Barrett, Arthur Campbell
From Lane Co Oregon
Arthur Campbell Barrett was born on January 27, 1856 in Lancaster, Massachusetts to Moses Barrett (b. 26 FEB 1820) and Abby Ball (b. 25 OCT 1823 in Townsend, Mass). He resided at 2086 East 15th Street in Eugene Oregon in 1920. He died in 373 1/2 West 10th Street, Eugene on March 27, 1943 and was taken to J R Hollingsworth on 1009 Pearl in Eugene. Arthur was buried in the Masonic Cemetery of Eugene.
1870 Worcester County, Mass. Census
Lancaster Twp., P.O. Leominster, taken 13 July 1870, p 8
Willard, Francis H. - age 41 - Farmer - Pers. Estate $500 - b. Mass. - Dwelling #50 - Family #55
" , Julia A. - age 26 - Keeping house - b. Vt.
" , Albert - age 2 - b. Mass.
" , Carlton - age 8/12 - b. Mass. - Sept.
Ahern?, Maurice - age 27 - Works in Plate? Mill - b. Ire.
Barry, William - age 28 - Works in Plate? Mill - b. Ire.
Barrett, Arthur C. - age 14 - Works on Farm - b. Mass.
Francis H. Willard was Arthur C. Barrett's step-father.
1880 Marin County, California Census
Tomales Twp., ED #232, taken 9 June 1880, p 14:
Barrett, Arthur - age 24 - Farmer - b. Mass. - F born Mass. - M born Mass. - Dwelling #133 - Family #137
Linebough, Col - age 22 - servant - Farm laborer - b. Iowa - F born Ind. - M born Mo.
Col Linebough [Columbus B. Linebaugh] became Arthur Barrett's brother-in-law in Nov. 1880.
1900 Lane County, Oregon Census
Bailey Pct., ED #109, taken 24 & 26 June 1900, p 14B:
Barett, Arthur C. - Head - b. Jan 1856 - age 44 - b. Mass. - F born Mass. - M born Mass. - Farmer - Dwelling #306 - Family #324
, Emma J. - Wife - b. Oct 1864 - age 35 - 9 children - 7 living - b. Cal. - F born Mo. - M born Mo. - F born Mo.
, Bertha E. - Daughter - b. Sep 1887 - age 18 - b. Cal. - F born Mass. - M born Mo.
, Mary E. - Daughter - b. May 1883 - age 17 - b. Cal. - F born Mass. - M born Mo.
, Effie H. - Daughter - b. Sep 1884 - age 15 - b. Cal. - F born Mass. - M born Mo.
, Bessie - Daughter - b. Aug 1887 - age 12 - b. Ore. - F born Mass. - M born Mo.
, Herbert A. - Son - b. Oct 1885 - age 14 - b. Ore. - F born Mass. - M born Mo.
, Estella H. - Daughter - b. July 1892 - age 7 - b. Ore. - F born Mass. - M born Mo.
, Kenneth - Son - b. Nov 1896 - age 3 - b. Ore. - F born Mass. - M born Mo.
1910 Lane County, Oregon Census
Fairmount Pct., Eugene City, ED #151, taken 23 April 1910:
Barrett, Arthur - Head - age 5_ - b. Mass. - F born Mass. - M born Mass. - Gardener - Flower Garden - 1069 Garden Ave. - Dwelling #199 - Family #202
" , Herbert - Son - age 23 - b. Ore. - F born Mass. - M born Cal. - Gardener
" , Emma J. - Wife - age 44 - b. Cal. - F born Missouri - M born Ind.
" , Stella - Daughter - age 17 - b. Ore. - F born Mass. - M born Cal.
" , Kenneth - Son - age 1_ - b. Ore. - F born Mass. - M born Cal.
1920 Lane County, Oregon Census
Pct. No. 20, Eugene City, ED #246, taken 13 Jan 1920, p 10A:
Barrett, Arthur C. - Head - age 63 - b. Mass. - F born Mass. - M born Mass. - Gardener - Truck farm - Dwelling #235 - Family #243 - Address 2086 East 15th St.
" , Emma J. - Wife - age 56 - b. Cal. - F born U.S. - M born U.S.
Hill, Effie L. - Daughter - age 35 - b. Cal. - F born Mass. - M born Cal.
