Samuel J. Barrows

{{Short description|American politician (1845–1909)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Samuel June Barrows | image = Samuel June Barrows 147910419.png | state = [[Massachusetts]] | district = [[Massachusetts's 10th congressional district|10th]] | term_start = March 4, 1897 | term_end = March 3, 1899 | preceded = [[Harrison Henry Atwood|Harrison H. Atwood]] | succeeded = [[Henry F. Naphen]] | birth_date = {{Birth date|1845|05|26}} | birth_place = [[New York, New York]], U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1909|04|21|1845|05|26}} | death_place = [[New York, New York]], U.S. | party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] | spouse = [[Isabel Barrows|Katherine Isabel Hayes Chapin]] | relations = | children = Mabel Hay Barrows (m. Henry Raymond Mussey) | alma_mater = [[Harvard Divinity School]], B.D. 1874 | occupation = | profession = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}

'''Samuel June Barrows''' (May 26, 1845 – April 21, 1909) was an American Republican politician who served one term as a [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. representative]] from [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]].

== 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.<ref>Isabel Chapin Barrows, ''A Sunny Life: the Biography of Samuel June Barrows'' (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1913).</ref> Barrows' mother, Jane Weekes Barrow,<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tTIWAAAAYAAJ&q=a+sunny+life | title=A Sunny Life: The Biography of Samuel June Barrows | isbn=9780795005305 | last1=Barrows | first1=Isabel Chapin | year=1913 | publisher=Little, Brown }}</ref> sent him to work for a printing press owned by [[Richard Hoe]], 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]] during the [[American Civil War]] but was rejected because of poor health.<ref name="fishel bio"/> 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 University|Harvard Divinity School]] in 1871. While at Harvard, he was the Boston correspondent of the ''[[New York Tribune]]''.

== Career == After graduating, Barrows served for four years as minister of the First Parish on [[Meeting House Hill]] in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and then was editor of the Unitarian publication ''[[The Christian Register]]'' for the next sixteen years.<ref name="fishel bio"/>

He went with the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873, under the command of General Stanley, and with the Black Hills Expedition in 1874, commanded by [[George Armstrong Custer|General Custer]]. In 1873, he took part in the [[Battle of the Tongue River]].

=== United States Congress === [[File:Samuel J. Barrows.png|left|thumb|Samuel J. Barrows]] Barrows was elected as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] to the [[55th United States Congress]] (March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1899).

He was an advocate for [[women's suffrage]], [[African American]] rights, assimilation of [[Native Americans in the United States|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]].<ref name="kellogg 59 64">[[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.</ref>

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]].<ref name="fishel bio">Leslie H. Fishel, "Barrows, Samuel June," ''American National Biography''. (February 2000).</ref>

He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1898 to the [[56th United States Congress|Fifty-sixth]] Congress.

=== New York Prison Association === After a failed nomination for [[Librarian of Congress]],<ref>[[Thorvald Solberg]], "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)</ref> 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.<ref name="fishel bio"/>

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]], 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.<ref name="fishel bio"/><ref name="kellogg 59 64"/>

== Death == Barrows died on April 21, 1909, of [[pneumonia]], in New York City's Presbyterian Hospital. His remains were cremated and the ashes placed in a private burying ground near [[Georgeville, Quebec]], [[Canada]].

==References== {{CongBio|B000186}} * [[Barrows, Isabel Chapin]]. [https://archive.org/details/sunnylifebiogra00barrgoog ''A Sunny Life: The Biography of Samuel June Barrows''], 1913, Boston: [[Little, Brown and Company]] * 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== * {{Find a Grave|7940785}}

==Footnotes== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Massachusetts | district=10 | before=[[Harrison H. Atwood]] | after=[[Henry F. Naphen]] | years=March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1899 }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrows, Samuel June}} [[Category:1845 births]] [[Category:1909 deaths]] [[Category:Harvard Divinity School alumni]] [[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York City]] [[Category:Politicians from New York City]] [[Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]