Augustus R. Barrows (July 30, 1838December 20, 1885) was an American
lumberman
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.
Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
, rancher, and pioneer settler of
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, and
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
. He served one term in the
Wisconsin State Assembly
The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin.
Representatives are elected for two-year terms, ...
as a member of the
Greenback Party. He served as
speaker of the Assembly
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** In ...
during his term as part of a negotiated
coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
with the Democratic caucus. He was the only Greenback legislator to serve as speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly. He was also the 3rd mayor of
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. In contemporaneous sources, his name is often abbreviated as
Background
Barrows was born in
Olean, New York
Olean ( ) is a city in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. Olean is the largest city in Cattaraugus County and serves as its financial, business, transportation and entertainment center. It is one of the principal cities of the Southern ...
, on July 30, 1838; he studied at an academy (later renamed
Chamberlain Institute) in
Randolph, New York, where his father was a pioneering lumberman. Augustus assisted his father in his business until on one of their trips to Cincinnati on a
raft, his father lost a leg in an accident. He closed out his business in New York and moved with his family to
Pleasant Grove, Minnesota, in 1855, and went into farming. Augustus, who had accompanied his family to their new home, "followed various pursuits" for a while. He married Alice B. Duncan in Pleasant Grove on November 16, 1862.
In August 1864, Barrows volunteered for service in the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
and was enrolled as a private in Company H of the
11th Minnesota Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to first sergeant a month later. He mustered out on June 30, 1865, and was granted an honorary commission as
second lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank.
Australia
The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...
after the war.
On mustering out, he relocated to Wisconsin, settling in
Chippewa County.
Public office
Barrows was elected County
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury o ...
of Chippewa County in 1869 to fill a vacancy, and re-elected for a full term in 1870; and served one term as
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
of Chippewa Falls.
[ ] In 1872, he ran for the Assembly as a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
, losing to incumbent
Republican Albert Pound (who was also a lumberman from Chippewa Falls), with 676 votes to Pound's 1205. In 1876, he ran for the
Wisconsin State Senate's
Eleventh District (again as a Democrat), losing to incumbent Republican
Thomas Scott Thomas Scott may refer to:
Australia
* Thomas Hobbes Scott (1783–1860), Anglican clergyman and first Archdeacon of New South Wales
* Thomas Scott (Australian politician) (1865–1946), member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
* Thomas Sco ...
with 3,700 votes to Scott's 3,925.
He became a vigorous adherent of the
Greenback movement, becoming known as "one of its ablest and most logical advocates in the state". In 1877, he ran for Chippewa County's sole Assembly seat as an independent Greenback, unseating Democratic incumbent
Louis Vincent
Louis-Vincent Thomas (20 May 1922 – 22 January 1994) was a French sociologist, anthropologist, ethnologist, and scholar whose specialty was Africa. He was the founder of thanatology. After having taught at Cheikh Anta Diop University, he became ...
, who polled only 496 votes to 886 votes for Barrows and 555 for Republican O. R. Dahl. He was chosen as
speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** In ...
on January 9, 1878, because the Assembly now consisted of 45 Republicans, 41 Democrats, 13 Greenbacks and a
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
: thus, the Greenbacks and socialist had leverage as tie-breakers, since the two major parties held mere pluralities.
In 1879, rather than run for re-election, he ran for
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
under a
fusion ticket
Ticket or tickets may refer to:
Slips of paper
* Lottery ticket
* Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start)
* Toll ticket, a slip of paper used to indicate where vehicles entered a tol ...
as a Greenback/Democrat in the
Eighth District, losing with 11,421 votes to 12,795 for Republican incumbent
Thaddeus C. Pound
Thaddeus Coleman Pound (December 6, 1832 – November 20 or 21, 1914) was an American businessman from Wisconsin who served in both houses of the Wisconsin legislature, as the tenth Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin, and as a U.S. Representative ...
(brother and partner of Albert Pound). He was succeeded in the Assembly by Republican former Assemblyman
Hector McRae.
Moving to Montana
After losing the Congressional election, Barrows (who had suffered financial reverses in the
real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
which constituted most of his wealth) organized a group of colonists who arrived in
Martinsdale, Montana
Martinsdale is a census-designated place in southeastern Meagher County, Montana, United States. The town was a station stop on the now-abandoned transcontinental main line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("the Milwaukee R ...
(a
train stop on the main line of the
Milwaukee Road
The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Northwest of the United States fr ...
), in June 1879. He brought a herd of
blooded cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
with him, and went into
stockraising
A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...
, which he pursued for the rest of his life. Soon after his arrival there, he and
Edward P. Allis of
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
partnered to build a large sawmill, and began the manufacture of lumber at
Sawmill Gulch in what was then
Meagher County, Montana
Meagher County (pronounced Marr) is a county located in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,927. Its county seat is White Sulphur Springs.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the 2010 center of pop ...
. He
homesteaded 160 acres in a place he called
"Ubet", also known as "U-Bet" or "U-bet" in what was then
Fergus County. He built a
stage stop
A stage station or relay station, also known as a staging post, a posting station, or a stage stop, is a place where exhausted horses could be replaced by fresh animals, since a long journey was much faster without delays when horses needed rest ...
hotel,
saloon and
general store on the
stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
route, and moved there himself in 1881, becoming (with his family) among the first permanent white settlers of the
Judith Basin.
He died on December 20, 1885, in Ubet,
and was buried back in Chippewa Falls in a
Masonic ceremony (he was a
Masonic Knight Templar). He left Alice with a family of young children, but she continued to operate the businesses with the aid of her children, eventually increasing the original homestead to an estate of 2,000 acres. The Barrows were the parents of four children: John R.; Mary, who died at two years of age; Olive; and Clarence H.
[''Progressive Men of Montana'' Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co. .d. vol. 2, pp. 993-994] John, who became a lawyer in
San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
, later wrote a memoir of his family's life there titled ''U-Bet: A Greenhorn in Old Montana'' (1934; reprinted in 1990) which was reviewed in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' as "dramatic and colorful."
References
External links
Undated photograph of Ubet HotelPhotograph of a token coin issued by Barrows circa 1886WorldCat listing for ''U-Bet: A Greenhorn in Old Montana''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrows, Augustus
1838 births
1885 deaths
American hoteliers
American loggers
American cattlemen
American city founders
Businesspeople from Montana
Businesspeople from Wisconsin
Mayors of places in Wisconsin
Democratic Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly
Speakers of the Wisconsin State Assembly
People from Olean, New York
Politicians from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
People from Judith Basin County, Montana
People from Olmsted County, Minnesota
People of Minnesota in the American Civil War
Saloonkeepers
Union Army officers
Wisconsin Greenbacks
19th-century American legislators
People from Randolph, New York
Military personnel from Wisconsin