1930 Lane County, Oregon Census
1930 Lane Co., Ore. Census, Eugene City, Pct. No 31, ED #30 taken 9 Apr 1930, p 6A:
Barrett, Arthur C. - Head - age 74 - Wd - b. Mass. - F born Mass. - M born Mass. - proprietor - greenhouses - Address 2086 E. 15th Ave.
" , Bertha E. - daughter - age 47 - Single - b. Cal. - F born Mass - M born Ore. - helper - greenhouses
According to Juanita Rasmussen
According to Juanita (Gates) Rasmussen, Arthur Barrett had three greenhouses in the Fairmount area below Hendricks Park in the Eugene-Springfield, Ore. area.
Interview with Avis Marie (Barrett) Metcalf, March 1994
"Grandpa [Arthur C. Barrett] finished high school at age 16. He crossed the Isthmus of Panama and continued up the West Coast of the Pacific to San Francisco. He lived and worked with his cousin, Luther Burbank, who was a horticulturist at Santa Rosa [Cal.] and together they developed new strains of tomatoes, berries, potatoes, etc..."
"On Chambers Street at about 21st Street" which at that time was the end of Chambers is "where Grandpa had Eugene's first dairy."
"Grandpa Barrett had greenhouses on 15th Street, and a big garden down between the Millrace and the Willamette River. It was right behind the Black Angus Restaurant on Franklin Boulevard... We [Kenny and Avis] also had to help in the greenhouses sometimes. Usually we had to pollinize the tomatoes in the big greenhouse."
"Grandpa was always proud of the fact that he had the same false teeth from age 16 or 17, all of his life. They clacked like it, too."
"His greenhouses were heated by hot water. Pipes ran under the benches and about head level above the benches. At the front of the middle greenhouse was a potting shed. (Aunt Bertha kept her sauerkraut in there). Underneath the potting shed was a big boiler. It used 4' slab wood. Grandpa bought it every year. It was stacked out behind, on the south side of the barn, next to the big greenhouse. The stack was about 100' long and 10' high. I can remember standing on the truck and handing the slabs to someone standing on top of the stack. I don't know how he got the top ones off, but I remember his "flat-bed" wheelbarrow stacked high, crosswise with slabs, being pushed through the barn up to the potting shed and shoved through a ground-level opening into the boiler room. He was quite bow-legged and had a limp, like he had a bad knee or hip. He also had part of one thumb gone.
He had a curved walk from the back steps around past the kitchen and Aunt Bertha's bedroom to the front walk. Instead of having a border of low flowers he had a border of parsley. He picked it and sold it by the bunch and then it would keep a steady supply growing. Close to that walk, dug in the lawn was a kidney-shaped goldfish pond. I can remember those fish getting to be about 10" or longer. One winter the pond froze to the bottom and the fish died.
Grandpa didn't believe in work on Sunday unless it was absolutely necessary. He milked the cow. He would irrigate greenhouse plants when it was vital and fed the boiler slab wood in the winter to protect the plants.
He had a root cellar. It was very cool down under the kitchen. Aunt Bertha kept the cream and butter down there and also all of the canned jars of food in the first room. The huge second room had 3 big bins with excelsior in each. On was filled with spuds, one with onions and the third with squash."
"The house had a veranda on 3 sides of the living room. A bannister ran all the way around it. As Grandpa got older and it was a job for him to go upstairs, they had half of the veranda closed in with "cello glass". There was a door on the south side of the front room and one on the east side of the dining room and since the heater was between the 2 rooms, by opening those doors when it got cool, his "bed room" was very comfortable."
________________________________________________ "The following is a copy of a newspaper clipping from 1936. At this time Grandfather Barrett would have been 80 years old." [This note was from Melba (Gates) Geer along with a typed copy of the article that I received from her. If anyone knows which newspaper and/or the exact date of the article, I would like to get a copy of the actual article.]
Eugene Resident Tells of Life of Famed "Plant Wizard" Burbank by Irmajean Randolph
Arthur C. Barrett who has lived in Eugene since 1886 was a second cousin of Luther Burbank, and was a close friend of the famous "plant wizard" when both were boys in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
"Even as a boy, Luther was experimenting with plants", Mr. Barrett said. "As I remember him, he was a student, brilliant and somewhat eccentric, as were all of his family. He had great intuition; he would after no more than a glance at a plant, tell you things about it that most people would find out only after careful study.
