Person:Amzi Barber (2)

Only son of Amzi Doolittle Barber.

Timeline

1860: single, living with parents [Source: US census]

1867: Graduated from Oberlin College [Source: ]

29 Aug 1867: married Cecilia M. Bradley [Source: www.rootsweb.com/~ohashtab/AshtabulaCountyMarriages1853B1.htm ]

1868-1873: Washington DC: Faculty member, Howard University, Washington DC. Resigned 1873. [Source: ___]

1870: Can't find him (should be in Washington DC).

1880: living at 296 Maple Avenue, Washington DC [Source: US Census]

• Amzi L. Barber, 37, real estate, b. VT, parents b. NY.
• Julia L., wife, 37, b. NY.
• Ledroit Barber, 7, b. DC
• Hattie Barber, 6, dau, b. DC
• Bertha L., Barber, 3, dau, b. DC

1900 (18 June): living at Lorena Park, Irvington Village, Greenburgh, Westchester Co., NY, [Source: US Census, ED 70 Sheet 18A] (next near/with his daughter and son-in-law):

• Davis, Samuel T., head b. Feb 1871, 29, m3 years, born Washington DC; parents b. PA; banker
• Davis, Lorena B., wife, b. Jan 1875, 24, m3 years, 1birth, 1 living; b. Washington, parents b. OH
• Davis, Irene, daughter, b. Jun 1898, age 1, b. NY; parents b. Washington
• (three Irish female servants all with the surname Crane, age 16-36)
• Barber, Amzi L, head, b. Jun 1843, age 56; m. 29 years, self and parents b. VT (no occupation)
• Barber, Julia L., wife, b. July 1843, age 57, m28 years; 5 births?, 4? living?, self and parents b. NY
• Barber, Ledroit L., son b. May? 1873, 28, single, b. WDC, fb VT, mb NY (no occupation)
• Barber, Bertha, daughter, b. Feb 1877, age 23, single, (same)
• Barber, Roland, son, b. Apr 1887, 13, single, same
• (8 servants, a butler, and a nanny)

Early Life

Amzi Lorenzo Barber, A.M., LL.B., was born at Saxton's River, Windham county, Vermont, on June 22, 1843. His father was the Rev. Amzi Doolittle Barber, a self-educated Congregational clergyman.

The family moved to Ohio in 1852, and lived at Bellevue, Huron county, until 1858, then in Cleveland until 1862, and afterwards in Austinburg and Geneva, Ashtabula county.

Education

After attending various schools and academies, he entered Oberlin College in 1862 at the head of his class in the preparatory department. An attack of pneumonia compelled him to leave college for a year, which he spent in the then wilds of northern Michigan. He graduated Oberlin College in 1867, taking a degree of Bachelor of Arts, and subsequently received from that institution of Master of Arts.

By working upon farms in the summer time and teaching school in the winter, he saved enough money to meet his college expenses.

While pursuing a post-graduate course in the theological department at Oberlin College, he was invited by General O.O. Howard, then at the head of the Freedman's Bureau, to take charge of the normal department of Howard University, and in April 1868 he moved to Washington, DC for that purpose. Subsequently he took charge of the preparatory department , and, later on was elected to a professorship of natural philosophy in that university.

Mr. Barber served as one of the trustees for Oberlin College. In 1876-76 he took the course of lectures in the law department of Columbia University at Washington, DC and received the degree of Bachelor of Law. Subsequently he was admitted to the Bar in Washington, but never made a regular practice of law.

Family

In 1868 Mr. Barber was married to Celia M. Bradley of Geneva, Ohio; she died in 1870. No children from this marriage.

In 1871 he married Julia Louise Langdon, daughter of J. LeDroict Langdon, formerly of Belmont, New York. They had five children, one of which is unknown; one of which was adopted.

Real Estate Developer

Shortly after the death of his first wife, he met Julia Langdon and her father, Ledroit Langdon, a successful real estate developer in New York. ALB resigned from academia in 1872/3 and went into real estate development.

