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Hello all. I am not researching Barbours, but in a book I have, published in 1905 by John D. Crimmins, entitled Irish-American Historical Miscellany, it says about Thomas:
Thomas Barbour was born July 14, 1832, in the old family residence of Hilden, in Ireland. He became an American citizen in 1849. He was a man genial in bearing and the very embodiment of hospitality and kindness. When any question arose demanding unusual energy he was never found unequal to the emergency of the case. He manifested a force and vigor of character difficult to oppose. He persistently refused public position, but was connected intimately with many public and private enterprises of importance. He was a member of the Committee on Revenue Reform of the New York Chamber of Commerce, and is widely known in this country in connection with his successful defense of his firm and government on the infamous moiety system, and was recognized as the one who, by his personal sacrifices and exertions, caused the abrogation of the law which offered a fifty percent premium on official irregularity and imposition. He delivered a forcible and practical speech on the subject before the New York Chamber of Commece in 1874, and on the following evening in Steinway Hall, at a special meeting called for that purpose. Mr. Barbour subsequently proceeded to Washington and procured the passage of the bill abrogating the moiety system. Upon a subsequent visit to Belfast, Ireland on October 29, 1874, he was tendered a public banquet by the merchants of Belfast and the province of Ulster, at which the Lord Mayor presided, in recognition of the important service he had rendered to the importing trade of New York and capitalists in breaking down a system so unjust in principle. Mr. Barbour was the first president of the Board of Trade, Paterson, N.J.; a director of the Hanover National Bank; a director of the Guardian Fire Insurance Company of New York, and a director of the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad Company. He was president of the Bedford Manufacturing Company of Newark, N.J., and for ten years a director of the Clark Thread Company, Newark, N.J. He owned a large amount of property in Paterson, N.J., including a fine residence on the corner of Straight Street and Broadway; his summer residences were the Brookside Farm at Preakness and Warren Point, N.J. At the latter place, on different occasions, he entertained Gen. Grant and other prominent citizens of this country. He was always regarded as one of the most liberal-minded and public-spirited citizens of Paterson. His death occurred at the family homestead in Ireland, January 19, 1885, and was lamented by all who had ever had the pleasure of his acquaintance. Mr. Barbour was president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, New York City, 1875 and 1876.
Jill (Lowe3@prodigy.net)
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