"Lancaster was a funny town - long and narrow, and divided into different sections, each of which had a different name. Luther's father ran a brickyard; they lived halfway between the parts of town known as Hardscrabble and Skunk's Misery."
Comes to California Mr. Barrett and Burbank's brother Edward* came to California in the summer of 1875, and Burbank himself followed that fall.
"My coming west was just a sudden notion," Mr. Barrett said with a chuckle. "I was working that summer for a cousin who had been to California, and we got to talking about it one evening. The next morning he asked me, in a joking way, if I had decided to go. I told him yes - and several days later I was actually on the way.
Edward and I made the trip to San Francisco by sea, on an old-fashioned steamer. That was before the Panama Canal had been cut through the Isthmus, and we had to cross by rail, and take a ship from the other side. Luther followed us in the fall, but came across country on the U. P.
Works for Year After working for a year in Santa Rosa, Mr. Barrett rented a dairy and started out in business for himself.
"I had plenty to do in those days," he said. "I milked 6 cows, made butter, kept house and farmed 80 acres of land - and I did it all myself. I worked from 3 a.m. to 10 p.m. and then I'd sit up and read until as late as 1 O'clock. I always have liked to read - books of information, historical novels and the standard poets - but not the kind of books they write nowadays. There's nothing to them; people don't know how to think any more".
While Mr. Barrett was starting his dairy, Burbank worked in a nursery.
Makes Trip "I remember especially an incident that occurred when we were in California," Mr. Barrett continued. "In the summer of 1876, Edward, Luther and I made a trip to Mt. St. Helena, near Santa Rosa. We started in the afternoon, stopped for the night, and started climbing again in the morning. We weren't quite sure of the way so we stopped at a house to ask about the footpath. The house was just an ordinary little cabin - long and low, on the side of the valley, but the man who answered the door didn't seem to be an ordinary person. He talked and looked like a gentleman; his hands certainly didn't belong to a working man. It was strange to see someone like that in such a lonely country, and, of course, after he told us the way and we had set out again, we made all kinds of wild speculations about him. We thought he was probably a gambler hiding out there in the wilds, or maybe an escaped convict. It wasn't until years later that I read in a magazine that Robert Louis Stevenson had spent a summer in that part of the country at about that time and I know that it must have been he.
Knows Names "On that trip, Edward bet me that I wouldn't be able to find a plant that Luther couldn't classify, giving all the scientific names. In that whole trip, I found only one plant, at the very top of the mountain, that Luther couldn't identify."
After eleven years in California Mr. Barrett moved to Eugene, and started a dairy business. For several years, he had the only milk route in the city.
"Eugene has changed a bit since I first came here," Mr. Barrett reminisced. "There were not more than 5000 inhabitants in the town. Willamette street was nothing but a lot of mud holes, with hitching posts on each side. Cows wandered all through the downtown section; grocers who had vegetable stands had to keep them off the sidewalks or the cows would come along and help themselves."
Only Two Buildings "Villard and Deady were the only university buildings. At that time the only street cars in the city were drawn by mules - one car went up Eleventh to University Street, and the other, out Willamette to College Hill."
"The winter of '87", he continued, "was probably one of the worst Eugene ever had. It was an open winter until the last of January - there were even wild strawberries in bloom. Then the first day of February it started to snow, and it kept up until the snow was 26 inches deep, and the thermometer stood at 10 below. The cold weather lasted almost until the end of March."
"Yes, I can even remember the Civil War," Mr. Barrett reflected, looking farther back into the past. "I was sitting on the wood box, in the kitchen, when Calvin Burbank, a cousin, ran in to tell us that Fort Sumter had been fired on."
*Aunt Mary says it was Alfred [Melba (Gates) Geer's note]
Register Guard, Eugene, Sunday March 28, 1943, page 5
A. C. Barrett
Arthur Campbell Barrett died at his residence of Tenth avenue west, Eugene, Saturday, at the age of 87 years.
Mr. Barrett for a number of years was engaged in the dairy business and later operated a number of greenhouses. He was a cousin of the later Luther Burbank, noted plant wizard.
