The Two John Barbers

In the early 1860s, two men named John Barber got involved on opposite sides of the question – should the country support Lincoln’s prosecution of the Civil War, or should it not?¹

At the Union Convention held at the court house in Flemington in October 1861, John Barber was chosen as one of two vice presidents from Delaware Twp. (The other was A. K. Wagner.)² In 1862, John Barber, Esq. was named to represent the Vandolah School District (along with George Runk), “to solicit aid to enable the county to pay the volunteers an extra Bounty for their services to their country.”³

And in 1863, a man named John Barber was designated to be a vice president of the Democratic Club for the 11th school district at Mount Airy. The Democrats were appalled at the idea of going to war over slavery, and at the war measures of Lincoln’s administration. The Mt. Airy school district covered parts of Delaware and West Amwell Townships, and was not far from the Vandolah School District, so I had to wonder—could these John Barbers be the same person?

The name John Barber was not uncommon in the 18th and 19th centuries. Besides the ones living in Hunterdon, in 1860, there was a John Barber living in Hopewell Township, another one in Trenton and a third in Hamilton, NJ; there were also a few in Pennsylvania. But I doubt that those men had anything to do with Hunterdon politics.

I have only two candidates for these opposing positions (supporting the volunteers v. membership in the Democratic Club), and they were quite different: John Barber, Esq. who was 74 years old by 1861, and John V. C. Barber, who was only 22 in 1863. Taking a look at their histories tells us who supported which cause. So let us consider our two John Barbers. First of all—

John Barber, Esq.

When I began looking into the life of John Barber Esq. I did not realize how extensive his political involvement was, especially in the 1830s. And since we’ve just had an election, it seemed appropriate to study politics in mid 19th-century Hunterdon.

He was born in August 1787, the first child of Samuel Barber (1756-1847), a Revolutionary War veteran, and Anne “Nancy” Hoppock (1762-1797, daughter of another veteran). Anne Hoppock Barber died when her son John was only ten years old; she had had five children altogether. Three years later, in 1800, Samuel Barber married Anne’s sister Mary Hoppock (1766-1813), who gave him four more children.

The Barber family had long resided on property along the Lambertville-Headquarters Road. The first to settle there was Samuel Barber, Sr. (c.1690-bef. 1751) and his wife Eliada or Alida Johnson (c.1695-bef 1782). They had 7 children, son John (Sr.) being the eldest. (The Barber genealogy is extensive and is interwoven with the other families who first settled in the southern part of Delaware Township. The interrelationships are very intriguing, but to plot them out soon turns into a tangled web. However, I have made an attempt: see Barber Family Tree.)

Samuel Barber wrote his will on December 11, 1750, leaving his “vast estate” to his wife during her widowhood. His vast estate was located along the Lambertville-Headquarters Road, and part of that acreage was dedicated to a family burying ground, now known as the Barber Cemetery. This early Samuel Barber was no doubt buried there, although his gravestone is missing.

Their son John Barber died in 1795, leaving a large plantation to his son Samuel, and £50 to grandson John when he turned 21. (The repetition of given names makes it a little more challenging to clearly explain this family.)

On December 19, 1812, John Barber married Anne Skillman (1790-1867), daughter of John T. Skillman and Mary Veghte, and had 13 children from 1812 to 1832. As far as I can tell, only two died as children, but another four died in their 20s. It was a perilous time to be young.

John Barber was a very successful farmer and businessman; he ran a tannery as well as managing the large acreage he had inherited, although by 1850 he had sold or given much of it away. The 1850 Agricultural Schedule gives us some insight into Barber’s farming operations. He was listed with the following:

• 90 improved acres, 18 unimproved, land worth $5000
• farming implements $300
• 6 horses, 6 milk cows, 5 other cattle, 20 sheep, 9 hogs, livestock worth $620
• 120 bushels of wheat, 35 bu rye, 500 bu corn, 500 bu oats, 45 lb wool, 50 bu potatoes, 20 bu buckwheat, orchard produce $25, 350 lb butter, 15 tons hay, 3 bu other grass seed, 200 lb flax, 10 bu flaxseed, 25 lb beeswax & honey, homemade manufactures worth $20, slaughtered animals worth $100.

