Samuel June Barrows (May 26, 1845 – April 21, 1909) was an American Republican politician who served one term as a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

Early life and education

Barrows was born in New York City to a strict Baptist family. After his father's death, Barrows was sent to school until he became ill around the age of 7 or 8. His doctor recommended that he leave school. Barrows' mother, Jane Weekes Barrow, sent him to work for a printing press owned by

Richard Hoe Richard March Hoe (middle name spelled in some 1920s records as "Marsh"; September 12, 1812 – June 7, 1886) was an American inventor from New York City who designed a rotary printing press identical to Josiah Warren's original invention, and re ...

, a cousin of Barrows' late father. He learned to be a messenger and telegrapher, as well as learning shorthand. He tried to enlist in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

but was rejected because of poor health. Barrows was then admitted to a hydropathic sanitarium for treatment and became the personal secretary of the presiding doctor. Finding a calling to be a minister, he attended the

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...

in 1871. While at Harvard, he was the Boston correspondent of the ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' (from 1914: ''New York Tribune'') was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s ...

''.

Career

After graduating, Barrows served for four years as minister of the First Parish on

Meeting House Hill Meeting House Hill is one of the oldest sections of Boston's historic Dorchester, Boston, Dorchester neighborhood. It is the site of the First Parish Church of Dorchester, First Parish Church (est. 1631) and the The Mather School, Mather Scho ...

in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and then was editor of the Unitarian publication ''

The Christian Register ''UU World'' is a quarterly magazine published by the Unitarian Universalist Association. From 1821 to 1957, it was known as ''The Christian Register'', the leading American Unitarian weekly, published by the American Unitarian Association, Bo ...

'' for the next sixteen years. He went with the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873, under the command of General Stanley, and with the Black Hills Expedition in 1874, commanded by

General Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point ...

. In 1873, he took part in the

Battle of the Tongue River The Battle of the Tongue River, sometimes referred to as the Connor Battle, was an engagement of the Powder River Expedition that occurred on August 29, 1865. In the battle, U.S. soldiers and Indian scouts attacked and destroyed an Arapaho vi ...

United States Congress

Barrows was elected as a Republican to the

55th United States Congress The 55th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from March 4, 1897, ...

(March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1899). He was an advocate for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

rights, assimilation of Native Americans and prison reform. On the international stage, he was an activist for ending hunger. One of his first actions in Congress was to send ships carrying grain to India to feed the starving. In his later years, he served as executive secretary of the Russian Famine Relief Commission. Paul U. Kellogg, "Samuel June Barrows: A Circuit Rider in the Humanities," Sixty-Fourth Annual Report of the Prison Association of New York (September 1909): 59 and 64. Barrows promoted legislation that would remove Native Americans from reservations, believing that cultural assimilation would lead to equality. As a pacifist, he bitterly opposed the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

.Leslie H. Fishel, "Barrows, Samuel June," ''American National Biography''. (February 2000). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1898 to the Fifty-sixth Congress.

New York Prison Association

After a failed nomination for

Librarian of Congress The librarian of Congress is the head of the Library of Congress, appointed by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, for a term of ten years. The librarian of Congress also appoints and overs ...

Thorvald Solberg Thorvald Solberg (April 22, 1852 – July 15, 1949) was the first Register of Copyrights (1897–1930) in the United States Copyright Office. He was a noted authority on copyright and played an instrumental role in shaping the Copyright Act of 19 ...

, "A Chapter in the Unwritten History of the Library of Congress from January 17 to April 5, 1899: The Appointment of Herbert Putnam as Librarian," ''

The Library Quarterly ''The Library Quarterly'' is a quarterly double-anonymous peer-reviewed academic journal covering library science, including historical, sociological, statistical, bibliographical, managerial, psychological, and educational aspects of the field ...

: Information, Community, Policy'' 9, no. 3 (July 1939) Barrows served as the Corresponding Secretary of the New York Prison Association from 1899 to 1909. In this role, he successfully advocated for juvenile courts, parole, probation, indeterminate sentences, and improved prison conditions. He argued forcefully against capital punishment and the fee system. Barrows was the American representative to the International Prison Congress of 1895, 1900, and 1905, and president-elect of the 1910 congress before his death.

Personal life

He met his future wife,

Isabel Barrows (Katherine) Isabel Hayes Chapin Barrows (April 17, 1845 – October 24, 1913) was the first woman employed by the United States State Department. She worked as a stenographer for William H. Seward in 1868 while her husband, Samuel June Barrows ...

, during his stay at the sanitarium. She was a medical student there. During his stay at the sanitarium, Samuel picked up the nickname "June," derived from his sunny personality. He used this as his middle name for the rest of his life. Barrows had a wide array range of interests and talents including musical composition and singing oratorios, studying the Greeks (he wrote ''The Isles and Shires of Greece''), metal crafting, writing poetry, camping (he and his wife Isabella wrote one of the first books on the subject, ''The Shaybacks in Camp: Ten Summers under Canvas''), travel, and foreign languages. He spoke three languages, read two, and was in the process of learning another at the time of his death.

Death

Barrows died on April 21, 1909, of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

, in New York City's Presbyterian Hospital. His remains were cremated and the ashes placed in a private burying ground near Georgeville, Quebec,

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References

* Barrows, Isabel Chapin
''A Sunny Life: The Biography of Samuel June Barrows''
1913, Boston:

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...

* Kellogg, Paul U., "Samuel June Barrows: A Circuit Rider in the Humanities," Sixty-Fourth Annual Report of the Prison Association of New York (September 1909) * L.F.F., "Barrows, Samuel June," ''American Reformers'', 1985 ed., 56. * Solberg, Thorvald: "A Chapter in the Unwritten History of the Library of Congress from January 17 to April 5, 1899: The Appointment of Herbert Putnam as Librarian," ''The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy'' 9, no. 3 (July 1939) * Weiss, Robert P.: "Barrows, Samuel June," ''Biographical Dictionary of Social Welfare in America'', 1986 ed., 69.

External links

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrows, Samuel June 1845 births 1909 deaths Harvard Divinity School alumni Deaths from pneumonia in New York City Politicians from New York City Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives