‘Men of the Throttle’: Researching Your Ancestors’ Professions

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An ancestor’s profession gives valuable social clues to who they were in the time and place they lived. Consider the case of Augustus M. Barber, a machinist who grew up in the second half of the 19th century. Manufacturing underwent a tectonic shift during this time.

We focus here on the types of records that may add clues to your ancestors’ professions. We’ll look at:

• Newspapers
• Directories
• Censuses
• Any other sources that answer the question of what our ancestors did for a living

Augustus M. Barber, also called “Gus Barber” or “A.M. Barber,” appeared to moved to Michigan around 1864 with his widowed mother Almira Barber. That fall, Almira married Lorenzo L. Brown in Hudson, Lenawee, Michigan.¹ Augustus was enumerated in 1870 in the Lorenzo L. Brown household.² Then 18, the census-taker recorded his profession as “works in plow foundry.”

A few years later, August married Edna McRoberts in nearby Adrian.³ He was 21 and she was just over 16. The new couple appeared to settle in with his mother and step-father in Hudson.

By spring 1877, it looked like Augustus made a plan to leave Hudson. An “A.M. Barber, Hudson, Mich.” took out an ad looking for work in The Evening News, a Detroit newspaper⁴:

The “12 years” would mean he started working around age 13 — about the time he first came to Michigan.

It appeared an East Saginaw-based company known as Wickes Bros. had a job offer for the young metal-worker. Wickes Bros. specialized in “gang” saws, which cut multiple pieces of lumber from a log at one time. The young state’s timber resources would have meant plenty of work for the company in Saginaw, East Saginaw, Carrollton, and up and down the Saginaw River.

An 1879 Saginaw/East Saginaw directory shows the earliest known mention of him in that area: “Barber Augustus M, machinist Wicked Bros, res 202 N Water.”⁵ The address sat along the eastern banks of the Saginaw River.

(Editor note: I think this address would be between the modern-day Dow Events Center and the Saginaw River.)

It was unclear if his family was with him in 1879, but by 1880 they were enumerated together: Augustus, 27; Edna, 22; and children Bertha, 6; and Charles, 4. The enumerator recorded Augustus’ profession as “machinist.”⁶

By the mid-1880s, Augustus had made a name for himself in his new city. In 1887, he worked as an engineer for Swift Electric Light Co.⁷ His address on Carroll Street was about three blocks south of the Flint & Pere Marquette Union Station. He even secured a patent in his name in 1888, along with two other men.⁸

East Saginaw and Saginaw became one city in the spring of 1890. By then, Augustus’ industriousness led to opportunity. At age 38, he worked in his spare time running chartered steamer outings on the Saginaw River. The following item ran in The Saginaw Evening News in August 1890.⁹

In August 1891, he traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, as a delegate to the Stationary Engineers’ Association national convention. The Sunday World-Herald in Omaha recorded his attendance in a roster for the event: “Saginaw, Mich., No. 8, A.M. Barber”.¹⁰ It said 600 people were expected for the convention, with many delegates bringing their wives. Afterward, the Saginaw Evening News reported: “Mr. Barber speaks in glowing terms of the western country and his treatment while there.”¹¹

Augustus took an active role in the local Stationary Engineers’ Association and continued through the 1890s to build his professional reputation. In December 1893, the association’s local chapter elected him to serve as president for the following year, 1894.¹²

Augustus appeared to have been a local expert in steam heat. “PRIDE OF THE CITY,” reported The Saginaw Evening News on 17 March 1894 touting the public opening of the new Bearinger Building.¹³ Local lumber baron Isaac Bearinger led the construction of the building bearing his name. The article reported, “Gus M. Barber has full charge of the steam heating apparatus, pumps, engines, etc., and is also first engineer of the far famed steam yacht Wapiti …” It described the “steam heating apparatus” he managed in a paragraph titled “The Boiler Room.”

The article went on to describe how the system also supplied heat to several other buildings though a network of tunnels. This suggested that the building was a large, multi-year project for Wickes Bros. and, potentially, Augustus.

As the Bearinger Building item reported, by summer 1894 Augustus had graduated from engineer on the Oslo to a much bigger pleasure yacht owned by Bearinger. The “Steam Yacht Wapiti” launched from Wheeler’s Ship Yard in West Bay City that June. A news item described it.¹⁴

In part, it read: “The craft as she lies in the water is a model of artistic beauty, is 84 feet in length by 14 feet beam. Her crew consists of Captain John Osborn, Engineer A.M. Barber and Frieman [sic] John Stratton.” The news story described how Wheeler & Co. had fitted the yacht with a new, faster engine the previous spring.

A news clipping about the Wapiti on 8 July 1895 also mentioned “engineer, August Barber: fireman Charles Barber”.¹⁵ The man feeding the fires on the Wapiti during that outing was Augustus’ son Charles, who would turn 20 that summer.

Augustus distinguished himself in his trade throughout his life. In fact, when he received the injury on 8 February 1913 that would eventually claim his life, the newspaper described him as a “well known machinist of this city.”¹⁶

Augustus had been weakened by his fall on an icy sidewalk, and died just over three weeks later on 1 March 1913 as he worked to recover.¹⁷ He had spent a life in the evolving metal fabricating trade through the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th century, appearing to start in smithing and evolving into an accomplished steam engineer along with an entire generation experiencing the Second Industrial Revolution firsthand.