Despite the economic panic of 1873, during which time many people engaged in the real estate business in Washington lost heavily, ALB held on to his real estate interests and ultimately sold out to good advantage and realized a handsome profit.

His most renowned development was Le Droit Park, which prior to WWII, was an exclusive, all-white residential neighborhood near Howard University. This subdivision of 64 detached and semi-detached houses designed by James McGill was constructed between 1873 and 1877. Of these, 50 remain. Additional brick and frame row houses were constructed in the late 1880s and 1890s. An enclosing fence and posted guards became a focal point of unrest. In July of 1888, the fence was torn down by protesting African Americans, signaling the move toward the integration of the area. After 1893, when barber Octavius Williams became the first African American to move into the subdivision, LeDroit Park was integrated for a short time, but by the beginning of World War I, the white families had moved out. [Source: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc65.htm]

In about 1875, he developed the Le Droit Building at 800-810 F Street NW, which currently (2004) houses the International Spy Museum. [See www.spymuseum.org/media/surv_bot_background.html]

In 1880 he became associated with Senator John Sherman and Messrs. Jesse and Alfred M. Hoyt of New York, in the purchase and sale of the Stone property, one hundred and twenty acres, then situated on the outskirts of Washington, DC. This enterprise realized large profits to all parties interested. Mr. Barber early reserved the choicest part of the property for his own use, and in 1886, commissioned architect Theophilus P. Chandler to design a large stone chateauesque Queen Anne mansion. Located between 13th and 14th Streets, above Florida Avenue, it was one of Washington’s most imposing mansions, and Barber named it Belmont. [Source: www.innercity.org/columbiaheights/readers/kelsey1.html] A photo of the Belmont should be found as part of the Kayser Photographic Collection at George Washington University, Washington DC; see: http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/archives/collections/archpho.html.

In 1889 he purchased the Cunard place on Staten Island, which he occupied as a summer residence for four seasons. He then bought for this purpose the property known as "Ardsley Towers" at Irvington, NY, built by Cyrus W. Field for his son, whose financial difficulties made a sale of the property necessary. He then purchased the Robert L. Stuart mansion on Fifth avenue at Sixty-eight street in New York, where his family spent part of each winter.

Asphalt King

Due to his wise investment in asphalt prior to a city-wide improvement campaign in the 1870s (or 1880s?), Amzi L. Barber became known as the Asphalt King. [Source: www.innercity.org/columbiaheights/readers/kelsey.html]

In 1877, Barber obtained a franchise to procure asphalt from the great pitch lake on the Island of Trinidad, a former British possession about the size of Delaware located off the coast of Venezuela. [Source: “A Story of Highway Development in Nebraska,” by George E. Koster; www.nebraskatransportation.org/history/docs/history-kos.pdf

A year later, Barber Paving Company (later Trinidad Asphalt Company) was converting the streets of Washington, D.C. into the nation's smoothest. By 1884, he held a nationwide monopoly of the Trinidad deposit and by 1888, his company controlled all leases on the deposit and would for some 20 years. The business soon extended to other cities.

In order to obtain under the most favorable conditions an ample supply of the raw materials for its works, Mr. Barber negotiated in 1887 [or 1877?] a concession from the government of Great Britain for a lease of the celebrated lake of natural pitch on the island of Trinidad for a period of forty-two years. This reservoir of one hundred and fourteen acres contains an almost inexhaustible supply of asphalt. To acquire and operate this concession the Trinidad Asphalt Company was organized in 1888 [or 1878?]. Mr. Barber was the leading stockholder, director, and officer of the two corporations above-named, representing an aggregate capital and surplus of nearly seven million dollars. By the early 1900s, over 20 million yards of this asphalt paved roads in eighty cities in the United States, at a cost of over sixty million dollars-- ALB’s Trinidad Asphalt Company supplied nearly all the material for this work, and the Barber Asphalt Paving Company has done upwards of one-half of it conducted over half of the work.

Locomobile - Steam Auto

In 1902, ALB purchased an auto manufacturing company from the Stanley (Steamer) brothers that he renamed Locomobile and relocated it to Bridgeport,CT (from Watertown, MA).

