James
Burton Barber, Tax Collector of Alameda county, was born in Marysville,
California, November 9, 1850, the first-born American of that city, a son of
Arthur S. and Elmira (Burton) Barber.
The mother, born in New York State, died in 1852 in child-birth, leaving
only one surviving child, the subject of this sketch. His grandfather, S. P. Burton, a farmer by occupation, was among
the early settlers of Clinton county, Iowa, having moved there from New York
State. A. S. Barber, the father of J.
B., born in England in 1817, and married in Clinton county, Iowa, came to
California in 1849, and went to mining in Marysville. In 1853 he came to Alameda and is still a resident of that
city. He went into business there,
first carrying on a general store and later on a grocery store, and was
Postmaster from 1856 to 1889. He is the
father of two sons and three daughters by his second wife, and is now retired
from business. He is a member of the
Pioneer Society and a Mason for many years, being a charter member of Oak Grove
Lodge, No. 215, F. & A. M., of Alameda.
J.
B. Barber was educated in the public schools of Alameda, and worked in his
father’s store to the age of twenty-one.
He then learned telegraphy and went to work for the Central Pacific for
two years in that line. In 1874 he went
into business on his own account in Alameda, conducting a wood and coal yard
about seven years. In 1882 he was
appointed deputy Treasurer and Tax Collector under J. A. Webster, and
afterwards served as deputy Assessor from the first Monday in January, 1887, to
the same day in 1889, when he entered on the discharge of his present duties as
Tax Collector, to which he had been elected in 1888. He is a candidate for re-election in 1890. He is a charter member of Halcyon Parlor,
No. 146, N. S. G. W., of Alameda, and Senior Past President of the same. He is also a member of Oak Grove Lodge, No.
215, F. & A., M., and of Alameda Lodge, No. 49, Knights of Pythias, in which
he has passed through the chairs.
J.
B. Barber was married in Alameda, in 1878, to Miss Anna M. Cooke, born in
Philadelphia in September, 1856, a daughter of Napoleon B. and Martha (Smith)
Cooke, who came to this coast soon after her birth, and have been residents of
Alameda for many years. The father is
aged about sixty and the mother fifty-eight years.
Mr.
and Mrs. Barber have one child, William Burton, born October 20, 1879.
Transcribed by
Donna L. Becker
Source: "The
Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 1, page 581-582, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2004 Donna L. Becker.