When people talk about diversified agriculture, they couldn’t have a better example than Barber’s operation.

In addition to being a farmer, John Barber operated a tannery on Lambertville-Headquarters Road, near his home. I do not have records to show when the tannery was first operated (his father’s will made no mention of one). The earliest reference to the tannery I found was in the Hunterdon Gazette, on Feb. 13, 1833, when David H. How advertised the sale of a superior kind of leather at John Barber’s Tannery. On Feb. 4, 1835, John Barber advertised for

“A Journeyman Tanner and Currier. One acquainted with both branches of the business, and capable of taking charge of a small establishment in absence of the proprietor, may meet with a situation, by applying to the subscriber, in Amwell Township, near Head Quarters.”

Information about the tannery appeared in the Industrial Schedule of the 1850 census. Barber had $1,000 invested in the tannery with 200 hides worth $500; 200 skins worth $180; 30 cords of Bark worth $150; one hand employed for hides, 1 for bark, each paid $18/month. Annual output of the tannery was 400 sides of leather worth $1,000, 200 sides of skins worth $100, and 25 sets of harness worth $600 or $300 (the census form is somewhat illegible).

By 1860, Barber’s wealth should have increased significantly, but it did not. He had transferred his property to his son William, who was 27 years old in the 1860 census which reported William’s real estate as worth $6,000.

In the 1830s John Barber was a member of the Whig party, and was very much involved in the meetings held to protest the division of Amwell Township in 1838. He was chosen as moderator of Delaware Township’s first town meeting that year, but had served as moderator of the Amwell Township meetings in prior years.

As early as 1828, Barber was a candidate for Amwell Twp. Assessor, although he was not elected. Instead he was named inspector, which meant he was in charge of counting votes. And that year he got involved in national politics by joining a vigilance committee for the Amwell supporters of the administration during the presidential election that pitted President John Quincy Adams against Andrew Jackson.⁴

In 1830, John Barber became one of the managers for the Hunterdon County Bible Society, although I did not find him mentioned in connection with that organization in any year after this. But he was definitely on people’s radar as a political leader, since his was one of several names on the list of those nominated for the N.J. Assembly election in 1830. However, he did not receive the nomination from the National Republican Party (the one that supported former Pres. Adams)—the nomination went to Andrew Miller of Amwell, and four others, and they lost to the Democratic-Republicans who favored Andrew Jackson.

In 1831, Barber was chosen as Moderator of the Amwell Town Meeting, just the first of many meetings he moderated. And he was chosen to represent Amwell at the county convention of the National Republicans. By this time, Barber was 44 years old, and Alexis de Tocqueville was touring America. In the fall of this year, the Nat’l Republican candidate for Assembly, John Wikoff, died at his home in Rocktown, so a committee was appointed to “supply the vacancy,” and named John Barber. This was the first time that Barber was formally nominated to run for the state legislature. He did not succeed, of course, as the Democrats were always the favored party in 19th century Hunterdon.

The next year, 1832, Barber was nominated for Amwell Assessor, but was not chosen. He did not get involved in that year’s presidential campaign (Jackson was running for his second term, and opposed by Henry Clay).

In 1833, John Barber was appointed a judge by the Joint Meeting of the New Jersey Legislature, hence the “Esq.” He continued to be appointed for many years. Sometimes he acted as a judge of the Orphans Court, and other times as judge of the Court of Common Pleas. As a judge, his stature in the community rose significantly.

During the 1830s, Barber was often named a commissioner to divide the real estate of people whose estates were insufficient to cover their debts. I presume that whenever he had to appear before the Orphans Court in these matters, he would recuse himself as a judge. But I have not scoured the records to see if this ever happened.

Although he was a sitting judge, he was not cured of politics. In 1834 he was again moderator of the Amwell Town Meeting and was elected to the town committee and the school committee. He continued to serve on the Amwell Town Committee in 1835, probably 1836, and 1837.

In the fall of 1834, the Hunterdon County Whig Party was organized. (This was the first year that the term Whig came into use, replacing the confusing name of National Republicans.) Barber became the Whig candidate for the New Jersey Council (today’s State Senate), but he lost to the Democrat, Nathaniel Saxton, who beat him 3046 to 2039. This was the last time that Barber would get a party nomination for statewide office. In November, the Joint Meeting named Barber a Justice of the Peace, which seems to have been in addition to being a judge.

