George Harrison Barbour was an American manufacturer, businessman, financier, and civic leader associated with Detroit’s stove industry. He spent most of his career with the Michigan Stove Company, became its vice president and general manager, and helped promote its famous giant Garland stove at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. He also held banking, commercial, municipal, and exhibition posts.
Background
George Harrison Barbour was born on June 26, 1843, in Collinsville, Connecticut, to Samuel Thompson Barbour and Phoebe Beckwith Barbour. He grew up in a period when Connecticut communities combined small-scale commerce with expanding links to regional manufacturing and trade.
Barbour married Katherine Hawley in Collinsville on June 26, 1869. He moved to Detroit in 1872, when the city was becoming a major Great Lakes manufacturing center. Detroit's access to iron ore from Michigan's Upper Peninsula and transportation through the Great Lakes supported the rapid growth of its stove industry during the late nineteenth century.
Education
Barbour received his education in the common schools of Connecticut. His formal schooling preceded a business career developed through commercial management, manufacturing, banking, and civic administration rather than through university study.
His professional life unfolded in Detroit, where stove manufacturing was one of the city's leading industries during the 1870s and 1880s. Detroit's manufacturers benefited from nearby iron resources and water transportation, while the expanding American market for cast-iron heating and cooking equipment created opportunities for large specialized firms.
Career
Barbour began in general commerce in Collinsville, where he worked in his father's store and later operated a general-merchandise business. In 1872 he sold the store and moved to Detroit after acquiring an interest in the Michigan Stove Company. He became the company's secretary and sales manager, helping develop its sales organization during a period when Detroit was emerging as a major center of stove production.
In 1886 Barbour became first vice president and general manager of the Michigan Stove Company. The company produced stoves and hollow ware under brands including Garland and became one of the largest stove manufacturers in the United States. A 1907 Detroit historical print identified him as the firm's first vice president and general manager, placing him among the city's prominent industrial executives.
Barbour served as president of the Michigan Copper & Brass Company from 1907 to 1914 and was also president of the Ireland & Matthews Manufacturing Company. His financial connections included service as vice president of the Dime Savings Bank and as a director of the Peoples State Bank and the Michigan Fire & Marine Insurance Company.
He represented Michigan on the national commission for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In connection with the Michigan Stove Company's exhibition, he advanced the idea of constructing a gigantic wooden replica of a Garland range. The resulting exhibit, later known as the World's Largest Stove, dramatized Detroit's importance as a stove-manufacturing center and became one of the exposition's notable industrial attractions.
Barbour was active in Detroit's commercial and civic institutions. He was the first president of the Detroit Board of Commerce and the Michigan Manufacturers Association, served as president of the Detroit City Council in 1888, and participated in the organization of the Detroit Exposition of 1889. He also represented Michigan at the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition in 1897 and the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901.
In later public service, Barbour served as chairman of the legislative committee of the National Association of Manufacturers in 1902, as a director of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States in 1919, and as president of the Detroit Museum of Art at an earlier stage of his civic career. He was associated with the Mackinac Island State Park Commission for several terms. Within the Michigan Stove Company, he became president in 1919 and chairman of the board in 1921, remaining a leading figure in Detroit manufacturing and finance until his death in 1934.
Achievements
Barbour promoted the construction of the giant wooden Garland stove displayed by the Michigan Stove Company at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The exhibit publicized Detroit's role as a leading American center of stove manufacturing and later became a landmark associated with the city's industrial history.
Barbour helped organize and lead major Detroit and national commercial institutions, including the Detroit Board of Commerce, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States.
Politics
Barbour was a Democrat whose political activity combined participation in Detroit municipal affairs with advocacy for manufacturing and commercial interests. He served as president of the Detroit City Council in 1888 and maintained a public association with Democratic politics during the industrial expansion of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Detroit.
His political outlook was also reflected in his civic and commercial leadership. In an 1901 letter concerning President Theodore Roosevelt, Barbour described himself as a Democrat while expressing support for Roosevelt's position on racial equality and civil rights. His public career connected party affiliation with participation in business organizations, municipal institutions, and national commercial exhibitions.
Views
Barbour's documented public statements reflected a civic philosophy that linked moral character and citizenship with equal treatment across racial lines. His support for Roosevelt's reception of Booker T. Washington indicates opposition to judging a person's civic worth by skin color.
His professional and civic activities also reflected a belief in the importance of manufacturing, commercial organization, public exhibitions, and municipal institutions to Detroit's economic development.
Membership
Barbour belonged to professional, commercial, civic, and social organizations that connected Detroit manufacturers with wider networks of business and public affairs. His documented affiliations included the National Association of Stove Manufacturers, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Detroit Board of Commerce, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States.
He also belonged to Detroit social and athletic organizations, including the Fellow Craft Club, the Detroit Athletic Club, and the Country Club of Detroit. These organizations formed part of the associational life of Detroit's business community during the city's industrial expansion.
President
National Association of Stove Manufacturers
,
United States
1888 - 1890
Chairman of the legislative committee
National Association of Manufacturers
,
United States
1902 - 1902
Director
Chamber of Commerce of the United States
,
United States
1919
Detroit Athletic Club
,
United States
Country Club of Detroit
,
United States
Fellow Craft Club
,
United States
Commission member
Mackinac Island State Park Commission
,
United States
Personality
Barbour was described in biographical and civic accounts as an active business and public figure with interests extending beyond manufacturing into banking, exhibitions, municipal affairs, and social organizations.
Quotes from others about the person
In a 1901 letter to Theodore Roosevelt, Barbour wrote that a moral and good citizen should be judged without regard to race, expressing support for Roosevelt's decision to receive Booker T. Washington at the White House.
Interests
Fine horses
Politicians
Theodore Roosevelt
Sport & Clubs
Trout fishing
Connections
Barbour was the son of Samuel Thompson Barbour and Phoebe Beckwith Barbour. He married Katherine Hawley in 1869, and they had four children: Edwin, Grace, Estella, and George Harrison Barbour Jr.
His professional connections extended across Detroit's manufacturing, banking, insurance, commercial, and civic institutions. His association with the Michigan Stove Company also linked him to the development of Detroit's late-nineteenth-century stove industry and to the promotion of the city at major American industrial exhibitions.
Father:
Samuel Thompson Barbour
Mother:
Phoebe Beckwith Barbour
Wife:
Katherine Hawley
Married George Harrison Barbour in Collinsville on June 26, 1869.
Michigan's Ideal Metropolis, Beautiful Detroit
A Detroit Publishing Company print identifying George Harrison Barbour as first vice president and general manager of the Michigan Stove Company and presenting him among Detroit's prominent business citizens.
1907
Letter from George Harrison Barbour to Theodore Roosevelt
Archival records describing Barbour's Democratic affiliation, his support for Theodore Roosevelt, and his statement that racial identity should not determine whether a person is considered a moral and good citizen.
