Alameda County
Biographies
W. P. BARTLETT
The subject of this sketch, for six years a resident of Livermore, was born in New Portland, Maine, in 1855, and is consequently twenty-seven years of age. He completed his schooling at fifteen, learned the printing business, and worked for several years as a journeyman in Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, before becoming of age. In January, 1877, he resigned a lucrative situation in the last city, to engage in the newspaper business in this county, starting with a very limited capital, the Livermore Herald, now a well-established and influential journal. Two years ago he added the real estate business to his newspaper work, in which his success has been without precedent in that section of the county. By this means, and through the columns of his paper, he has succeeded in bringing many new settlers to Livermore Valley. He was one of the first to make known abroad its resources, having written and published in 1878, a pamphlet of forty pages descriptive of its advantages, which obtained a large and wide circulation. He is an active member of the Pacific Coast Press Association, and aside from his regular literary work and business, an occasional contributor to the San Francisco press. Series of articles from his pen, on the scenery of the high sierras, published in the Chronicle in June last, have been copied by numerous of the larger Eastern journals and in Europe, besides being quoted as authority by Omman’s new guide-book to this State. He possesses a decided fondness for mountain scenery, and makes frequent trips through the Coast Range and Sierras, each of which adds to a fund of information, for use in subsequent literary work. He is, moreover, an active, energetic business man, and an earnest worker for the best interests of every section of Livermore Valley.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 843
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
RICHARD BARRON
The subject of this sketch, whose portrait will be found in this work, is the son of Edmund and Ellen (Helin) Barron, and was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, June 22, 1824. He accompanied his parents in 1834 on their emigrating to the United States, and with them settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where our subject resided until coming to the Pacific Coast in search of health. Starting from St. Joseph, Missouri, on May 1, 1850, with wagon and horses, he made Hangtown, now called Placerville, in ninety days, where, selling his animals, he purchased a mining outfit and tried his luck in Hangtown Canon. Two or three days of gold-seeking were enough for him. He at once proceeded to San Francisco and commenced draying, which following, at the end of five years he abandoned and betook himself to Alameda County in 1855, where he located and began farming on his present estate, comprising seventy-five acres of arable land and fifteen hundred of marsh-land. Is also in the business of shipping of freight and storage of grain and hay, and manufacturing of salt, etc. Married August 5, 1852, Miss Mary Foley, a native of Ireland, and has five surviving children, viz.: Ellen, now Mrs. J. Scribner; Katie, now Mrs. T. Stratton; Emma, now Mrs. H. C. Martin; Richard, and James.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 843-844
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
WILLIAM BARRY
Was born in Rochfort Bridge, Westmeath, Ireland, October 2, 1831, and there resided until fourteen years of age. Afterwards he served two years in the office of a solicitor in Dublin, but getting tired of the musty tomes and crisp parchments of this “limb of the law,” he shipped on board the Forest Monarch, bound on a voyage from Liverpool to New York, subsequently proceeding to St. John’s, New Brunswick, whence he sailed for Greenock, Scotland; but on the passage suffered shipwreck on the Arran Isles, on the northwest coast of Ireland. The crew landed on the island of Inniskerragh, and stayed by the hulk for nearly a month. They soon separating, our subject found his way home after a weary walk of a hundred and eighty miles, and an absence of six months. Mr. Barry followed “a life on the ocean wave” for several years, during his cruises visiting nearly all parts of the world. In the year 1851 we find him in Australia, reaching Port Phillip in the first year after the gold discovery there, whence he sailed for South America, etc. On May 1, 1852, our subject arrived in the harbor of San Francisco with a cargo of coal from Valparaiso, but soon after left his ship and found employment with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for one month. Mr. Barry next was for a short time engaged in Contra Costa County, working for William Castro. He then went to San Francisco, and finally came to Alameda County July 1, 1852, and obtained work from E. L. Beard and Millard Brothers, until 1854. In the summer of 1855 he started in the manufacture of grain-sacks in Centreville, in partnership with Richard Wilson, and in the fall of that year purchased the lot whereon now stands the store of Saltz & Co., on which a building was erected, and our subject opened a store of general merchandise. This business he conducted until 1857, when he sold out and embarked in sheep-raising, an occupation he abandoned in the fall of 1861, when, meeting with some serious reverses, he left the county for the first time since his arrival in it. Proceeding to Monterey County, he there became superintendent of the extensive ranch of Colonel Hollister, where he remained until the summer of 1863, at which time he went into the employ of Searle & Wynn, when he was prostrated from sickness. On his recovery, Mr. Barry returned to San Francisco, and in April, 1864, took charge of the ranch of J. B. Wynn, near Hollister, in whose employ he continued till the fall of 1866. He now engaged in the book business until 1869, in which year he returned to Alameda County, purchased his present place of fifteen acres, situated a mile and a half east of Centreville, and where he cultivates fruits and herbs.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 844
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler