Henry E. Barbour

Henry Ellsworth Barbour (March 8, 1877 – March 21, 1945) was an American lawyer and politician who served seven terms as a U.S. representative from California from 1919 to 1933.

Biography Born in Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence County, New York, Barbour attended the public schools of his native city, the local "Free Academy" at Ogdensburg, Union College at Schenectady, New York, and the law department of George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Legal career He was admitted to the New York bar in 1901 and moved to Fresno, California, in 1902 to engage in the practice of law. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932 to the Seventy-third Congress.

Later career and death He resumed the practice of his profession in Fresno, California, where he died on March 21, 1945. He was interred in Belmont Memorial Park.

Legacy In the 1932 Republican primary for California's 7th Congressional District, Henry Barbour tied for the Republican nomination with Glenn M. Devore of Fresno, and won the nomination in an unprecedented drawing. Barbour later went on to lose the general election.

In 2018, an Arizona man discovered a collection of 200 letters that had belonged to Barbour, including two letters signed by President Hoover, White House invitations from President Harding, and an invitation to the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Golden Gate Bridge.

Electoral results