The Locomobile was initially designed by the Stanley twins, Francis E. and Freelan O. who went on to make the most famous steam powered car of all, the Stanley Steamer. The brothers built a steam carriage in 1898 that attracted so much attention that they decided to go into business. Production had hardly gotten underway in 1899 when the Stanleys were made an offer they couldn't refuse. Wealthy publisher John Brisben Walker, with backing from Amzi Lorenzo Barber, offered to buy the Stanleys out for $250,000. Having only $20,000 invested in the project, they sold, using their $230,000 profit to finance their re-entry into the car business in 1901. Walker and Barber soon quarreled and split into two companies, Mobile (Walker) and Locomobile (Barber) each making a virtual copy of the steamer designed by the Stanleys, who served for a while as consultants to both companies! (www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/pic/1997/97.sep.html)

Locomobile soon became known for well built and speedy luxury cars. A Locomobile was the first U.S.-built auto to win an international motor race, taking the Vanderbilt Cup in 1908 (encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Locomobile)

Additional Interests

At one time Mr. Barber was a director of the Citizens National Bank of Washington, and another a director of the Washington Loan & Trust Company

He was apparently very fond of yachting, and in the winter of 1893-94 he took his family on a yachting trip through the Mediterranean sea, visiting points of interest from Gibraltar to Jaffa and from Marseille to Constantinople. In 1901, he placed an order in for the "Lorena," a steam-powered yacht of about 300 feet. The "Lorena" was launched January 14, 1903. For several years, ALB spent much of the summer season living with his family on board this steam yacht at anchor in the harbor of New York, or visiting the many places along the coast from Bar Harbor to the Chesapeake.

ALB held memberships in various scientific and social organizations, including: American Society of Civil Engineers Society of Arts in London Royal Thames Yacht club of London The Metropolitan, Lawyers, Engineers, New York Yacht, Corinthian Yacht, and the Larchmont Yacht clubs of New York American Geographical and New England societies of New York Buffalo club (non resident).

His library and picture gallery apparently contained many rare and beautiful works of art.

Death & Legacy

Amzi Lorenzo Barber died in 1909, by which time he had lost all of his fortune as a result of investing in the Stanley Steamer locomobile. The Belmont was sold in 1913 and torn down the following year to make way for the Clifton Terrace Apartment buildings.

He had one son and two daughters, and one adopted son that he disowned prior to ALB’s death.

His oldest son Ledroit married an Austrian woman by whom he had a daughter. After Ledroit’s death, his widow returned to Austria with their daughter, Julia, who died without issue.

His adopted son Rowland was disowned by 1909, but apparently married and had no issue.

Of his two daughters, only one (Lorena) had issue that descends to the present time.

Bibliography

• _A History of the city of Buffalo and Niagara Falls_ by John Devoy, 1895; p. 273+

1903 _History of the city of Washington_ (chapter 26, p. 413-414) America's Successful Men of Affairs: An Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography, Volume I, B, Amzi Lorenzo Barber, A.M., LL.B., page 56 Biography & Genealogy Master Index (BGMI); Name: Barber, Amzi Lorenzo; Birth - Death: 1843-1909 Dictionary of American Biography. Volumes 1-20. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1928-1936. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Volume 3. New York: James T. White & Co., 1891. Use the Index to locate biographies. Who Was Who in America. A component volume of Who's Who in American History. Volume 1, 1897-1942. Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co., 1943.

1. ↑ Lusk, Elizabeth Barber. (Correspondence began in October 2004.)
   Postal correspondence, October 2004.

   [Amzi Doolittle Barber] preached in Saxtons River Cong. church for some years where their son Amzi Lorenzo Barber was b. in June 1844.

2. ↑ Lusk, Elizabeth Barber. (Correspondence began in October 2004.)
   Correspondence of August 10, 2004.

   From a letter to Betty's father from his aunt Franc Barber.

3. ↑ Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century
   p. 77.

   BARBER, AMZI LORENZO, capitalist, was born June 22, 1843, at Saxton's River, Vt.