Background
Amzi Barber was born on June 22, 1843 in Saxtons River, Windham County, Vermont. He was the son of Amzi Doolittle Barber, the pastor of the Congregationalist Church there, and Nancy Irene Bailey.
Amzi Barber was born on June 22, 1843 in Saxtons River, Windham County, Vermont. He was the son of Amzi Doolittle Barber, the pastor of the Congregationalist Church there, and Nancy Irene Bailey.
The elder Amzi Barber, one of the "Lane Seminary rebels, " had studied at Oberlin College, Ohio, in the early years of that institution. There the son was graduated in 1867, the family meanwhile having moved from Vermont to Ohio.
He was a teacher for four years at the Howard University School of Medicine, Washington DC, DC material. In the extensive street improvements made in the District of Columbia, asphalt came into general use for the first time in the United States. In 1878, Barber engaged in the asphalt-paving business, the chief source of supply for the world being the Trinidad deposit to which reference has been made. Ten years later he was formed the Trinidad Asphalt Company to take over leases of the deposit, obtaining from the British Government concessions covering the entire "lake" of 114 acres for a term of forty-two years. He was then in a position to supply asphalt to paving companies in the United States and England. After Washington, Buffalo, New York, was the first American city to use a large quantity of asphalt for paving, but other municipalities followed.
In the first ten years more than 3, 500, 000 square yards of pavement were laid in the United States. By 1896 there were thirty asphalt-paving companies at work in America and the Barber Company had laid one-half of all the asphalt pavements in the country. The export of asphalt from Trinidad had increased from 23, 000 tons in 1880 to 86, 000 in 1895. Within the ensuing five years the quantity nearly doubled. This was period of expansion and of stock-jobbing among the asphalt companies.
In the maze of conflicting statements by various interests and in the absence of any authorized responsible publicity, it is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the real sequence of developments. In 1899 and 1900 two great combines of asphalt interests were formed--the Asphalt Company of America and the National Asphalt Company. Early in 1901 Barber disposed of his personal holdings and in December of that year both companies were in the hands of receivers. There were charges and recriminations as to the profits made by the transfer of the stocks of various subsidiary companies to the Asphalt Company of America. Barber retired from the asphalt business, although the Barber Asphalt Paving Company continued in existence and after the formation (in 1903) of the "Trust, " known as the General Asphalt Company, it was the principal operating branch of the main organization. In 1904 Barber himself organized the A. L. Barber Asphalt Company, an independent concern, for the purpose of marketing the asphalt imported from Venezuela. From 1889 until his death Barber was a member of the Board of Trustees of Oberlin College.
He was twice married: in 1867 to Celia M. Brodley of Geneva, Ohio; and in 1871 to Julia Louise Langdon of Washington, D. C.
