died in 1907; Charles H. Barker who died in 1932; and William Alfred Barker, who died in May, 1922.
Charles H. Barker, who succeeded the late William A. Barker as president of Barker Brothers, was born at Kentucky Ridge, Greene county, Indiana, June 27, 1860. He was educated in the Hoosier state, also at Colorado Springs, and in William Jewell College at Liberty, Missouri, and after the family moved to California he was a member of the class of 1884 at the University of California. Leaving college, he joined his father in the furniture and carpet business. In 1908, Charles H. Barker was made vice president of Barker Brothers and in 1922, after the death of his brother, William A., was elected president. In January, 1924, he surrendered the presidency to H. S. McKee, at which time he became chairman of the board of directors, maintaining that positions until his death. The Barker Brothers store has been pronounced by trade authorities as the most completely stocked and adequately equipped home furnishings institution in America. It does business all over the west and has developed one of the most successful mail order services of the kind. It has also been a pioneer in matters of business administration and dealings with employes. Charles H. Barker at one time was president of a sugar plantation in Vera Cruz, Mexico. He was a member of the Flintridge Country Club, was moderator of the Baptist Association and a director in the Southern California Baptist Convention.
In 1883 Charles H. Barker married Nellie Palmer, daughter of A. W. and Deborah Palmer. The two children of this marriage are Clarence A. and Erle P., who represent the third generation of the family in the business of Barker Brothers and are active in its management.
William Alfred Barker was for fourteen years president of Barker Brothers. Altogether he devoted thirty years of his life to this business, and many of its progressive and outstanding features were derived from his resourcefulness as a merchant. He was born at Owensburg, Indiana, March 11, 1864, and died at his home in Los Angeles, May 17, 1922, before he was sixty years of age. He was eight years old when the family went to Colorado, and he acquired most of his education in the schools of Colorado Springs. In 1880 he was appointed from Colorado a cadet in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and had practically completed his studies when in 1883, because of a surplus of naval officers, congress limited the graduating class to ten men, Mr. Barker being one of those who resigned. Soon afterward he joined the family in Los Angeles, became associated with his father’s business and later became one of the partners of O. T. Barker & Sons. In 1889 the firm became Bailey & Barker Brothers, but in 1892 Mr. Bailey retired and the business has since been Barker Brothers. William Alfred Barker was secretary and treasurer of the company until 1908, when he succeeded his deceased brother, O. J. Barker, as president. Mr. Barker was also a director of the Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles, and was financially interested in a number of local enterprises. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, and was a director and past president of the Los Angeles Retail Furniture Association, and also prominent in the National Furniture Dealers Association. He was a member of the California Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club and the Los Angeles Country Club.
On August 19, 1887, William Alfred Barker married Pauline Berman, who survives him. There were two sons, the older, Everett B., dying in 1914. The surviving son, C. Lawrence Barker, has been identified with the business and served as president in 1931-1932. He married Natalie Cole and three children were born: Lawrence J., William and Elizabeth. After Mrs. Barker’s death he married Josephine Garat.
Clarence Alfred Barker, son of Charles H. and Nellie (Palmer) Barker, is a native of California and was born in Los Angeles on January 15, 1890. He attended the grammar schools of his native city, graduated in 1909 from the Pasadena high school, took postgraduate work for a year in Throop Polytechnic School and for one year attended Occidental College. With this education he left college to get married and join the Barker Brothers enterprise, which has been his real life work and career. His introduction to the early years in the Barker Brothers business he regards as an apprenticeship or continuation school. His object was to learn everything about the business and his first work was in the warehouse unloading furniture from freight cars. He next was in the delivery department driving trucks, for a time did clerical work in the
Broadway store and afterwards became a department manager and buyer of carpets, linoleums, draperies and wall-paper. For the next seven years he was merchandise manager of all the merchandise departments. Upon the retirement of his father from the presidency on January 1, 1924, Clarence A. Barker became one of the vice presidents and had charge of the merchandising and selling divisions of the corporation until the retirement of Mr. McKee in 1929, when he became president, serving two years and then retiring to the vice presidency in favor of C. Lawrence Barker. He is one of the principal owners of the business. Barker Brothers now occupy their beautiful new store building covering an entire block on Seventh street between Flower and Figueroa streets, and erected after their own plans. One of the unusual features is the main entrance lobby, which is done in Thirteenth Century style with genuine Italian travertine on the side walls in addition to hand-wrought stone and iron work. This lobby has a ceiling height of three stories and is very beautiful architecturally. Its sound acoustics are pronounced perfect and concerts are held daily on the large organ installed in the lobby to entertain patrons waiting for their appointments. This outstanding feature is considered one of the finest in the country and tourists from every section of the United States and from foreign countries are directed to inspect Barker Brothers establishment. While this business has been both a career and a hobby with Clarence A. Barker, he has a number of interesting social connections. For two years he was tennis champion of southern California and is a member of the Los Angeles Tennis Club. He is president of the Inaji Land Company, a private trout fishing club of twenty-five prominent trout fishermen of southern California, which owns 1250 acres in the high Sierras in Inyo county situated in Long Valley on the headwaters of the Owens river where they control two and one-half miles of this stream, the water supply of Los Angeles. He is also president of the General Industries Corporation, a very successful investment company dealing in oil royalties. Politically he is a republican.
In 1911, at Santa Ana, California, Mr. Barker married Miss Ava Lou Hill, daughter of Frank W. Hill, of Pasadena. She died in 1918, during the flu epidemic, leaving two children, Edward Hill and Robert Truax. In 1920 Mr. Barker married Lolita Marguerite De Lape, daughter of David E. De Lape, of Angeles, and there is a son by this union, Clarence Alfred Barker, Jr. Mr. Barker is a member of the First Baptist Church of Pasadena.
Erle Palmer, son of Charles H. and Nellie (Palmer) Barker, was born in Los Angeles, July 23, 1892. He was educated in the local schools and was graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. Soon afterwards he entered the business of Barker Brothers. During the World war he was on active duty in the United States Navy, stationed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. In 1924, Mr. Barker was elected vice president of Barker Brothers, Incorporated. He was an official of the Retail Merchants Credit Association for a number of years. He is one of the popular young members of Los Angeles’ business and social communities, and has membership in the Jonathan Club and the Bel-Air Country Club, and of the First Baptist Church of Pasadena.
Erle P. Barker first married at Oakland, California, in 1915, Miss Madeline Chambers and they had two children, Florence and Donald. On November 5, 1921, at San Francisco, he married Miss Mae Margaret Hogan and they have a daughter, Mary Palmer Barker.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: California
of the South Vol. II, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
219-224, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Joyce Rugeroni.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES