Santa
Clara County
Biographies
WILLIAM O. BARKER
William O. Barker was reared on his father’s
farm in Maine, and although his life was a varied one, he never lost track of
the characteristics handed down from his Puritan ancestors. As a young man his
tendency ran in the direction of medicine, but after qualifying to practice,
his ambition turned to the far west, whence came so many alluring accounts of
less arduously made fortunes. Arriving in California in the fall of 1852, he engaged
in the well-boring business after a brief mining experience, eventually
embarking in the hotel business. For a time he owned and managed the New York
Exchange Hotel, in San Jose, then a first-class hotel. He afterward removed to
Fresno and managed a hotel, and in 1881 started the Ogle House of that place.
Fourteen months later he purchased a stock and lumber ranch in the Sierra
Nevada mountains, operated the same with gratifying
success for many years, and died there July 19, 1888. He served as deputy assessor,
county assessor and councilman, and evinced marked activity in the lodge of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His family was otherwise represented on the
coast, his brother, S. A. Barker, now deceased, attaining to some distinction
at the bar of San Jose. There were eleven children in his family, six of whom
attained maturity, and five of whom are living.
The wife of William O Barker, who
died July 7, 1904, in San Francisco, was formerly Mary Susan Thomas. She was
daughter of Massey Thomas, an Argonaut of ’49, and owner of a fine ranch of
about five hundred acres in Gilroy township, Santa Clara county.
Mr. Thomas was born on Green river, Ohio county, Ky., January 27, 1813, a son
of James and Elizabeth (Miller) Thomas, and grandson of Massey Thomas, a
soldier of the Revolution. This hero of many of the battles in the war for
independence removed from Virginia to Tennessee at a time when the pack trail
took the place of roads, and when his son James was a small child, settled in
Danville, Ky., a not remote neighbor being the historic Daniel Boone.
Subsequently he settled on a farm in Ohio county, and
was buried there. Until his fourteenth year Massey Thomas, Jr., lived in
Kentucky, removing then to Marion county, Mo., three years later locating in Lewis
county, where he subsequently bought and improved a
farm. Crossing the pains in 1849, he abandoned mining after a month’s
experience, and turned his attention to teaming, earning from $25 to $30 a day.
Eighteen months later he returned to his old home in Missouri, reaching there
February 15, 1851, and remaining until the following April before again coming
to the coast, this time bringing with him a herd of three hundred cattle.
Reaching Gilroy in the middle of October, he located on his present farm of
about five hundred acres, three hundred valley, and
the balance table-land, and has since engaged in extensive wheat and barley
raising with unusual success. He also has been identified with the cultivation
of fruit and stock-raising, and has improved his land until it is one of the
most valuable farms in the township. Mr. Thomas married Phoebe Bain, daughter
of Balden and Nancy (Reynolds) Bain, and a native of
Bracken county, Ky. Her grandfather carried a musket
in the Continental army during the war for independence, and her maternal
grandmother was a sister of Daniel Webster; and Governor Reynolds, of Missouri,
was her uncle. Mrs. Thomas went to Missouri with her sister when thirteen years
old, locating in Lewis county in the fall of 1833, her father later removing to
Pike county, Mo., where his death occurred. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas reared ten
children, of whom James Balden was born June 30,
1838, and died October 29, 1859; Mary Susan was born February 3, 1840; Thomas
Reynolds, born December 8,1841, was a grain dealer in Gilroy several years
before his death; John and William, twins, were born October 28, 1843, the
former living in San Benito county; and the latter died January 4, 1880;
Benjamin F., born December 22, 1846, is a legal practitioner of Santa Barbara;
Louise E., born August 7, 1848; died December 7, 1849; Massey, born December
10, 1851, is now residing in San Felipe; Clayton R., born January 25, 1854,
lives with his parents; and Charles E., born January 15, 1857, is a resident of
San Miguel. In early days Mr. Thomas was a Whig, but later became a Democrat,
in his political tendencies following the exact example of his father. With his
wife he is a member of the Christian Church, and was one of the founders and
builders of the congregation in Gilroy.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1302-1303. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.