San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE L. BARBER
A well-known citizen and prominent
agriculturist of northern San Joaquin County is George L. Barber, who is an
equal partner with his brother, Edward H. Barber, in a valuable ranch of 425
acres three miles northwest of Thornton, devoted to general farming and
dairying. He was born in Summer Hill,
New York, January 22, 1870, a son of George H. and Catherine (Potter) Barber,
the former a native of New York, of English descent, who served in an Illinois
Regiment in the Civil War. At the age of
four years George L. Butler accompanied his parents to Stockton,
California. Here the father remained for
a year. He then tried farming in Sonoma
County for one year, and then returned to San Joaquin County, where he
eventually purchased 100 acres of land three miles northwest of Thornton, a
portion of the present holdings of the Barber brothers. Both parents are now deceased. The father died in 1907 at the age of
seventy-seven, and the mother was fifty-five when she passed away.
The education of George L. Barber
was begun in the district schools of California. When he was thirteen years old he returned to
New York and lived with his mother’s people at Utica where he attended the
grammar school. Later he entered the
Genesco State Normal School. After
teaching school for a year, in 1890 he returned to California to the home
ranch, which is now equally owned by himself and his brother, Edward H. Barber.
The marriage of Mr. Barber occurred
on March 4, 1903, uniting him with Miss May Chamberlain, a native of Oregon,
and a daughter of Henry K. and Lucy (Levitte)
Chamberlain, natives of Illinois and Massachusetts, respectively, and both from
families of Revolutionary stock. Her
father was a farmer by occupation, who came to Oregon and took up government
land, and later went into the sawmill business.
When Mrs. Barber was two years old, her mother died; and five years
later her father was killed, leaving a family of eleven children, seven of whom
are now deceased and four living. Those
living are: Lucy, Mrs. Sherman Alford,
of Stockton; Nettie, Mrs. George Alford, of Mountain View; Emma, Mrs. Ralph
Snell, of Mountain View; and May, Mrs. Barber.
Annie, now deceased, was Mrs. Hansen of Fresno. Mr. and Mrs. Barber are the parents of four
children: James Henry, Edward L.,
Phillip Sherman, and Robert L. Mr.
Barber has served as trustee of the New Hope School District.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1567-1568. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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