In 1838, things got a little crazy when the State Legislature announced that it had divided old Amwell Township into three new townships: Amwell, Raritan and Delaware. Since John Barber was a resident of Delaware, it was Delaware Township’s first meeting that he moderated on April 18th. But he was actively involved in the protest against this high-handed action, moderating protest meetings of Amwell residents. Barber served on committees of the three towns who met to divide responsibilities for roads and for keeping the poor, and also for distributing the “Surplus Revenue” that was parceled out to the states at this time by the federal government, and by the state governments to the towns.

But the protests were not over—in January 1839, there was a public meeting in Ringoes at which Barber was named to a committee to present to the legislature a petition for repeal of the law dividing Amwell twp. Obviously, the petition was ignored.

In the fall of 1838, John Barber was active at the Whig State Convention in Trenton. And in the fall of 1839, Barber was again chosen by the Hunterdon Whigs to attend the state convention at Trenton. It seems that in New Jersey there were elections every year, just as there are today.

Politics got pretty intense in 1840, with the presidential election of Wm. Henry Harrison v. the incumbent, Martin Van Buren. By this time the Whigs were hitting their stride in the nation, although not so much in New Jersey. In February, John Barber presided at a Harrison Meeting held in Flemington, and in April chaired a meeting of Delaware Twp. Harrison supporters. Surprisingly, Barber was also chosen (as one of many) to attend the “Young Men’s State Convention” to be held in Trenton, even though by now he was 53 years old. His children had begun to marry, and his first grandchild, William T. Barber, was born the next year. Barber chaired the county Whig meeting on August 4th, and was put on a long list of speakers at the Harrison meeting held on October 31st.

In 1841, John and Anne Barber got their first grandchild, but they also lost their daughter Elizabeth who died on October 13th at the age of 23 or 24. The other children who died in their 20s were Theodore, age 29 in 1847; Edward, age 27 in the same year; and Frances (wife of Wm. Cooper), age 22 in 1852. Daughter Catharine (wife of Alfred Snyder) died age 31 in 1856. And daughter Mary Ann (wife of Duillius Forman) died in 1851 at the age of 37. Death was all around. In 1842, John Barber’s step-sister Mary died age 30. She was the wife of Joseph G. Bowne.

1844 was another presidential year, this time it was Henry Clay for the Whig party v. the Democrat, James Knox Polk. Barber attended the state Whig convention in February. But another interesting Whig convention took place in Hunterdon in March. This was to chose a delegate to the Convention to Reform the New Jersey Constitution. Barber ran for the position but was defeated by the notable Flemington attorney, Peter I. Clark.

John Barber chaired the county Whig convention in September 1844, when a committee was named to draft resolutions and one of the members was (according to the Hartman abstracts of the Hunterdon Gazette) “John W. Barber, Esq.” Since I know of no other John Barber who was an Esq. involved in Whig politics, I will assume this is the same person, although this is the only time I’ve seen a middle initial in his name.

This meeting was followed on September 21st by a much bigger one. It was described in the Gazette as: “Great Anti-Monopoly Meeting; Hunterdon Aroused !! 15 to 20,000 Whigs present !!” Peter I. Clark chaired the meeting; Barber was one of the eight vice-presidents named. The monopoly that the Whigs were opposed to was the power of the Democratic governor of the state—John R. Thomason, as well as the Democrats on the federal level, “led on by Mr. Van Buren.” The Gazette was definitely a Whig paper by this time. It’s original editor, Charles George, attempted to be impartial, even though it’s fairly clear he was also a Whig.⁵

In 1845, John Barber was chosen to chair the Whig County Convention, held at the house of John M. Price in Flemington. Usually it was held at the Court House in Flemington, which makes me wonder if perhaps this year they were not expecting so large a crowd. When the candidates for Assembly and Sheriff were announced, the party called itself the “Democratic Whig Ticket,” while the Gazette was calling the Democrats “Locos” a derisive nickname that had been in use since the 1830s. As usual, Democrats won in Hunterdon County, no matter what they were called.

