California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


 RICHARD NASON BARSTOW. Among the active, useful and highly esteemed residents of this 
section of the state is Richard N. Barstow of Fresno, the present county recorder of Fresno 
county. From a long line of New England ancestry lie has inherited those cardinal virtues of 
industry, energy and thrift characteristic of the earlier settlers of the Atlantic coast. Many 
members of the honored family from which he is descended have acquired distinction in 
professional, business, political and military circles. His great-grandfather, William Barstow, Sr., a 
pioneer settler of Haverhill, N. H., was a soldier in the Revolutionary army. William Barstow, Jr., 
the grandfather of Mr. Barstow, was born, lived and died in Haverhill, N. H., where for many 
years he served as postmaster, and was also the leading merchant. He was a citizen of 
prominence, public-spirited and patriotic, and served in the war of 1812. One of his sons, Hon. 
George Barstow, was a prominent attorney in San Francisco during the '50's, and during one 
term of the California Legislature was speaker of the House. A large part of the great wealth 
which he acquired he devoted to charitable purposes, and after his death his widow continued 
the philanthropical work which he had established. 

A native of New Hampshire, Mr. Barstow was born February 3, 1853, in Haverhill. His father, 
Hon. James Townsend Barstow, was a life-long resident of that place, dying there at the age of 
seventy-six years. He was a farmer by occupation, and very active in the management of public 
affairs. For many years he served as town clerk, and for two terms was a Representative to the 
State Legislature. He was a broad, liberal-minded man, exemplifying in his daily life the precepts 
of the Golden Rule, which was his daily guide, and his only religious creed. He married Sarah J. 
Brown, also of Haverhill, being a daughter of Richard N. Brown, a dealer in hardware and 
tinware. Of the six children born of their union, four grew to years of maturity, and one 
daughter and two sons are now living. 

The eldest child of his parents, Richard N. Barstow grew to man's estate in his native town, 
acquiring a practical education in the public schools and the village academy. Going to Boston in" 
1874, he was for five years clerk in a wholesale oil store. In 1879 he came to California as 
superintendent of the Jones-Hill Hydraulic Mine Company, and had charge of two giant engines 
until the passage of the anti-Slickens law, and was subsequently general manager for the 
company until it gave up business, in 1889. Purchasing then a colony lot in Central Colony, five 
miles from Fresno, Mr. Barstow embarked in the culture of fruit, making a specialty of raisins. 
Selling out in 1895, he bought three thousand acres of land in the San Joaquin valley, and 
turned his attention to the raising of grain, in which he was quite successful. In 1901 he bought 
three hundred and twenty acres of land, and on this, by irrigation, he raises five crops of alfalfa 
each year, cutting five tons to the acre per season. In the fall of 1902, Mr. Barstow was 
nominated on the Republican ticket for county recorder, was elected by upward of one 
hundred majority, and in January, 1903, took the oath of office, and began his term of four 
years. 

In Eldorado county, Cal., Mr. Barstow married Agnes H. Baldwin, who was born in Coulterville, 
Cal., the daughter of a pioneer family, her parents having removed there from Illinois. Mr. and 
Mrs. Barstow have two children, George, an employe of the Raisin Growers' Association ; and 
James Townsend. Politically Mr. Barstow is a Republican, and for two years was a member of 
the State Central Committee. Fraternally he was made an Odd Fellow in Georgetown, Cal., and 
now belongs tc Fresno Lodge, No. 186, I. O. O. F.