Mr. Barrett was born Jan. 27, 1856, at Lancaster, Mass. He came west to California as a young man, coming later to Oregon. He was married to Emma J. Linebaugh in Petaluma, Cal. She died in 1928. Six of the nine children survive, including four daughters, Miss Bertha Barrett, at home; Mrs. Mary Thurman of Springfield; Mrs. Bessie Rolfe of San Francisco; Mrs. Estella Gates of Cottage Grove; two sons, Herbert Barrett of Portland and Kenneth Barrett of route 4, Eugene; 26 grandchildren; 16 great grandchildren.
Mr. Barrett was a member of the Lighthouse Temple church.
Funeral services are to be held at 2 p.m. Monday, Veatch-Hollingsworth chapel, Rev. E. J. Fulton officiating. Burial will be in the Masonic Cemetery.
ARTHUR C. BARRETT
EUGENE; March 28 (Special) Arthur Campbell Barrett, 78, a nephew of the late Luther Burbank, noted horticulturist, died at his home in Eugene Saturday.
Barrett, born January 27, 1856, at Lancaster, Mass., was for many years engaged in the dairy and greenhouse businesses in Lane county.
Survivors include four daughters, Bertha Barrett, Eugene; Mrs. Mary Thurman, Springfield; Mrs. Bessie Rolfe, San Francisco; Mrs. Estella Gates, Cottage Grove; two sons, Herbert Barrett, Portland, and Kenneth Barrett, route 4, Eugene.
Funeral services were to be held Monday from Veatch-Hollingsworth chapel, Rev. E. J. Fulton officiating.
[Note: Arthur Barrett was the second cousin of Luther Burbank not his nephew. It is this obituary that appeared in the Evidence for Herbert A. Barrett's Delayed Birth Certificate - Barbara Herring]
Eugene Masonic Cemetery, Eugene - inscription
- BARRETT
- Arthur C.
- 1856 -- 1943
Emma J. His Wife
- 1864 -- 1928
Marriage License
Emily Jane "Emma" Linebaugh b: 20 OCT 1864 in Bloomfield, Sonoma Co., Cal.
- Married: 22 NOV 1880 in Marin Co., Cal.
- Note:
County of Marin Marriage License
State of California
These ______ are to authorize and license any Justice of the Supreme Court, Judge of the Superior court, Justice of the Peace, Priest, or Minister of the Gospel of any denomination, within the County of Marin, to join in marriage Arthur C. Barrett, age 24 years, Place of Residence Tomales, Marin Co., Cal. and Emma Jane Linebaugh age 16 years, Place of Residence, Tomales, Marin Co., Cal. and certify the same according to law.
They not being of sufficient age to contract marriage age, the License is issued upon the written consent of her father.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and the seal of the Superior Court in and for the County of Marin, State of California, this Twentieth day of November 1880.
George W. Davis, County Clerk of the County of Marin and Seal affixed Clerk of the Superior Court thereof State of California County of Marin
This certifies that I, W. H. Davden a Minister of the Gospel, United in Marriage, in the County of Marin, on the 22nd day of November A.D. 1 880.
Arthur C. Barrett
and
Emma Jane Linebaugh
Residence Tomales | Residence Tomales
Age 24 | Age 16
Color White | Color White
As authorized by the written Instrument, and in accordance with the Laws of the State of California. Witnesses: Residences: A. M. Burbank Tomales, Emma J. Burbank Santa Rosa, Columbus Linebaugh Tomales
This 22nd day of November 1880.
Recorded at request of W. H. Davden
Nov. 29, 1880 at 9 o'clock A.M.
Children
1. Eva May Barrett (died 9 months old)
2. Bertha Ellen Barrett b: 7 SEP 1881 in nr Petaluma, Sonoma Co., Cal.
3. Mary Elizabeth Barrett b: 30 MAY 1883 in Petaluma, Sonoma Co., Cal.
4. Effie Louise Barrett b: 10 SEP 1884 in Marin? Co., Cal.
5. Herbert Arthur Barrett b: 1 OCT 1886 in Eugene, Lane Co., Ore.
6. Bessie Helena Barrett b: 11 AUG 1888 in Ore.
7. Estella Hazel Barrett b: 27 JUL 1892 in Eugene, Lane Co., Ore.
8. Son Barrett b: 1894
9. Kenneth Victor Barrett b: 24 SEP 1896 in Eugene, Lane Co., Ore.
