Thomas Fry Barbee (1846-1909) was an Angeleno for only four years. Born in Danville, KY – his uncle was celebrated Civil War general Speed S. Fry – Barbee was a Princeton-educated attorney when he came to Los Angeles in 1874 to try his luck in the city’s first big real estate boom. He and Thomas Gates laid out Barbee, Gates, and Thomas streets here in 1876 but dissolved their partnership later that year. In 1878, after the boom went bust, Barbee left L.A. forever, writing that the city “was not as good a place to make money in as formerly.” Returning first to Rock Island, IL, where two years earlier he’d married local gal Henrietta Buford (1847-1895), he then went to Carroll, IA, where he set up a law practice and even served as mayor. In 1887, Barbee quit lawyering to focus on his mining interests in eastern Oregon; although he would return to practice in Sioux City in 1894, Oregon is where he ultimately died. P.S. from the Small World Department: The attorney who took over Barbee’s practice in Carroll was Gurdon Wattles, who later got rich and built a mansion in Hollywood.
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