James Loring Barker

James Loring Barker was a visionary, the prime mover in bringing the Pacific Railroad Company to Berkeley, California, and an importer of iron pipe and plumbers' supplies to 407, Eighth Street, Oakland, California. He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, June 12, 1841 to Captain George and Lydia Barker. His father was a part owner of the Sea King, which was lost at sea on a voyage from San Francisco to Liverpool.

Starting at aroung age eighteen, James served as an apprentice to the hardware business in Boston, before moving to San Francisco in 1862, where he was a salesman for two firms in SF for ten years, until 1872, when he started importing iron pipe and plumbers' supplies as well as being a manufacturer's agent. He sold out eight years later and had acquired very much land in Berkeley. In 1880, he engaged in real estate, mostly in the development of his own property, which he would sell to early residents of Berkeley. Meanwhile, he worked persistently to bring the Pacific Railroad Company to Berkeley. He felt that Oakland would become a commercial powerhouse. Fact|date=December 2007

ources

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~npmelton/sfbbark.htm