In 1846, Barber was still a judge for the Orphans Court, but not on the Court of Common Pleas. He was named by this latter court a commissioner to divide real estate of Daniel Brittain dec’d, along with Solomon Holcombe (Barber’s son-in-law) and Derrick Hoagland.

1847 was a bad year for the Barber family. As mentioned above, his two sons, Theodore and Edward, both died as young men, Theodore on March 10th and Edward on Dec. 19th.⁶ Also dying in 1847 was John Barber’s father Samuel Barber, who died on May 23rd at the age of 90. Like nearly all of the family, he was buried in the Barber Cemetery.

The only bright spot that year was the marriage of Barber’s son Augustus Craven Barber to Sarah Stout on March 17th. A. C. Barber appears in the Gazette almost as frequently as his father did. In the fall, John Barber once again attended the state Whig convention held in Trenton, and also the county convention on May 17, 1848. He did not chair that one, but he did chair the next one in August, and he was once again a delegate to the 1848 state convention. He was serving as a judge on the Orphans Court in August 1848, but in May 1849, he was again on the Court of Common Pleas.

In 1850, John Barber was appointed an enumerator for the 1850 census, in which he was counted as a 62-year-old farmer with property worth $5000. Listed with him was his wife Ann, age 60, son Charles D., 27, schoolteacher; Catharine H., 24, and William H., 18. By 1850, most the Barber children had married and left home, excepting the four that had died prior to that year. In August 1850, Barber again chaired the Whig county convention.

In 1854, a convention was held by the Whigs in Somerville to chose a congressional candidate for the third district. John Barber was there, as one of five delegates from Delaware township. The others were Hiram Moore, George W. Gaddis, Justus Lessey and Ferdinand S. Holcombe (Barber’s grandson). In 1856, he was one of the Delaware twp. delegates to the “Electoral Convention,” accompanied by James J. Fisher, Ferdinand S. Holcombe, John Hoppock and Peter V. Hartpence.

Disaster struck in 1857 when John Barber’s house burned down, entirely. According to the Gazette, “his household goods were mostly saved,” but it must have been a serious set-back, especially when you consider that by this time, Barber was 70 years old. ⁷

John Barber attended only one more party convention. This was the “Opposition County Convention” held in Flemington in October 1858. By 1854, the Whigs were in decline, and the replacement party, the Republicans, had only just begun to emerge. Barber, along with Isaiah P. Large and Nelson V. Young were nominated for State Senator; the convention chose Mr. Large.

After this, Barber was done with conventions, with the exception of the meetings held in 1861 and 1862 to raise funds to support volunteers for the Union Army.

John Barber had been attending Whig conventions his whole adult life. I think we can conclude that he was devoted to Whig principles. Devoted, but maybe not passionate. There are no diaries or letters to tell us how he felt, but I suspect he was not charismatic or enthusiastic enough to win political office. I say this because he was notably absent from the many fourth of July celebrations over the years, where anyone with ambition would appear to give political toasts under a veneer of patriotism. Perhaps it was because he did not enjoy public speaking. This is only speculation, of course.

In the 1860 census for Delaware twp., John Barber was 72 years old, still a farmer with personal property worth $300. His wife Ann was 69, and they were living with son William, 27, daughter-in-law Margaret, 24, and their one-year-old granddaughter Sarah, age 1. William Barber owned the farm, valued at $6,000, and personal property equal to his father’s, $300. Margaret was born Margaret Warford on Oct. 12, 1835 in Pennsylvania. I do not know her parents, but have little doubt she was related the Warfords of Hunterdon County.

John Barber, Esq. died on January 4, 1867, age 79, and was buried in the Barber Cemetery along Lambertville-Headquarters Road. His wife Ann died later that year on November 9th, age 77, and was buried next to her husband.

This biography of John Barber, Esq. is incomplete, of course. I was unable to find an estate for John Barber, and the 1860 census shows why—he had conveyed his real estate to his son William. He may also have given gifts to his other children (only five out of 13 of them survived him). I have also ignored his real estate holdings and his own court records. But the focus here was his political life, and the surviving newspapers have given us a pretty clear picture of it.

Children of John Barber, Esq. & Ann Skillman

1) James Barber (1812 – 1885)
m. Mary Taylor (1814 – 1884), d/o Wm Taylor & Elizabeth Rea
had William Taylor Barber (1841 – 1910)
who m. Arietta Arnwine (1845 – 1898), d/o George T. Arnwine and Nancy Opdycke

2) Mary Ann Barber (~1814 – 1851)
m. Diullius Forman (1812 – 1861), partner of Edward Barber, below.

3) Elizabeth Barber (1817 – 1841) died unmarried

4) Theodore Barber (1818 – 1847)
m. Sidney Holcombe (1819 – 1893), d/o Lewis Holcombe and Mary Sutton
Sidney m. 2d Jacob Skillman

5) Augustus Craven Barber* (1819 – 1901)
m. Sarah Stout (1824 – 1850), parents not known
had Ashbel W. Barber (1843 – 1888)
who m. Ellen G. Gray (1845 – ), d/o Thomas A. Gray and Mary Barcroft
A. C. Barber m. 2d, Frances A. (1830 – 1917)

6) Caroline Barber (1819 – ), no further information

7) Edward Barber (1820 – 1847)
m. Emeline Holcombe (1822 – 1899), d/o Lewis Holcombe & Mary Sutton, and sister of Sidney Holcombe, wife of Edward’s brother Theodore.
had Cora Barber (died an infant in 1847, same year as her father)
Emeline apparently did not remarry.

8) Henrietta Barber (1821 – 1897), died unmarried

9) Catharine H. Barber (1825 – 1856)
m. Alfred Snyder (~1825 – ), parents not known; Snyder went into partnership with Duillius Forman in Lambertville
had two children who died as infants, Clinton in 1853 and Edward Snyder in 1854

10) Martha Barber (1827 – 1830), died a child

11) Frances B. Barber (~1830 – 1852)
m. William R. Cooper (~1824 – ), no further information

12) William H. Barber (1832 – 1898)
m. Margaret Warford (1835 – 1929)
had Sarah C. Barber (1859 – 1891)
who m. Asher Lambert Thatcher (1857 – 1891), s/o Jacob N. Thatcher & Sarah Trout
had also John E. Barber (1862 – 1939), died unmarried

13) Charles D. Barber (1832 – 1881)
m. Henrietta Warford (1821 – 1916), possible sister of Margaret Warford above
had Eva C. Barber (1853 – 1916)
who m. John Williams Smith (1848 – 1923)
had 1) Charles Austen Smith (1874 – 1954) & Edith Sherwood (1876 – 1967)
had 2) Joseph Smith (1878 – 1952) & Elizabeth Barber (~1880 – >1952)
note – I do not know where Elizabeth fits into the Barber family.
had 3) Stanley Smith (1880 – <1954)

John Van Camp Barber

John V. C. Barber is my candidate for the vice-president of the Democratic Club of 1863 in the Mt. Airy school district. He was the grandnephew of John Barber, Esq., born February 1841 to George H. Barber and Jane M. Van Camp. His parents shared a household with John’s grandfather William Barber, who was the brother of John Barber Esq.⁸

William Barber (1789-1866) married Catharine Corle (c.1794-1849) on May 13, 1815. She was the daughter of Samuel Corle (1845-1834), a Revolutionary War veteran, and Catherine Deremer. William and Catharine only had three children, George being the eldest. He had a son James, born about 1822, about whom I can say little, and a daughter Sarah who died in 1856, age 21, and was buried in the Barber Cemetery. Ten years later, William Barber was also buried there, joining Catharine Corle Barber.

William Barber was the one after whom Barber’s Station, later known as Bowne Station, was named. His home was on the west side of Bowne Station Road, near the intersection with Garboski Road. He was postmaster for the station, even though there was nothing else there that one would expect to find in a village.

In 1850, a black woman named Clarissa Mount, age 40, and a boy named Westley, age 3, were also living with the Barber family. In 1860, Clarissa was Clara Dickason, age 57, and Westley was Westley Barber, age 13. The census did not state whether they were free or slave, but in the 1840 census, a young free black woman was living with the Wm. Barber family, so I presume they were free. William Barber was 61 and owned land worth $7,000. All three of his children were also living with him: George 35, James 28 and Sarah 15. At least I assume they were his children. There is quite an age difference; perhaps there were infants and small children who died.

