Tulare County Biographies

James K. Barbis

Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


James K. Barbis, one of the proprietors of the Riverside Caf� and Grill Room, 
was born in Corinth, Greece, February 24, 1891.  When he was about fourteen 
years old he came with his parents to America.  The family located in St. Louis, 
Missouri, where James K. Barbis found employment in a box car factory.  In this, 
his first job in the United States, he was so unfortunate as to lose the end of 
one of his fingers, which caused him to change his occupation.  He then became a 
bus boy in the old Planters Hotel in St. Louis, where he worked until he came to 
California.
 
Shortly after the great earthquake and fire in San Francisco in 1906, James K. 
Barbis landed in that city.  The following year he and his cousin, Mike Barbis, 
came to Visalia and purchased the Riverside Caf�.  The caf� was then located in 
a small room on Main street, but the new proprietors soon had the satisfaction 
of seeing their business expand until larger quarters were necessary.  
Additional room was secured and the Riverside is now considered one of the best 
appointed eating houses in the San Joaquin valley.
 
Besides himself, Spiro and A. Barbis and Mike Barbis, a cousin, constitute the 
firm.  They own a substantial business block on Main street, Visalia, and Mike 
Barbis conducts a caf�, known as the Barbis Grill, in Dinuba.  The six members 
of the Barbis family- brothers and cousins- are all successful business men.  
The Visalia Fruit Market and the Palace Caf� on North Church street are owned 
and conducted by them, and James K. Barbis owns a prune orchard and vineyard 
near Visalia, purchased and paid for within the last few years with the fruits 
of his industry and good business management.
 
During the latter part of the great World war, after the United States entered 
the conflict, Mr. Barbis served in the quartermaster department at Camp Lewis, 
in the state of Washington.  The troops there, himself among them, were just 
ready to sail for Siberia when news was received that the armistice had been 
signed and the war was over.  When he received his honorable discharge he 
returned to Visalia and resumed his business connections where they had been 
broken off when he entered the military service.
 
Mr. Barbis is a member of the Visalia Kiwanis Club, Elks Lodge No. 1298 of 
Visalia, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the 
American Legion, in all of which he is recognized as a �good fellow� and is 
deservedly popular.
 
History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen Edwards Small & 
J. Larry Smith, Vol. I, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, Page 
126