Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

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WILLIAM R. BARBOUR.  
 
        Among the well-known residents of the Azusa district is the above-named 
gentleman, who is engaged in the nursery business and agricultural pursuits at 
Covina. Mr. Barbour is occupying ten acres of the well-known Phillips tract, 
which he is devoting to nursery stock of various kinds of citrus and deciduous 
fruit trees. He has selected soil which seems well adapted to the production of 
thrifty and hardy stock. This enterprise was not commenced by him until 1888, 
but he now has 30,000 budded orange and lemon trees, 25,000 deciduous fruit 
trees, mostly French prunes and apricots, and over 50,000 Mission olive plants, 
which will be budded with the most approved variety of olives. Mr. Barbour is 
making a decided success in his horticultural pursuits, which is the result of 
his study and intelligent experiments. He has also fifty acres of fine land 
south of Covina, which is now in grain, but will at an early date be set with 
citrus fruits; and a 100-acre tract in the San Joaquin Valley, which is being 
rapidly improved by planting with citrus and deciduous fruit trees. The subject 
of this sketch is a native of Kentucky, born in Washington County in 1848. His 
father, Richard Barbour, was a native of Kentucky, and a descendant of an old 
Virginia family of Colonial times. He was a
farmer by occupation, and Mr. Barbour was reared to the same calling, and was 
given the best of advantages in securing an education. He graduated at the 
University of Virginia, and in 1873 was sent to the German universities, where 
he perfected himself in chemistry. Upon his return to the United States, he 
engaged in the occupation of a teacher. In 1875 he came to California and was 
first located in El Dorado County, and afterward went to Alameda County, where 
he was engaged as an instructor in the well-known McClure Military Academy and 
the Golden Gate Academy, and later as the Professor of Chemistry at the State 
University of California at Berkley. In 1878 Mr. Barbour came to Los Angeles 
County and located at Orange and was for several years connected with the 
educational interests of that section. He was for two years the school examiner 
of Orange district, and for a year or more was the editor of the Santa Ana News. 
In addition to his teaching and other occupations, he also engaged in 
horticultural pursuits, until he came to Azusa in 1883. He is a man of 
progressive views, and is interested in any enterprise that tends to build up 
his section. He is a director in the Azusa Water Development and Irrigation 
Company, and may always be found identified with the best interests of the 
community in which he resides.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 706
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler