San
Joaquin County
Biographies
HENRY BRUCE BARKIS
A representative citizen of San
Joaquin County who has helped to make the San Joaquin Valley one of the most
prosperous farming districts in the state of California is Henry Bruce Barkis, the
owner of a fine vineyard of twenty-five acres one mile east of Lodi on the
Lockeford Road. He was born at Union,
Boone County, Kentucky, on August 9, 1858, a son of Andrew Jackson and Mary
Elizabeth (Robinson) Barkis, his paternal grandmother being a descendant of
Alexander Campbell of West Virginia, dating back to colonial days. Henry Bruce Barkis is the eldest in a family
of four children, the others being Ida May, now Mrs. Churchill; Emmett L.,
residing at San Francisco; and Fred Ira, deceased. The father lived to be seventy-eight years
old, and the mother passed away in 1898.
Henry Bruce Barkis as a boy received
but little schooling, and was only thirteen years old when he began earning his
own way, working first as a waiter in the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad Company’s
restaurant at North Vernon, Indiana, where he remained for three years. He then went to Meade County, Kentucky, where
he hauled rock from a quarry to build a mill race for a flour mill; and later
he drove a yoke of oxen and broke up 100 acres of land. His father removing to New Albany, Indiana,
Henry Bruce went along and worked at odd jobs until he decided to become a
millwright. Going to Louisville,
Kentucky, he was apprenticed to W. T. Pine, mill constructor. Applying himself to his task, he soon became
proficient in his work, and from an apprentice earning four dollars a week he
became foreman over the men and received three dollars per day; and later he
became general superintendent for Mr. Pine in mill construction work, and remained
with him for eight years, building flour mills in Kentucky, Tennessee, and
southern Indiana.
Mr. Barkis’ first marriage occurred
on March 2, 1882, at Greenville, Kentucky, and united him with Miss Fanny Love,
a daughter of Col. S. P. and Jane (McConnel)
Love. Mr. and Mrs. Barkis were the
parents of one infant daughter, who passed away at the age of six weeks, a
short time after the death of the mother.
The mother and child were both buried at Greenville, Kentucky.
During March of 1885, Mr. Barkis, in
company with a number of his friends, attended the inauguration of President
Cleveland, and upon his return to his Kentucky home, was greatly disappointed
and dissatisfied with the east and middle west; so he turned his face toward
the far west and California. Arriving in
San Francisco, he secured employment with Wagner & O’Brien as a journeyman
in mill building, which occupied him for three months, after which he began the
rebuilding of the Del Monte mills for Thomas Parsons, which he completed in 1885. Then he went to Stockton and began work for
the Sperry Company as miller, and was with them for twelve years. He next went to Knights Ferry and helped to
rebuild the flour mill for Charlie Tulloch, which required one year to complete. He spent
a few months in South Vallejo as miller for the McNear Company; and from 1899
to 1904 he was superintendent and outside man for the Wagner Manufacturing
Company, after which he withdrew from the company and engaged in the millwright
business for himself. During the great
fire and earthquake in 1906 he sustained considerable losses, but soon had his
plant rebuilt and in working order. He
overhauled the Long Syrup and Refinery Company’s plant, and then as a
millwright installed machinery in printing plants, elevators, etc. When his lease ran out in San Francisco, he
traveled throughout the state, building mills and installing machinery, his
last job being for the Colusa Milling Company in 1912. In 1910, Mr. Barkis brought his family to
Lodi and established his home on his ranch, known as the Tokay Home Ranch,
located about one mile east of Lodi. The
thirty acres which he purchased was a stubble-field, which he developed into a
vineyard and family orchard. Later he
sold five acres of this tract, and then the traction line cut through his
ranch, so that it now contains about twenty-three acres. Besides building a house and ranch buildings,
he has installed two irrigation plants, both equipped with five-inch pumps, one
having a ten-horsepower motor and the other a twelve-horsepower motor. Mr. Barkis has suffered many reverses in
business, but his indomitable energy and optimism won out and he is now
enjoying the reward of hard work and patient application to business. He has recently refused an offer of $50,000
for his fine vineyard and home place.
The second marriage of Mr. Barkis
occurred on November 18, 1888, at San Francisco, uniting him with Miss Mary G.
Kelly, a native of County Donegal, Ireland, and they are the parents of three
children: Alilia
May, now Mrs. Kavanagh, of San Francisco; Fred Ira;
and Henry Bruce, Jr. In national
politics, Mr. Barkis is a Democrat; and he has served on the Victor election
board for the last ten years. He is
thoroughly progressive in his political views as well as in his business
affairs. Fraternally, he is a Mason,
having joined that order in 1887 while residing in Stockton; he is also a
member of the Odd Fellows Lodge, No. 11, of Stockton.
He has built a packing-house on his
own ranch on the Valley Springs branch of the Southern Pacific Railway, which
runs along the southern border of his place.
Here he packs his own products, under the now justly famous “Big-Boy”
label. His brand of Big-Boy Flame Tokay
table grapes, grown and packed by him, are unequaled in quality and command the
highest prices in the markets of the east.
Public-spirited and generous to a fault, Mr. Barkis helps along every
worthy cause and dispenses a whole-hearted hospitality.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
916-919. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases