San
Joaquin County
Biographies
EDWARD H. BARBER
Edward H. Barber, who for the past
seventeen years has been a justice of the peace of Union Township, has been a
staunch advocate of better schools and a director of the Galt Union High School
since 1912. He was born in Summer Hill,
Cayuga, New York, December 26, 1867, a son of George H. and Caroline (Potter)
Barber. The father was a farmer by
occupation, who brought his family to California in the fall of 1874 and first
farmed on the old Stevenson ranch near Stockton, where he remained for one
year; then removed to Sebastopol, Sonoma County, where he bought ninety acres
at fifty-five dollars per acre near the town limits. After paying a few hundred dollars on this
ranch, he became discouraged and gave it up and removed with his family to Taison, San Joaquin County.
The Sebastopol ranch is now within the city limits of
that town and is very valuable property.
The father rented the R. B. Thompson dairy, which he conducted for two
years, then purchased 100 acres two and one-half miles northwest of Thornton, which
is a portion of the property now owned and operated by our subject and his
brother, George L. Barber. There were
three children in the family: Edward H.,
our subject, being the eldest; George L., and Grace, Mrs. Beavis, residing in
Detroit, Michigan. The father passed
away in 1907 aged seventy-seven, and the mother was fifty-one when she died.
Edward H. Barber began his schooling
in the old five-mile school out of Stockton, where he went for one year; then
he had a year’s schooling at Sebastopol, two years at the Ray district school
in San Joaquin County, and the balance of his grammar school education in the
New Hope district school. Edward H. and
his brother, George L., are equal partners in their ranching operations. They have added to their holdings until they
now own 425 acres of fine land on the Mokelune River,
two and one-half miles northwest of Thornton, which is devoted to raising beans, grain and general farming, and the
brothers each conduct a dairy.
The marriage of Mr. Barber occurred
on June 11, 1896, in Stockton, which united him with Miss Ada
Marion Villette, a native of Hancock County,
Mississippi, and a daughter of Henry and Ada
(Breedlove) Villette.
Her maternal grandfather was a Confederate soldier who died from the
effects of exposure during the Civil War.
Her mother was twice married, the first time to Harry Villette, who died in Louisiana. In 1886 Mrs. Villette
and their only child, Ada Marion, came to California and settled in
Stockton. Here her mother was married in
1887 to Henry Harrington, a harnessmaker. Her mother died in Thornton.
Mr. and Mrs. Barber are the parents
of four children: Helen, Paul, Florence
and Ada. Paul Barber recently married
Miss May Culver off Stockton and at the present they make their home on the
ranch and assist in its development. In
1904 Mr. Barber became a trustee of Reclamation District No. 348, embracing
acreage of 10,000 acres, and since 1906 has been justice of the peace for Union
Township; he is also a member of the Thornton Farm Bureau, and since the
founding of the Galt Union High School he has served as a director of same. In politics Mr. Barber is a staunch
Republican, and Mrs. Barber is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Barber brothers also own 100 acres in the
Yaqui River Valley, in the State of Sonora, Mexico, which is leased and which
caused them considerable trouble during the recent revolution.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1529. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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