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1. Lenawee County Marriage Records, 1852-1864, p. 635, 17 October 1864, Hudson, Michigan, marriage of Mr. Lorenzo L. Brown and Mrs. Almira C. Barber (Widow), filed 20 November 1864; imaged, “Marriage records, 1852-1865; delayed recordings, 1839-1922,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BJ-N7FM-T?i=325 : accessed 28 January 2025) > Film # 007724824, image 326 of 352, second item. ↩︎
2. U.S. 1870 Census, Lenawee County, Michigan, population schedule, Hudson, page 23, dwelling 183, family 187, lines 29-35, “Brown” household; imaged, “United States Census, 1870,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6WQS-Y8L : accessed 7 January 2011) > Michigan > Lenawee > Hudson, image 23 of 62; citing National Archives and Records Administration. ↩︎
3. Michigan Secretary of State, Return of Marriages in the County of Lenawee, Book 2, Page 163, Record No. 126, Augustus M. Barber/Edna McRoberts marriage, 20 March 1873; imaged, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6QQS-XGW : accessed 23 November 2024) > Film no. 004207564, image 164 of 679; citing Michigan Department of Vital Records. ↩︎
4. “WANTED—SITUATION AS ENGINEER,” The Detroit [Michigan] News, 8 March 1877, p. 3, col. 3, midway down page, imaged, NewsBank (https://infoweb-newsbank-com : accessed 10 August 2023), search “A.M. Barber” and “1877”. ↩︎
5. East Saginaw and Saginaw Directory, 1879-1880 (Detroit, Mich.: R.L. Polk & Co., 1879), p. 65, “Barber Augustus M, machinist Wickes Bros, res 202 N Water.”; imaged, Public Libraries of Saginaw (https://archive.saginawlibrary.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/20342 : accessed 6 May 2025) > East Saginaw City Directory, 1879-1880, image 68 of 388, search term: “Barber.” ↩︎
6. U.S. 1880 Census, Saginaw County, Michigan, population schedule, East Saginaw, page 38, dwelling 368, family 368, lines 10-13, “Barber, Agustus” household; imaged, “United States Census, 1880,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBV-Q87 : accessed 10 August 2009) > Michigan > Saginaw > East Saginaw > ED 299, image 38 of 50; citing National Archives and Records Administration. ↩︎
7. The Directory of the City of East Saginaw 1887, Vol. VIII (Detroit, Mich.: R.L. Polk & Co., 1887), p. 98; imaged, “Saginaw City Directories,” Public Libraries of Saginaw (https://library.biblioboard.com/viewer/77868181-66c9-4c92-a190-b220b585331d : accessed 24 November 2024) > image 75 of 670, search term: “Barber.” ↩︎
8. “Patent US-0395201-A, A.M. Barber & C. Gabriel, Means for Preventing the Running Off of Belts,” 25 December 1888, imaged, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/static/pages/ppubsbasic.html : accessed 23 November 2024).  ↩︎
9. “The steamer Oslo can be chartered by the hour or day …,” The Saginaw [Michigan] Evening News, 30 August 1890, p. 7, col. 2; imaged, GenealogyBank (www.genealogybank.com/nbshare/AC01230316205456269171732377293 : accessed 23 November 2024). ↩︎
10. “Getting Ready for Work … Nearly All the Delegates to the Engineer’s Convention Now in the City,” Evening World-Herald, Omaha, Nebraska, 31 August 1891, p. 8, col. 1; imaged, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com/image/857839863 : accessed 10 July 2026), search “A.M. Barber” in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1891. ↩︎
11. “A. M. Barber, engineer at the Swift Electric Light works has returned from Omaha,” The Saginaw [Michigan] Evening News, 10 September 1891, p. 6, col. 1; imaged, GenealogyBank (www.genealogybank.com : accessed 19 August 2022). ↩︎
12. “Town Talk,” The Saginaw [Michigan] Evening News, 28 December 1893, p. 6, col. 2; imaged, GenealogyBank (www.genealogybank.com : accessed 19 August 2022). ↩︎
13. “Pride of the City,” The Saginaw [Michigan] Evening News, 17 March 1894, p. 1, cols. 2-5; imaged, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 19 August 2022), search terms “Gus M. Barber” and “1894”. ↩︎
14. “A Wave Cutter,” The Saginaw [Michigan] Evening News, 29 June 1894, p. 6, col. 3; imaged, GenealogyBank (www.genealogybank.com : accessed 24 November 2024). ↩︎
15. “AN ELEGANT CRAFT. Isaac Bearinger’s New Steam Yacht Wapiti Makes a Trip.,” The Saginaw [Michigan] Evening News, 8 July 1895, p. 6, col. 4; imaged, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 24 November 2024). ↩︎
16. “Icy Walk Causes Fractured Leg,” The Saginaw [Michigan] Daily News, 8 February 1913, p. 7, col. 5; imaged, GenealogyBank (www.genealogybank.com : accessed 19 August 2022). ↩︎
17. Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics, Certificate of Death, Registered No. 150 (1913), Saginaw, Augustus Mortimor Barber, 4 March 1913; imaged, “Michigan, Death Records, 1867-1950,” Ancestry (www.ancestry.com/sharing/26653906 : accessed 23 November 2024). ↩︎