Alvin Barton Barber: From Oregon to San Francisco to Phillipines to Poland to Washington

Captain Alvin B. Barber, ca. 1912

I admit that I was more interested by the women in my family when I started these explorations, but the men are emerging as their own personalities as I move deeper into this project. My father and I were just discussing his grandfather Alvin Barton Barber known as Vin to most of his family and almost always Capt. A. B. Barber in print. Dad thought Vin and his accomplishments were a bit overwhelmed by his wife's Lucy Barber's intelligence and ambition.  So I thought I'd tried to track down his movements for  a while and in that way get a little clearer on how he played a force in the family's life.

He was born in Portland, Oregon in May 1883.

I don't yet know much about his schooling there, but he was off to West Point in 1901.  This little clip from a biography of West Point Grads shows what he did from then until 1909:

Play

We know from Fanny Barber's diary that he spent the summer of 1905 in Portland with his family and going on excursion with Lucy Lombardi (see other posting on that summer).

From family legend, we know he helped with the aftermath of the SF Earthquake of 1906 but before that he was at Rodeo Valley for the Departments Rifle Range until February 12, 1906. I think Rodeo is a small town between Richmond and Vallejo, California. He then transferred to Fort Mason in
San Francisco.  Soldiers there were the first to be called up to service in the April earthquake.

That summer he ranked as 7th in the whole Pacific Region in his rifle accuracy and you can see he is sent off to various rife competitions in Monterey and Illinois.


In August 1907, he is sent to the Philippines where he is assistant to the Office of the Chief Engineer. In the big sense, he was needed in the Phillipines since the US was trying to establish firm territorial control over the place after the "Spanish-American" War of 1899 turned into the "Filipino insurrection" that lasted officially through 1902 and unofficially through most of the decade. William Howard Taft was in charge of the Territory through 1900 and left in 1904 to serve as Roosevelt's Vice President.  Other Civil Governors of the Territory continued to rely on the army to help many Islands develop.  By 1907, the US had declared the Island peaceful and had helped the loyal Filipinos establish a legislature; and missionaries and officer wives were busy helping everyone learn modern values:

Carpenter's Collection, LOC 

He would have been there for the visit of Taft on October 15, 1907 to inspect the island. But otherwise, I have not found out much about what he did while there. 

In June 1908, he and Lucy Lombardi are engaged and by August 1908 they are married. (Source San Francisco Call, August 30, 1908, page 30).  Lucy seemed to have accompanied him back to Philippines.  I don't know just what she did there yet, but I can't imagine she wasn't involved in some effort to help the women in Manila.  Here for example is a class of girls learning embroidery at the Paco School in Manila:

Carpenter Collection, LOC

Mrs. Barber returns in February of 1909, probably because she realized she was pregnant with her first child who was born 6 months later in Berkeley.  

As I wrote above, I don't know that much about what he did in the Philippines. By 1909 March he is going to be transferred to the Washington Barracks of the Corp of Engineers and he is to serve in the Engineer school.  By April 15, 1910, he, Lucy, and son Godfrey show up living in the Washington Barracks (source 1910 Censur).  Though they are also on vacation later in that month back in Portland, Oregon staying with brother John, his wife Faith, and daughter Annie. 

His next order send him to Fort Leavenworth in August 1910.  And from there I am not entirely sure.  His next three children are all born in Berkeley, where Lucy Barber was staying with her parents.  I'm not sure if he goes off to the Mexico border or if he is doing something else.  That will be for later.  We know he heads to France for the Great War, see previous post.


Here he is a the father of 4 as a later date looking both stern and friendly:

The Barber Family, 1938??

In your memory, Captain Barber, buried in Arlington Cemetery.