San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JAMES A. BARR
High on the list of educators who
have achieved marked success in their calling is found the name of James A.
Barr, a man of fine intellectual attainments and executive ability who has
devoted many years to the furtherance of the high standards of the state’s
educational system and has also found time in his busy life for much public
service work. A native of Kentucky, Mr.
Barr first saw the light of day in a log cabin near Union Star, Breckinridge
County, on July 19, 1863. His parents
were Henry Harrison and Susan Mary (Moorman) Barr, now deceased,
and they were both born in the Blue Grass state. Leaving their Kentucky home the family went
to Illinois and from there to Missouri, continuing their westward migration to
California in 1875. They settled at Collegeville,
San Joaquin County, and there the father farmed for three years, then removed
to Stockton with his family.
The only child in the Barr family,
James A. Barr, was twelve years old when his parents arrived in
California. For a time he attended the
rural school at Collegeville, and then for a year and a half he was in the
Stockton high school. He was obliged to
go to work early in life but his ambition for an education never wavered and he
educated himself by long hours of study at night, after his day’s work was
over. His first employment was as office
boy in an employment agency on Center Street, Stockton, where he received ten
dollars a month; next he was with the Pacific Bakery for two years, getting fifteen
dollars a month the first year and twenty-five dollars the second year, arising
at four o’clock Sunday mornings to deliver baked beans to the customers. For a time he worked in a grocery store, all
the while saving his money, and he was then able to attend the Stockton
Business College for six months, Fisher R. Clarke being at the head of the
school.
After he had received a teacher’s
certificate, Mr. Barr started out with a horse and buggy, looking for a
position, and after driving three or four days through the country up into
Calaveras and Amador counties, he was assigned to the Julian district school in
Amador County, sixty dollars a month being the salary of country teachers at
that time. His second school was in the
Clements district, and the next year he was elected principal of the Jefferson
school in Stockton. After four years
there he became principal of the Fremont school, but after teaching there only
three months he was elected to the office of city superintendent of schools of
Stockton, holding this important post for twenty years, from 1891 to 1911,
continuously, probably a record in California schools. An enthusiast in all matters relating to
educational activities, during this long term of service Mr. Barr left the
imprint of his high ideals on the public school system of Stockton, wisely
shaping its policies and progress.
Shortly after severing his
connection with the schools of Stockton, Mr. Barr was elected to the secretaryship of the California Teachers’ Association,
helping to organize this body. He took
up his residence at Oakland and after one year in office he was honored by
election to the office of Director of Congresses, to take charge of the
conventions to be held at San Francisco during the Panama-Pacific Exposition in
1915. This was a most important position
and Mr. Barr fulfilled its duties with great success, serving for four years,
and being the means of additional thousands of visitors attending the
Exposition. He made several trips across
the continent, visiting many states and interviewing big, influential men. Through Mr. Barr’s efforts 928 conventions
were held in San Francisco during the Exposition, more than twice as many as
were held in St. Louis, and four times as many as were held in Chicago during
its exposition. A postage stamp campaign
was also used by Mr. Barr in his publicity work, 750,000 letters being sent
out, $13,000 being spent for postage. At present he is assistant secretary of the
California Teachers’ Association, the duties of the office requiring his
spending a part of the time in San Francisco, the remainder being spent at his
Stockton home, looking after his business interests here.
Mr. Barr’s marriage united him with
Miss Julia Inez Mann, a native daughter of Stockton, whose father, Stephen H.
Mann, was a pioneer gold miner of the state, and who lived to the fine old age
of ninety-two years. Mr. and Mrs. Barr
are the parents of two children: James
A., Jr., and Doris, and the family make their home at 105 East Magnolia Street,
Stockton. Public spirited and loyally
interested in the commercial as well as the educational progress of the
community, some twenty years ago Mr. Barr developed the plan on which the
Chamber of Commerce of Stockton was based, giving much of his time to its
organization and helping in increasing the membership in a week’s campaign from
twenty to 600. He is a past noble grand
of Truth Lodge No. 55, I. O. O. F., past chief patriarch of Parker Encampment,
and belongs to the Stockton Elks and the California School Masters’ Club.
Almost every man has some hobby and
Professor Barr has one of the most interesting that one could imagine. For forty years he has been making a study of
Indian life as found in San Joaquin County and he has collected the largest
assortment of Indian implements from that region to be found anywhere. In that collection is found an assortment of
157 Obsidian curved knives, the largest collection of its kind in the
possession of an individual in the U. S.
He has pipes, beads, clay-balls, arrow and spear heads, etc. He has studied Indian lore and is an
authority on the history of the Indians of early days. Besides this he has been gathering data and
tabulating same, of historical topics of almost every description; and to top
it all he has a large collection of unmounted photographs covering the
development of the city, county and industrial life. This work has taken Mr. Barr years to gather,
tabulate and index, but it means much to the coming generations who may have an
opportunity to enjoy this wonderful collection in a museum that may possibly be
erected by some public-spirited citizen of Stockton.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
460-463. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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