Marin County Biographies

SIMON FITCH BARSTOW

Transcribed by Betty Wilson

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


              Was born in Hartford, Connecticut, March 26, 
1832, and is the son of John and Eliza Fitch Barstow.  When but one year old he 
was taken by his parents to Bridgeport, Fairfield county, Connecticut, there 
receiving his early education, and residing until he attained the age of eleven. 
 After this he went to Westminster, Connecticut, where he finished his 
schooling.  He next proceeded to Rochester, New York, and was employed by his 
uncle in the hardware business, where he continued for three years, at the end 
of which time he entered the office of the Chautauqua County Journal in 
Jamestown, New York, then the property of F.W. Palmer, now postmaster of 
Chicago, and there served an apprenticeship of three years to the printer�s 
trade; he then returned to Bridgeport and resided for one year.  In April, 1854, 
Mr. Barstow came to California via Panama, and arrived in San Francisco in that 
year, and commenced working at his trade.  Was on the staff of the Bulletin 
during the years 1854, 5 and 6, when the Vigilance Committee held sway in San 
Francisco, and in 1858 commenced an engagement on the Alta California, where he 
remained for eleven years.  The subject of this sketch moved to Tulare county in 
1871, where he was engaged on the Visalia Delta for one year, afterwards in 
October, 1872, coming to San Rafael and purchasing the Marin County Journal, a 
paper which he has since conducted with much success.  Married in Petaluma, 
December 26, 1864, Laura J., daughter of George B. Williams, by whom he has one 
child living, Anna P., born June 25, 1874.  He has lost three daughters, Emma 
Lilly, Clara Fitch and Laura Irene.
 
History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, 
Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, Bowen & 
Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880