Bucks County PA Archives Biographies.....Barbiere, General Joseph
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson, Patricia Bastik & Susan Walters Dec 2009

Source: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; edited by 
J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887
Doylestown A-L


GENERAL JOSEPH BARBIERE journalist, P.O. Doylestown, was 
born in New York, November 27, 1831, son of Joseph and 
Floise (Ouvre) Barbiere, natives of Marseilles, France, and 
of Boston, Mass.  His father, a professor of music, came to 
New York in 1827, and from there went south.  He was buried 
in Memphis, Tenn.  Our subject's grandfathers were soldiers 
under Lafayette at Yorktown, and his paternal grandfather in 
the French revolution.  When our subject was six years of 
age, his parents moved to New Orleans, thence to 
Mississippi, and in 1843 to Memphis.  He received only a 
common-school education.  He engaged in the auction and 
commission business, stationed for a period at New Orleans, 
served on the staff of the Memphis "Avalanche," read law in 
Memphis, was one of the three commissioners selected by the 
south in 1860 to advocate direct trade with Europe, and 
while in Europe was presented with a magnificent antique 
ewer, by the Board of Free Traders of Belgium.  On his 
return he received the thanks of the city of Memphis and the 
legislature of his state, and was delegated to the national 
convention at Baltimore in 1860.  At the outbreak of the war 
General Barbiere organized a company, and was engaged in the 
battles of New Madrid, Mo., and Island No. 10; was captured 
and sent to Camp Chase, and thence to Johnson's Island. 
While confined in this prison he wrote a book which was used 
as a weapon in driving him from a position which he had not 
solicited in the United States Pension office at 
Philadelphia.  After his exchange he was appointed major, 
then colonel, then transferred to the cavalry - "Barbiere's 
battalion" - and then appointed inspector-general.  After 
four years' service he was paroled by General Chrysler.  He 
was tried for high treason, and acquitted.  On proof of his 
kindness to Union men in Alabama his disabilities were 
removed by congress.  He then went into the law with Judges 
John E. R. Ray and John W. Smith.  Soon after he returned to 
journalism, and organized and aided in establishing the 
"Mechanic," "Eclectic," "Independent," "Presbyterian," 
"Evening News" and "Daily Democrat."  In 1875 he was elected 
vice-president, and again president, 1876, of the Tennessee 
Press Association.  While commissioner he was selected to 
deliver the centennial address for Tennessee by Governor 
Porter.  He was a correspondent of the American Newspaper 
Union at the Centennial.  He aided in establishing the 
National Newspaper Union at Philadelphia.  He established 
the "Atlantic Times," in Atlantic City, the "Ambler, Pa., 
Times" now "Gazette," and was on the staff of the German 
"Democrat" and "Thoroughbred Stock Journal," of 
Philadelphia, and lately he has edited the "Lonsdale, Pa., 
Democrat."  He lectured on "Temperance" in New England and 
in the south, and also obtained a patent for an iron wheel.  
He was married in 1855 to Mary G Levett, by whom he had four 
children, of whom one is living:  Eloise, wife of J. F. 
Gentry, residing in Clifton Heights, Delaware county, Pa.  
His wife died in 1867,  and he was again married in 1868 to 
Lucie Levett, by whom he has had three children:  Levett D., 
with Doylestown "Democrat;" Francis J. and Marguerette.  
General and Mrs. Barbiere and family are members of the 
Presbyterian church of Doylestown.  He is also a Mason, and 
is a member of the Scientific Association of France.  He was 
appointed captain of the Sixth Letter of Marque issued by 
the Confederate states.  He was elected in 1859 an honorary 
member of the "Phi Mu" Society of the La Grange Term - 
Synodical College.  As an author General Barbiere has 
written several books, "Scraps from the Prison Table," 
"Polaria," "The Confederate Conscript," "A Commerical 
Dictionary," "Fifty Years on the Mississippi," "The Question 
is a Nut-Shell," an economic work.  Our subject is connected 
by marriage with one of the oldest and most respected 
families in Bucks county, the Abiah R. James branch of the 
James family.  He is a staunch believer in a protective 
tariff and in the necessity for maintaining a strong 
government.