Getting back to John Van Camp Barber—in the 1860 census, he was 19 years old, living with his parents at his grandfather’s house. On January 14, 1863, he married his fourth cousin, Emma ‘Emeline’ Augusta Holcombe (1842-1902), daughter of Solomon Holcombe and Miranda Holcombe. Their first child, George H. Barber, was not born until 1865. Daughter Cornelia was born 1869 and daughter Miranda in 1872. None of them married.

In June 1863, John V. C. Barber was registered for the draft. In July 1863, when John V. C. Barber joined the Democratic Club he was only 22 years old. Barber was a farmer all his life, his farm being just north of Lambertville along the railroad tracks and the canal, and near the Alexauken Creek. As seen in these items from the Hunterdon Republican, it looks as if his farm is today known as the Holcombe-Jimison Farmstead.

1892 Aug 10, A team of horses belonging to John V. C. Barber, who lives in Delaware Tp., near Lambertville, ran away last Tuesday, while attached to a plow. They ran up the towpath of the canal and when near Riverview Cemetery, one of them pulled the other into the canal. One horse was rescued, but the other, drowned.

1892 Oct 19, Last Tuesday, the large barn on the farm of John V. C. Barber, in Delaware Tp., next to the railroad just above Lambertville, burned to the ground before assistance could be obtained. Hay, straw, potatoes, farm implements were all destroyed.

1894 Dec 26, The Pennsylvania R. R. has finished the new iron bridge on the Flemington Branch, near the residence of John V. C. Barber, just above Lambertville and it is a decided improvement over the old wooden structure.

1896 Jan 8, The Standard Oil Co. has leased property near the residence of John V. C. Barber, in Lambertville and will commence to erect buildings for the purpose of storing their oils. Headquarters of the company for this section will be in that city.

1896 Jan 29, Peter S. Parker & Son have been awarded the contract to erect a building for the Standard Oil Company in the upper part of the city. It will be built along the Flemington Railroad, on lands bought from John V. C. Barber, of Delaware Tp. The building is for the purpose of storing oil.

Despite his sympathies with the Democratic Party, John V. C. Barber did not become an officeholder until 1886 when he was elected Collector of Delaware Township and one of the Commissioners of Deeds. He also held those positions in 1887 and 1888.

In the 1900 census, John V. C. Barber was 59 years old, living with wife Emma A. Barber (age 57) on the farm he owned. They had been married 37 years and had three (still single) children: George H. 33, Cornelia H. 28 and Miranda H. 26. Also living with them was Westley Dickerson, age 50. Soon afterwards, on August 14, 1902, Emma A. Barber died at age 60. As far as is known, she was not buried in the Barber Cemetery, but might have been buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Lambertville.

When the 1910 census was taken, John V. C. Barber was a 69-year-old widower, still living in Delaware Township. His daughter Miranda was reported as 22 years of age, but since she was born June 20, 1872, she had to be 38 years old. That’s quite a gap; perhaps she was young-looking. She was keeping house for her father and brother George, age 43, who was a merchant in Lambertville. The hired man, George McIntyre, 57 of Pennsylvania, was helping out with of the farm.

I have not located the Barber family in the 1920 census but that is not surprising; the 1920 census records are barely legible, and sometimes not at all. I looked at the list of first-time women voters in 1922, but Maranda’s name was not there.

In 1930, John V. C. Barber was still living in Delaware Township, now aged 89, and his daughter Miranda, age 56, was still taking care of him. Also in the household was son George H. Barber, age 64, still single, a salesman for a hardware store. Hired man Albert J. Ulmer 38 was overseer of the farm.

It is not known, as yet, exactly when John V. C. Barber died. No doubt it was sometime in the 1930s or early 1940s. His burying place is also not known, although it might be Mount Hope in Lambertville. It seems that Barber did not have much to do with politics after the 1863 Democratic Club organized. Perhaps he was influenced by other members of the Barber family who were inclined more toward the Whigs and Republicans.

Thus ends the story of the two John Barbers of Delaware Township.

Footnotes: